• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Carbonaceous chondrites shed light on the origins of life in the universe

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
December 14, 2016
in Science News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

The results of the study have been published in the magazine Scientific Reports.

The meteorite samples analysed in this study come from NASA's Antarctic collection and derive from asteroids and, possibly, from comets. "Chondrites are non-differentiated meteorites, a legacy fossil from the creation of planetesimals. These provide us not only with information about the processes of aggregation of the earliest building blocks of the planets, but also about everything which occurred in their interiors shortly after their formation", explains CSIC scientific investigator at the Institute of Space Science and at Catalonia's Institute of Space Science, Josep María Trigo, the study's codirector.

The results of the work highlight the fundamental role played by the water soaking the asteroids which were progenitors of certain carbonaceous chondrites around 50 million years before the Earth was formed. These processes encouraged the synthesis of complex organic molecules in those asteroids which, upon reaching other planets, would have fertilised their surfaces with these prebiotic compounds.

"Commonly, the abrupt arrival of these meteorites causes their fragmentation and, due to the high temperatures involved, the degradation of organic compounds. For that reason, we decided to develop experiments which were capable of synthesising organic material originating from chondrite minerals, once they had reached the ground though not necessarily with any surviving primordial organic compounds", adds Trigo.

During the experiments, which took place at the University of Tuscany in Italy, the samples which came from NASA's Johnson Space Centre were crushed in a mortar, treated to eliminate all traces of organic material, and placed with formamide and both thermal and sea water at 140 °C. These waters had previously been filtered to avoid the presence of, or contamination from, any type of living organism.

"It is fascinating to see that chondrites possess unique properties which, in a relatively short period, allow their complex organic compound contents to reproduce if they are treated with an aqueous solution containing formamide.

We could be looking at the discovery of the key chemical processes involved in the origins of organic material in the Universe. These phases of hydration possibly marked the early stages of asteroids and comets", explains CSIC researcher Carles E. Moyano, from Spain's Institute of Space Science.

Implications for the emergence of life on other planets.

The results of these experiments signal that these meteorites possess catalytic properties for organic compounds which are not present in terrestrial rocks. The minerals which form carbonaceous chondrites are capable of synthesising carboxylic acids, amino acids and all the nitrogenous bases which form ribonucleic acid (ARN), considered to be the precursor of the first living organism.

"The data obtained indicates that, even if chondrites were pulverised and lost their organic compounds during the phases of deceleration and ablation in the atmosphere, those minerals which reached the Earth's surface and were heated in the presence of both water and formamide would be able to reproduce the organic compounds fundamental to prebiotic chemistry. This clearly points to life being fertilised from outside Earth's atmosphere- life which could reach any part of our Solar System and, for that matter, of the Universe wherever conditions were conducive to maintaining liquid water for a reasonable length of time. Mars, Europa and Titan could possibly be excellent candidates for our exploration" indicates Trigo.

###

L. Rotelli, J. M. Trigo-Rodriguez, C. E. Moyano-Cambero, E. Carota, L. Botta, E. Di Mauro and R. Saladino. 2016. The key role of meteorites in the formation of relevant prebiotic molecules in a formamide water environment. Nature – Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/srep38888

Media Contact

Marta García Gonzalo
[email protected]
0034-915-681-476
@CSIC

http://www.csic.es

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

New Chip Design to Provide Greatest Precious in Memory to Date

New chip design to provide greatest precision in memory to date

March 29, 2023
Mortality postponement and compression at older ages in human cohorts

We are not yet approaching any maximum human lifespan, according to an examination of human mortality over time and across 19 countries

March 29, 2023

Can AI predict how you’ll vote in the next election?

March 29, 2023

Drones could be used reliably to map how and why pedestrians use city streets, according to a pilot study in Santiago de Chile

March 29, 2023
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • ChatPandaGPT

    Insilico Medicine brings AI-powered “ChatPandaGPT” to its target discovery platform

    67 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Northern and southern resident orcas hunt differently, which may help explain the decline of southern orcas

    44 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 11
  • Skipping breakfast may compromise the immune system

    43 shares
    Share 17 Tweet 11
  • Insular dwarfs and giants more likely to go extinct

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

New chip design to provide greatest precision in memory to date

We are not yet approaching any maximum human lifespan, according to an examination of human mortality over time and across 19 countries

Can AI predict how you’ll vote in the next election?

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 48 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In