Racemic amino acids from the ultraviolet photolysis of interstellar ice analogues

The delivery of extraterrestrial organic molecules to Earth by meteorites may have been important for the origin and early evolution of life. Indigenous amino acids have been found in meteorites-over 70 in the Murchison meteorite alone. Although it has been generally accepted that the meteoritic amino acids formed in liquid water on a parent body, the water in the Murchison meteorite is depleted in deuterium relative to the indigenous organic acids. Moreover, the meteoritical evidence for an excess of laevo-rotatory amino acids is hard to understand in the context of liquid-water reactions on meteorite parent bodies. Here we report a laboratory demonstration that glycine, alanine and serine naturally form from ultraviolet photolysis of the analogues of icy interstellar grains. Such amino acids would naturally have a deuterium excess similar to that seen in interstellar molecular clouds, and the formation process could also result in enantiomeric excesses if the incident radiation is circularly polarized. These results suggest that at least some meteoritic amino acids are the result of interstellar photochemistry, rather than formation in liquid water on an early Solar System body.     

Carbon isotope composition of individual amino acids in the Murchison meteorite

A significant portion of prebiotic organic matter on the early Earth may have been introduced by carbonaceous asteroids and comets. The distribution and stable-isotope composition of individual organic compounds in carbonaceous meteorites, which are thought to be derived from asteroidal parent bodies, may therefore provide important information concerning mechanistic pathways for prebiotic synthesis and the composition of organic matter on Earth before living systems developed. Previous studies have shown that meteorite amino acids are enriched in 13C relative to their terrestrial counterparts, but individual species were not distinguished. Here we report the 13C contents of individual amino acids in the Murchison meteorite. The amino acids are enriched in 13C, indicating an extraterrestrial origin. Alanine is not racemic, and the 13C enrichment of its D- and L-enantiomers implies that the excess of the L-enantiomer is indigenous rather than terrestrial contamination, suggesting that optically active materials were present in the early Solar System before life began.     

Amino-acid synthesis in carbonaceous meteorites by aqueous alteration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

It has been suggested that amino acids and other organic compounds found in carbonaceous meteorites formed by aqueous alteration in the meteorite parent bodies. Observations of carbonaceous material in interstellar grains and interplanetary dust particles indicate that condensed organic compounds may have been present in meteorite parent bodies at the time of aqueous alteration. One group of compounds thought to be representative of this carbonaceous material is the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Recently it was proposed that PAHs condense on SiC grains in the molecular envelopes of carbon-rich red-giant stars, which would allow for their subsequent incorporation into meteorite parent bodies during accretion. This incorporation mechanism is supported by the identification of SiC grains in carbonaceous chondrites. The possibility therefore exists that PAHs, and/or other condensed organic compounds, represent the starting material for aqueous alteration which leads to the formation of amino acids and other water-soluble organic compounds. Here we present calculations of the distribution of aqueous organic compounds in metastable equilibrium with representative PAHs as functions of the fugacities of O2, CO2 and NH3. The results reported here for pyrene and fluoranthene, two PAHs with different structures but the same stoichiometry, differ greatly but indicate that the formation of amino and carboxylic acids is energetically favourable at probable parent-body alteration conditions. The actual reaction mechanisms involved could be revealed by consideration of isotope data for PAHs, amino acids, other organic compounds and carbonates in carbonaceous chondrites.     

Comet dust as a source of amino acids at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary

Large amounts of apparently extraterrestrial amino acids have been detected recently in rocks at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary at Stevns Klint, Denmark. The amino acids were found a few tens of centimetres above and below the boundary layer, but were absent in the boundary clay itself. If one supposes that these compounds were carried to the Earth by the giant meteorite thought to have impacted at the end of the Cretaceous, some puzzling questions are raised: why weren't the amino acids incinerated in the impact, and why are they not present in the boundary clay itself? Here we suggest that the amino acids were actually deposited with the dust from a giant comet trapped in the inner Solar System, a fragment of which comprised the K/T impactor. Amino acids or their precursors in the comet dust would have been swept up by the Earth both before and after the impact, but any conveyed by the impactor itself would have been destroyed. The observed amino acid layers would thus have been deposited without an impact.     

