[meteorite-list] Murchison-- chock full o' stuff

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:25:30 -0500
Message-ID: <80bkn5p1vag1tqrdr2a9c1f58tkjbaaima_at_4ax.com>

http://news.discovery.com/space/meteorite-crammed-with-millions-of-organic-compounds.html

Meteorite Crammed with 'Millions' of Organic Compounds

By Ian O'Neill | Mon Feb 15, 2010 04:52 PM ET

A meteorite that hit the town of Murchison, Australia, hasn't quit giving up its
secrets.

The Murchison meteorite is one of the most studied space rocks because many
pieces were recovered after it was seen breaking up as it fell through the
atmosphere in 1969. Approximately 100 kg of the carbonaceous chondrite was
recovered.

Carbonaceous chondrites are extremely important to scientists as they were
formed from material that existed in the solar system's planet-forming disk of
gas and dust. They are, quite literally, time capsules holding onto a 4 billion
year old record of the birth of our solar system.

In this case, the Murchison meteorite has given us another clue as to the
abundance of organic chemicals that existed before the Earth had formed. In
fact, this particular meteorite may have originated from material older than our
sun.

"We are really excited. When I first studied it and saw the complexity I was so
amazed," said Dr Phillipe Schmitt-Kopplin, of the Institute for Ecological
Chemistry in Neuherberg, Germany.

"Meteorites are like some kind of fossil. When you try to understand them you
are looking back in time."

This new research made use of high resolution spectroscopic tools to identify
the various compounds inside. Although this meteorite has provided scientists
with vast amounts of information about specific carbon-based organics before,
this was the first non-targeted study. In other words, the researchers weren't
tracking down just one type of chemical, they did a broad analysis for all the
chemicals it might contain.

And what they found came as a shock, it appears that the primordial solar system
probably had a higher chemical diversity than present-day Earth.

In this study, 14,000 specific compounds including 70 amino acids were
identified. But this number appears to be the tip of the iceberg; the meteorite
probably contains millions of different organic compounds. More detailed
analysis will now be carried out.

But why is this important? To understand the diversity of organic chemicals that
were floating around a primordial solar system will help us understand how life
may have appeared on Earth. This particular chunk of carbonaceous chondrite
drifted through the gas and dust of the early solar system, collecting all the
basic organic chemistry from around that time, does that mean diverse organic
chemistry is the "norm" for proto-planetary star systems?

These organic compounds are known to exist on comets, asteroids and other
planetary bodies, so what makes Earth the hothouse of life when everywhere else
seems to be lifeless?

If organic chemistry is ubiquitous, perhaps planning to "seed" young star
systems with Earth-based life isn't such a good idea. The conditions for life
may not be that rare after all.
Received on Tue 16 Feb 2010 12:25:30 AM PST