[meteorite-list] Tagish Lake Meteorite May Hold Clues To Life

From: Unknown <pdudley_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:48:11 2004
Message-ID: <20011008163732.3442.qmail_at_eznet.net>

It's true if you are an organic geochemist.

Treiman, Allan writes:

> Is it really true that "Ninety-nine percent of meteorites really tell us
> nothing" ?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randy Mils [mailto:acculabs_at_hotmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 9:08 AM
> To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Tagish Lake Meteorite May Hold Clues To Life
>
>
>
> A very important meteorite to science. The human race is very lucky that
> the Canadian Govt. protected this meteorite from the big, bad collectors and
> dealers my letting most of it fall into the lake where we can't get it.
> OOPS!!!!! NOW THEY CAN"T GET IT EITHER.
>
> Thank God for Allende and Murchison.
>
> Randy..........
>
>
>
> >From: Ron Baalke
> >To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com (Meteorite Mailing List)
> >Subject: [meteorite-list] Tagish Lake Meteorite May Hold Clues To Life
> >Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 08:46:49 -0700 (PDT)
> >
> >
> >
> >http://www.rochesternews.com/1007story5.html
> >
> >Space Rock May Hold Clues To Life
> >
> >UR professor is part of team studying Tagish Lake meteorite
> >
> >By Matthew Daneman
> >Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York)
> >
> >(Sunday, October 7, 2001) -- The hunk of space rock slammed into the icy
> >Canadian tundra in early 2000, leaving behind dozens of pounds of rubble.
> >
> >Now a University of Rochester professor is poring over samples and finding
> >clues to the origins of life on Earth.
> >
> >The meteorite that hit Tagish Lake, British Columbia, is one of the few
> >"which you could call Rosetta stones," said UR earth sciences professor
> >Robert Poreda, who is part of a team of scientists working on the project.
> >
> >"Ninety-nine percent of meteorites really tell us nothing," he said.
> >
> >"They just have normal chemistry and mineralogy."
> >
> >The Tagish Lake meteorite, however, is like amber -- it has tiny bits of
> >ancient cosmic material trapped inside.
> >
> >The research team is looking into the chemical makeup of the meteorite. And
>
> >their early results, published in the Sept. 21 issue of Science magazine,
> >indicate that meteorites such as Tagish Lake's may have played a key role
> in
> >the evolution of the Earth's atmosphere, Poreda said.
> >
> >He and other scientists theorize that the atmosphere's noble gases -- those
>
> >which are inert or nearly so, such as argon and xenon -- are a mix of gas
> >that percolated up from the Earth's core and originated in meteorites that
> >smashed into the planet billions of years ago.
> >
> >The ratio of noble gases in the atmosphere is different from those found
> >deep inside the Earth.
> >
> >But they more closely match those found in tiny bubbles inside meteorites
> >like the one at Tagish Lake, Poreda said.
> >
> >The team also is examining the Tagish Lake meteorite to see whether it
> >provides clues to the origin of organic carbon on Earth.
> >
> >"The sticking point is to get from simple molecules, like amino acids, to
> >the complication of life," said Sandra Pizzarello, a chemistry professor at
>
> >Arizona State University and another member of the research team. "You just
>
> >put the puzzle one piece at a time in place."
> >
> >During its fall, the Tagish Lake meteorite was visible as a bright fireball
>
> >throughout the Yukon, Northern British Columbia, parts of Alaska and the
> >Northwest Territories.
> >
> >It's one of three significant carbon-rich meteorite finds in the past 50
> >years.
> >
> >The others are Allende, which landed in Mexico in 1969, and Murchison,
> which
> >hit Australia in the same year.
> >
> >
> >
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Received on Mon 08 Oct 2001 12:37:32 PM PDT