Carbonaceous meteorites as a source of sugar-related organic compounds for the early Earth.

The much-studied Murchison meteorite is generally used as the standard reference for organic compounds in extraterrestrial material. Amino acids and other organic compounds important in contemporary biochemistry are thought to have been delivered to the early Earth by asteroids and comets, where they may have played a role in the origin of life. Polyhydroxylated compounds (polyols) such as sugars, sugar alcohols and sugar acids are vital to all known lifeforms-they are components of nucleic acids (RNA, DNA), cell membranes and also act as energy sources. But there has hitherto been no conclusive evidence for the existence of polyols in meteorites, leaving a gap in our understanding of the origins of biologically important organic compounds on Earth. Here we report that a variety of polyols are present in, and indigenous to, the Murchison and Murray meteorites in amounts comparable to amino acids. Analyses of water extracts indicate that extraterrestrial processes including photolysis and formaldehyde chemistry could account for the observed compounds. We conclude from this that polyols were present on the early Earth and therefore at least available for incorporation into the first forms of life.     

The synthesis of organic and inorganic compounds in evolved stars

Recent isotopic analysis of meteorites and interplanetary dust has identified solid-state materials of pre-solar origin. We can now trace the origin of these inorganic grains to the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars. Moreover, organic (aromatic and aliphatic) compounds have been detected in proto-planetary nebulae and planetary nebulae, which are the descendants of carbon stars. This implies that molecular synthesis is actively happening in the circumstellar environment on timescales as short as several hundred years. The detection of stellar grains in the Solar System suggests that they can survive their journey through the interstellar medium and that they are a major contributor of interstellar grains.     

Identification of molecular-cloud material in interplanetary dust particles

Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the Earth's stratosphere and meteorites are fragments of comets and asteroids. These are 'primitive' meteorites in part because they have preserved materials which predate the formation of the Solar System. The most primitive (least altered) meteorites contain a few parts per million of micrometre-sized dust which formed in the atmospheres of giant stars. Some meteorites have elevated D/H and 15N/14N ratios that are attributed to surviving interstellar organic molecules which have probably been strongly diluted and altered by parent-body processes. Most IDPs are chemically, mineralogically, and texturally primitive in comparison to meteorites. Here I show that H and N isotopic anomalies among fragile 'cluster' IDPs are far larger, more common, and less equilibrated than those previously observed in other IDPs or meteorites. In some cases, the D/H ratios that we measure reach the values of interstellar molecules, suggesting that molecular-cloud material has survived intact. These observations indicate that cluster IDPs are the most primitive class of Solar System materials currently available for laboratory analysis.     

A low fraction of nitrogen in molecular form in a dark cloud

Nitrogen is the fifth most abundant element in the Universe. In the interstellar medium, it has been thought to be mostly molecular (N2). However, N2 has no observable rotational or vibrational transitions, so its abundance in the interstellar medium remains poorly known. In comets, the N2 abundance is very low, while the elemental nitrogen abundance is deficient with respect to the solar value. Moreover, large nitrogen isotopic anomalies are observed in meteorites and interstellar dust particles. Here we report the N2H+ (and by inference the N2) abundance inside a cold dark molecular cloud. We find that only a small fraction of nitrogen in the gas phase is molecular, with most of it being atomic. Because the compositions of comets probably reflect those of dark clouds, this result explains the low N2 abundance in comets. We argue that the elemental nitrogen abundance deficiency in comets can be understood if the atomic oxygen abundance is lower than predicted by present chemical models. Furthermore, the lack of molecular nitrogen in molecular clouds explains the nitrogen anomalies in meteorites and interstellar dust particles, as nitrogen fractionation is enhanced if gaseous nitrogen is atomic.     

