Study finds primordial soup might be partially extraterrestrial

William Atkins
Thursday, 27 March 2008 19:54

Science - Space

The researchers report that they found high concentrations of amino acids in two of the three CR meteorites. In fact, the concentrations they found were over ten times higher than ever found in similar meteorites.

The researchers stated that their measurements “… indicate that primitive organic matter was preserved in these meteorites.”

These three meteorites, EET92042, GRA95229, and GRO95577, were analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet fluorescence detection (HPLC-FD) and gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS).

The three CR meteorites were found in Antarctica in 1992 and 1995 and stored at the NASA Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas.

The measurements found that EET92042 and GRA95229 contained the most amino acid-rich chondrites ever analyzed.

The total amino acid concentrations in these two CR meteorites ranged from 180 parts per million to 249 parts per million. Most meteorites contain less than 15 parts per million.

The third CR meteorite, GRO95577, did not contain much amino acid.

They conclude in the paper, “The Antarctic CR2s EET92042 and GRA95229 have the highest amino acid abundances ever detected. This suggests that their soluble organic inventories are more primitive than any other chondrites and, therefore, closer to the original material accreted by chondrites. The analysis of the amino acids present in Antarctic CR meteorites will help to reveal the processes that formed the prebiotic organic material in the early solar system that may ultimately have been delivered to the Earth and other planets.”

As the article “Meteorites a rich source for primordial soup ” at Physorg.com states, “The organic soup that spawned life on Earth may have gotten generous helpings from outer space.”

The article goes on to say, “This result suggests that the early solar system was far richer in the organic building blocks of life than scientists had thought, and that fallout from space may have spiked Earth’s primordial broth.”

The paper “Indigenous amino acids in primitive CR meteorites,” was presented at the 70th Annual Meteoritical Society meeting , August 13-17, 2007, at Tucson, Arizona.

The paper by Marilyn Fogel (Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory), Conel Alexander (Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington), Zita Martins (Imperial College London) and two colleagues, also appears in an issue of the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science (MAPS), from The Meteoritical Society.