Modelling prebiotic chemistry in Early Earth and Exoplanet atmospheres

In this project, we will use the Met Oice climate model to describe plausible prebiotic environmental conditions
on Early Earth and tidally locked rocky exoplanets.
The initial chemical network will be informed by a growing number of theoretical studies that are progressively
fleshing out HCN chemistry towards the explicit formation of more complex organic molecules.
We will work closely with laboratory groups that are developing dierent parts of the HCN chemistry network.
We will explore the sensitivity of atmospheric chemistry to being irradiated by dierent stars, e.g., a young Sun
and a M dwarf, and the location of the planet within the circumstellar habitable zone.
For the rocky exoplanet, guided by 1-D model calculations, we will also the investigate the sensitivity of HCN
chemistry to the ratio of carbon to oxygen. Using a global 3-D climate model oers an opportunity to identify
potential surface aqueous environment niches across the planet that preferentially support atmospheric HCN
chemistry, from which some of the chemical products could be loed to the atmosphere to help form complex
organic molecules.
The model can also be used to explore hypothetical atmospheric sources of HCN, e.g., meteoritic bombardment
and lightning, and the processes that would be necessary for the subsequent atmospheric formation of more
complex organic molecules