Efficient delivery of meteorites to the Earth from a wide range of asteroid parent bodies

Almost all meteorites come from asteroids, but identifying their specific parent bodies, and modelling their transport to the Earth, has proved to be difficult. The usual model of delivery through orbital resonances with the major planets has recently been shown to deplete the supply of meteorites much too rapidly to explain either the observed flux at the Earth, or the length of time the meteorites have spent in space (as measured by cosmic-ray exposure ages). Independently, it has been found that a force arising from anisotropically emitted thermal radiation from asteroidal fragments (the 'Yarkovsky effect') influences the fragments' orbits in important ways. Here we report the results of a detailed model for the transport of meteorites to the Earth, which includes the Yarkovsky effect and collisional evolution of the asteroidal fragments. We find that the Yarkovsky effect significantly increases the efficiency of the delivery of meteorites to the Earth, while at the same time allowing a much wider range of asteroids to contribute to the flux of meteorites. Our model also reproduces the observed distribution of cosmic-ray exposure ages of stony meteorites.     

Extraterrestrial amino acids in Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary sediments at Stevns Klint, Denmark

Since the discovery nearly a decade ago that Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary layers are greatly enriched in iridium, a rare element in the Earth's crust, there has been intense controversy on the relationship between this Ir anomaly and the massive extinction of organisms ranging from dinosaurs to marine plankton that characterizes the K/T boundary. Convincing evidence suggests that both the Ir spike and the extinction event were caused by the collision of a large bolide (greater than 10 km in diameter) with the Earth. Alternative explanations claim that extensive, violent volcanism can account for the Ir, and that other independent causes were responsible for the mass extinctions. We surmise that the collision of a massive extraterrestrial object with the Earth may have produced a unique organic chemical signature because certain meteorites, and probably comets, contain organic compounds which are either rare or non-existent on the Earth. In contrast, no organic compounds would be expected to be associated with volcanic processes. Here we find that K/T boundary sediments at Stevns Klint, Denmark, contain both alpha-amino-isobutyric acid [AIB,(CH3)2CNH2COOH] and racemic isovaline [ISOVAL, CH3CH2(CH3)CNH2COOH], two amino acids that are exceedingly rare on the Earth but which are major amino acids in carbonaceous chondrites. An extraterrestrial source is the most reasonable explanation for the presence of these amino acids.     

Mixed aromatic-aliphatic organic nanoparticles as carriers of unidentified infrared emission features

Unidentified infrared emission bands at wavelengths of 3-20 micrometres are widely observed in a range of environments in our Galaxy and in others. Some features have been identified as the stretching and bending modes of aromatic compounds, and are commonly attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules. The central argument supporting this attribution is that single-photon excitation of the molecule can account for the unidentified infrared emission features observed in 'cirrus' clouds in the diffuse interstellar medium. Of the more than 160 molecules identified in the circumstellar and interstellar environments, however, not one is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecule. The detections of discrete and broad aliphatic spectral features suggest that the carrier of the unidentified infrared emission features cannot be a pure aromatic compound. Here we report an analysis of archival spectroscopic observations and demonstrate that the data are most consistent with the carriers being amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure. This structure is similar to that of the organic materials found in meteorites, as would be expected if the Solar System had inherited these organic materials from interstellar sources.     

No cold dust within the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A

A large amount (about three solar masses) of cold (18 K) dust in the prototypical type II supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was recently reported. It was concluded that dust production in type II supernovae can explain how the large quantities (approximately 10(8) solar masses) of dust observed in the most distant quasars could have been produced within only 700 million years after the Big Bang. Foreground clouds of interstellar material, however, complicate the interpretation of the earlier submillimetre observations of Cas A. Here we report far-infrared and molecular line observations that demonstrate that most of the detected submillimetre emission originates from interstellar dust in a molecular cloud complex located in the line of sight between the Earth and Cas A, and is therefore not associated with the remnant. The argument that type II supernovae produce copious amounts of dust is not supported by the case of Cas A, which previously appeared to provide the best evidence for this possibility.     

