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It came from outer space. It being the stuff of life—amino acids, sugars and other organic molecules.
Meteorites reveal startling assortments of such prebiotic compounds. So it's possible that asteroids and comets delivered the ingredients for life billions of years ago. And a new study shows that asteroids weren't just passive couriers of organic material.
Researchers analyzed four fragments of the Tagish Lake meteorite, which broke apart over northwest Canada in 2000. They found a rich assortment of organic compounds, as well as great variation among the specimens. One piece of the meteorite had more than 100 times the amount of amino acids as another piece.
These results indicate that chemical reactions were taking place on the asteroid that spawned the meteorite. And some of those reactions probably created molecules important to life. The work is in the journal Science. [Christopher Herd et al., "Origin and Evolution of Prebiotic Organic Matter As Inferred from the Tagish Lake Meteorite"]
The new study was made possible by citizen scientist and outdoorsman Jim Brook. He collected pristine samples of the meteorite just days after they fell on the frozen lake, and stored them in his freezer. It’s a good thing he did, because origin of life research is very cool.
—John Matson
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
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4 Comments
Add CommentThis evidence indicates that asteroids and comets could have contributed prebiotic compounds (perhaps repeatably) to the Earth and other planets and moons, but this ancient chemical record does not preclude the likely even more abundant (at least under opportune conditions) prebiotic chemical production on the Earth and other bodies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe ancient asteroid record does establish that the precursors to organic chemistry were and perhaps continue to be produced in the relatively primitive conditions of interplanetary space.
This reinforces my belief that larger meteors may contains pocket of biological life toward the center of these objects (away from heat from the outer area). Just as bacteria and fungi can remain in dry form for millions of years, and reactivated with water, I have always suspected these giant fragments deliver dried biological organisms in "stasis" that begin to grow again once the fragment is compromised (due to weathering, erosion, or other processes) and exposed to the elements necessary for it to start multiplying.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow can organic compounds be recognized after the entry of the asteroid's occasioned heat by friction to the the atmosphere have burned or degraded it?.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it possible that the aminoacids etc. are only contaminated material after recovery from the ground or lake?
Very interesting information. What if the organic molecules and amino acids are not prebiotic but postbiotic? That raises the question of where did they come from? What sort of biotic processes generated them?
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