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Dec 23, 2009, 3:40am

SPACE TALK :: ASTROPHYSICS & ASTROBIOLOGY :: ASTROBIOLOGY :: meteorites rich with the ingredients of life

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glactus
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meteorites rich with the ingredients of life
« Thread Started on Mar 15, 2008, 9:16pm »

How did life arise on Earth? How did we get from rocks and water to the abundance and variety that we see today? Perhaps the raw ingredients for life, amino acids, were delivered to Earth by a steady bombardment of meteorites.

Researchers have turned up space rocks with concentrations of amino acids 10x higher than previously measured, raising hopes that the early Solar System was awash in organic material.

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The study was done by Marilyn Fogel of Carnegie’s Geophysical Laboratory and Conel Alexander of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism with Zita Martins of Imperial College London and two colleagues, and will be published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

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The researchers took samples from three meteorites collected during recent expeditions to Antarctica. The meteorites are from a type called CR chondrites, which are through to contain ancient organic materials that date back to the earliest times of the Solar System. At one point, these meteorites were part of a larger "parent body", which was later shattered by impacts.

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One sample had few amino acids, but the other two had the highest concentration ever seen in primitive meteorites.

So this points to the conclusion that the early Solar System was a much richer source of organic molecules than researchers previously believed. And the constant rain of amino acid-laden meteorites would have delivered this material to the primordial soup where life first emerged.

Exactly how the amino acids became the first proteins… that's still one of the biggest mysteries in science.

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credits:
Original Source: This article has been adapted from material provided by the Carnegie Institution for Science News Release, filed under: Astrobiology, Meteorites.

This is part text only. See asteroid image, full text and all scientists involved at universetoday.com
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/03/13/....ife/#more-13153
image early life: dailygalaxy.com
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/08/early_life_1.gif
ocean images: dl4.com
http://www.dl4all.com/desktop_enhancements/screensavers/page/4/
Article credit: Fraser Cain

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