Interplanetary dust from the explosive dispersal of hydrated asteroids by impacts

The Earth accretes about 30,000 tons of dust particles per year, with sizes in the range of 20-400 microm (refs 1, 2). Those particles collected at the Earth's surface--termed micrometeorites--are similar in chemistry and mineralogy to hydrated, porous meteorites, but such meteorites comprise only 2.8% of recovered falls. This large difference in relative abundances has been attributed to 'filtering' by the Earth's atmosphere, that is, the porous meteorites are considered to be so friable that they do not survive the impact with the atmosphere. Here we report shock-recovery experiments on two porous meteorites, one of which is hydrated and the other is anhydrous. The application of shock to the hydrated meteorite reduces it to minute particles and explosive expansion results upon release of the pressure, through a much broader range of pressures than for the anhydrous meteorite. Our results indicate that hydrated asteroids will produce dust particles during collisions at a much higher rate than anhydrous asteroids, which explains the different relative abundances of the hydrated material in micrometeorites and meteorites: the abundances are established before contact with the Earth's atmosphere.     

论全球巨变的银河旋臂成因

通过对银河系旋涡结构和地史资料的研究表明,距今大约6亿年以来,地球上曾先后四次重复发生的各类全球巨变事件——大冰期、生物大量灭绝和地磁倒转等,同日地系统相继穿越银河系四条主旋臂的运动有较好的相关性:当地球跟随太阳绕银心运行到旋臂内部时,生物灭绝百分率、地磁转向速率和全球平均温度等均普遍增高;而当它们穿出旋臂后,生物灭绝百分率和地磁转向速率则明显降低,地球也随之进入大冰期。本文认为,旋臂内较为密集的众多的小行星、彗星、星际气体和尘埃等天体对地球的直接撞击或间接影响是产生上述全球巨变的重要原因。在此基础上,进一步分析了各类巨变的区别和联系,解释了巨变的全球性、准周期性、相位关系和产生方式等特性,并讨论了同类巨变在不同阶段的若干特点。     

Stardust silicates from primitive meteorites

Primitive chondritic meteorites contain material (presolar grains), at the level of a few parts per million, that predates the formation of our Solar System. Astronomical observations and the chemical composition of the Sun both suggest that silicates must have been the dominant solids in the protoplanetary disk from which the planets of the Solar System formed, but no presolar silicates have been identified in chondrites. Here we report the in situ discovery of presolar silicate grains 0.1-1 microm in size in the matrices of two primitive carbonaceous chondrites. These grains are highly enriched in 17O (delta17O(SMOW) > 100-400 per thousand ), but have solar silicon isotopic compositions within analytical uncertainties, suggesting an origin in an oxygen-rich red giant or an asymptotic giant branch star. The estimated abundance of these presolar silicates (3-30 parts per million) is higher than reported for other types of presolar grains in meteorites, consistent with their ubiquity in the early Solar System, but is about two orders of magnitude lower than their abundance in anhydrous interplanetary dust particles. This result is best explained by the destruction of silicates during high-temperature processing in the solar nebula.     

Detection of carbonates in dust shells around evolved stars.

Carbonates on large Solar System bodies like Earth and Mars (the latter represented by the meteorite ALH84001) form through the weathering of silicates in a watery (CO3)2- solution. The presence of carbonates in interplanetary dust particles and asteroids (again, represented by meteorites) is not completely understood, but has been attributed to aqueous alteration on a large parent body, which was subsequently shattered into smaller pieces. Despite efforts, the presence of carbonates outside the Solar System has hitherto not been established. Here we report the discovery of the carbonates calcite and dolomite in the dust shells of evolved stars, where the conditions are too primitive for the formation of large parent bodies with liquid water. These carbonates, therefore, are not formed by aqueous alteration, but perhaps through processes on the surfaces of dust or ice grains or gas phase condensation. The presence of carbonates which did not form by aqueous alteration suggests that some of the carbonates found in Solar System bodies no longer provide direct evidence that liquid water was present on large parent bodies early in the history of the Solar System.     

