APEX this week: How rocky planets become oxygenated, with Professor Ben Mills

Our Astrobiology and Planetary Exploration (APEX) seminar this Friday 28th February at 13:00 GMT, features the following talk:

• Benjamin Mills (Leeds): How did the Earth develop an oxygen-rich atmosphere and what controls how rocky planets become oxygenated?

An abstract for Ben's talk can be found below.

Please note the day and location for APEX this term: Fridays at lunchtime, 1-2 pm GMT, in the G22 Lecture Theatre on the ground floor of the UCL North West Wing building.

A hybrid (in-person and online) format will continue this term but, of course, we warmly encourage in-person attendance to support our visiting speakers.

Details of the forthcoming APEX programme can be found at the link below. The latest information will be advertised in advance of each meeting.  If you are not on our regular mailing lists and are interested in attending these seminars, please contact joanna.fabbri AT ucl.ac.uk.

Talk abstract

How did the Earth develop an oxygen-rich atmosphere and what controls how rocky planets become oxygenated?

The dioxygen molecule O2 is essential for all intelligent life that we know of, and the establishment of a oxygen-rich atmosphere on Earth was a key step in our planet's habitability. But the history of Earth's oxygenation is complex and not fully understood - it is not clear why billions of years elapsed between the initiation of biogenic O2 production and the rise of atmospheric oxygen to breathable levels. In this talk I will review what we know about the history of O2 on Earth, explain how we know this, and present new mechanistic models that aim to capture the long-term evolution of Earths oxygen cycle. These models can help us understand the potential for the oxygenation of exoplanet atmospheres, and the expected length of hypothetical 'habitable windows' for complex life.

Links 

• Professor Mills' academic profile
• APEX programme for this term 
• Recordings of previous APEX talks