Roots of abiogenesis found in meteorite.

[shunyadragon]

Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-10-fireball-meteorite-pristine-extraterrestrial-compounds.html

'Fireball' meteorite contains pristine extraterrestrial organic compounds


by Field Museumorite fragment that fell on Strawberry Lake which contains pristine extraterrestrial organic compounds. Credit: (c) Field Museum
On the night of January 16, 2018, a fireball meteor streaked across the sky over the Midwest and Ontario before landing on a frozen lake in Michigan. Scientists used weather radar to find where the pieces landed and meteorite hunters were able to collect the meteorite quickly, before its chemical makeup got changed by exposure to liquid water. And, as a new paper in Meteoritics & Planetary Science shows, that gave scientists a glimpse of what space rocks are like when they're still in outer space—including a look at pristine organic compounds that could tell us about the origins of life.

"This meteorite is special because it fell onto a frozen lake and was recovered quickly. It was very pristine. We could see the minerals weren't much altered and later found that it contained a rich inventory of extraterrestrial organic compounds," says Philipp Heck, a curator at the Field Museum, associate professor at the University of Chicago, and lead author of the new paper. "These kinds of organic compounds were likely delivered to the early Earth by meteorites and might have contributed to the ingredients of life."

Meteorites, simply put, are space rocks that have fallen to Earth. When things like asteroids collide in outer space, fragments can break off. These pieces of rock, called meteoroids, continue floating through space, and sometimes, their new paths collide with moons or planets. When a meteoroid breaks through the Earth's atmosphere and we can see it as a fireball or shooting star, it's called a meteor. If pieces of that meteor survive the trip through the atmosphere, the bits that actually land on Earth are called meteorites.

When the fireball arrived in Michigan, scientists used NASA's weather radar to track where the pieces went. "Weather radar is meant to detect hail and rain," explains Heck. "These pieces of meteorite fell into that size range, and so weather radar helped show the position and velocity of the meteorite. That meant that we were able to find it very quickly."

© Copyright Original Source

[lee_merrill]

Here is the paper they reference, with little information about exactly which molecules they found.

Source: Meteoritics and Planetary Science

The solvent soluble meteoritic organic matter of the Hamburg meteorite shows a high diversity of thousands of polar and sulfurized hydrocarbons (Fig. 15). The dynamic range in intensities of all the signals was 10⁶ with major signals corresponding to a homologous series of saturated fatty acids and sulfonated alkanes (>10¹¹) and regular multiple signals (over 30) in each nominal mass (Fig. 15A). The exact mass analysis resulted in 2600 elementary compositions in the CHNOS elemental space with polar hydrocarbons being the most abundant followed by sulfur‐ and nitrogen‐containing compounds (Figs. 15B and 15C). By accounting for multiple isomers, we can confirm tens of thousands of structurally different complex organic molecules. The regular patterns in the van Krevelen graphs (e.g., Wu et al. 2004; Tziotis et al. 2011) correspond to the incremental changes in chemistry (mass) and abundance (intensity of the signals) with increasing molecular mass. The systematic mass increments of the signals in the van Krevelen graphs visualize chemical homologous series of the small molecules as witnesses of the history in chemical transformations (i.e., hydration, hydrogenation, hydroxylation, and methylation).

Source

© Copyright Original Source

It seems to be claiming too much to call this the "roots of abiogenesis".

Blessings,
Lee

[shunyadragon]

Here is the paper they reference, with little information about exactly which molecules they found.

Source: Meteoritics and Planetary Science

The solvent soluble meteoritic organic matter of the Hamburg meteorite shows a high diversity of thousands of polar and sulfurized hydrocarbons (Fig. 15). The dynamic range in intensities of all the signals was 10⁶ with major signals corresponding to a homologous series of saturated fatty acids and sulfonated alkanes (>10¹¹) and regular multiple signals (over 30) in each nominal mass (Fig. 15A). The exact mass analysis resulted in 2600 elementary compositions in the CHNOS elemental space with polar hydrocarbons being the most abundant followed by sulfur‐ and nitrogen‐containing compounds (Figs. 15B and 15C). By accounting for multiple isomers, we can confirm tens of thousands of structurally different complex organic molecules. The regular patterns in the van Krevelen graphs (e.g., Wu et al. 2004; Tziotis et al. 2011) correspond to the incremental changes in chemistry (mass) and abundance (intensity of the signals) with increasing molecular mass. The systematic mass increments of the signals in the van Krevelen graphs visualize chemical homologous series of the small molecules as witnesses of the history in chemical transformations (i.e., hydration, hydrogenation, hydroxylation, and methylation).

Source

© Copyright Original Source

It seems to be claiming too much to call this the "roots of abiogenesis".

Blessings,
Lee

From the source: "The initial analysis determined that it contained over 2,600 separate organic compounds that were still intact despite the intense heat created when it blazed through the atmosphere." and "By accounting for multiple isomers, we can confirm tens of thousands of structurally different complex organic molecules."

In terms of the ubiquitous presence of a vast diversity of organic chemicals found in this meteorite related to life, and on the moons of our solar system, these are important discoveries as the origins of the chemistry of life. These are by the way organic molecules we associate with life

I look forward to a more detailed analysis of what organic chemicals are present.