Hadean diamonds in zircon from Jack Hills, Western Australia

Detrital zircons more than 4 billion years old from the Jack Hills metasedimentary belt, Yilgarn craton, Western Australia, are the oldest identified fragments of the Earth's crust and are unique in preserving information on the earliest evolution of the Earth. Inclusions of quartz, K-feldspar and monazite in the zircons, in combination with an enrichment of light rare-earth elements and an estimated low zircon crystallization temperature, have previously been used as evidence for early recycling of continental crust, leading to the production of granitic melts in the Hadean era. Here we present the discovery of microdiamond inclusions in Jack Hills zircons with an age range from 3,058 +/- 7 to 4,252 +/- 7 million years. These include the oldest known diamonds found in terrestrial rocks, and introduce a new dimension to the debate on the origin of these zircons and the evolution of the early Earth. The spread of ages indicates that either conditions required for diamond formation were repeated several times during early Earth history or that there was significant recycling of ancient diamond. Mineralogical features of the Jack Hills diamonds-such as their occurrence in zircon, their association with graphite and their Raman spectroscopic characteristics-resemble those of diamonds formed during ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism and, unless conditions on the early Earth were unique, imply a relatively thick continental lithosphere and crust-mantle interaction at least 4,250 million years ago.     

Possible in situ formation of meteoritic nanodiamonds in the early Solar System

Grains of dust that pre-date the Sun provide insights into their formation around other stars and into the early evolution of the Solar System. Nanodiamonds recovered from meteorites, which originate in asteroids, have been thought to be the most abundant type of presolar grain. If that is true, then nanodiamonds should be at least as abundant in comets, because they are thought to have formed further out in the early Solar System than the asteroid parent bodies, and because they should be more pristine. Here we report that nanodiamonds are absent or very depleted in fragile, carbon-rich interplanetary dust particles, some of which enter the atmosphere at speeds within the range of cometary meteors. One interpretation of the results is that some (perhaps most) nanodiamonds formed within the inner Solar System and are not presolar at all, consistent with the recent detection of nanodiamonds within the accretion discs of other young stars. An alternative explanation is that all meteoritic nanodiamonds are indeed presolar, but that their abundance decreases with heliocentric distance, in which case our understanding of large-scale transport and circulation within the early Solar System is incomplete.     

A median redshift of 2.4 for galaxies bright at submillimetre wavelengths

A significant fraction of the energy emitted in the early Universe came from very luminous galaxies that are largely hidden at optical wavelengths (because of interstellar dust grains); this energy now forms part of the cosmic background radiation at wavelengths near 1 mm (ref. 1). Some submillimetre (submm) galaxies have been resolved from the background radiation, but they have been difficult to study because of instrumental limitations. This has impeded the determination of their redshifts (z), which is a crucial element in understanding their nature and evolution. Here we report spectroscopic redshifts for ten submm galaxies that were identified using high-resolution radio observations. The median redshift for our sample is 2.4, with a quartile range of 1.9-2.8. This population therefore coexists with the peak activity of quasars, suggesting a close relationship between the growth of massive black holes and luminous dusty galaxies. The space density of submm galaxies at redshifts over 2 is about 1,000 times greater than that of similarly luminous galaxies in the present-day Universe, so they represent an important component of star formation at high redshifts.     

Isotopic enhancements of 17O and 18O from solar wind particles in the lunar regolith

Differences in isotopic abundances between meteorites and rocks on Earth leave unclear the true composition of the gas out of which the Solar System formed. The Sun should have preserved in its outer layers the original composition, and recent work has indicated that the solar wind is enriched in 16O, relative to Earth, Mars and bulk meteorites. This suggests that self-shielding of CO due to photo-dissociation, which is a well understood process in molecular clouds, also led to evolution in the isotopic abundances in the early Solar System. Here we report measurements of oxygen isotopic abundances in lunar grains that were recently exposed to the solar wind. We find that 16O is underabundant, opposite to an earlier finding based on studies of ancient metal grains. Our result, however, is more difficult to understand within the context of current models, because there is no clear way to make 16O more abundant in Solar System rocks than in the Sun.