title: Cometary origin of the biosphere:  a progress report.
abstract: Empirical evidence of the accretion temperature for undifferentiated meteorites coming from the asteroid belt, combined with any reasonable temperature gradient extending from the asteroid belt to the Earth's zone, suggests that the Earth accreted from very hot dust grains that were degassed from all volatile elements and depleted in labile compounds.  Isotopic evidence from the atmospheric noble gases also shows that no primary atmosphere has survived on the Earth.  The only possible source for the atmosphere and the oceans is therefore the cometary bombardment that is predicted as the inescapable consequence of the formation of the giant planets.  This implies that comets are the only source of organic carbon, nitrogen and water, hence of the total biosphere of the Earth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Toledo, OH 43606, USA.
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Delsemme
mesh_terms: D001272:Atmosphere; D019443:Cosmic Dust; D018534:Earth, Planet; D019418:Evolution, Chemical; D019419:Evolution, Planetary; D018559:Exobiology; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D019110:Meteoroids; D016083:Planets; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D019443:Cosmic Dust