Ultraviolet Spectra of Young Stars Relevant to Earth's Early Atmosphere

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Understanding the formation of the earth, the evolution of the atmosphere, and the origin and evolution of life is heavily dependent on our knowledge of the early Sun and its ultraviolet flux. In our earlier work we showed that, when the Sun was several million years old, the solar UV flux was enhanced by several orders of magnitude over present values. Our photochemical calculations indicate that the abundance of oxygen and ozone were much higher than previously estimated. Formaldehyde, an important precursor in the origin of life, can be formed and rain out into the early oceans. We wish to extend this work to later stages in the Sun's early evolution, from its arrival on the main sequence to an age of 10 years. This period is especially important in establishing the atmospheric conditions just prior to the beginning of life on earth. We propose to use IUE spectra of young solar-type stars to simulate the evolution of the young Sun's UV spectrum at three epochs from about 10^8 to 10^9 years. We have compiled archival IUE data for 8 young G stars for the analysis. Complete wavelength coverage, from Lyman-alpha to 3200 A, is required due to the wavelength-dependent behavior of the UV spectrum and molecular species involved. However, there are substantial gaps in the archival data, due to the steeply sloped spectra of these cool stars. Therefore we request additional IUE observations of these young G stars for the analysis.

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