Interstellar ices extracts from Murchison

Fig. 8 Phase and fluorescence micrographs of membranous vesicular structures formed from a Murchison meteorite extract (left) compared to vesicles formed by a 20 mM de-canoic acid-decanol mixture [72] (center) and a vesicular structure produced by the photoproduct of an interstellar-ice analog [31]. The vesicles produced by the photochemical ice analog product were allowed to capture pyranine, a fluorescent anionic dye, to demonstrate that a true membrane was present. Scale bars show 20, 10, and 5 pm, from left to right...

Figure 6 shows the HPLC chromatogram of one of the residues compared to the chromatogram of a soluble extract from the primitive meteorite Murchison. There are two conclusions to be drawn from this figure. First, since each peak represents a different compound, or more likely a different family of compounds, both the laboratory residue and meteoritic extract are complex chemical mixtures. Second, the similarity in peak distributions between the two samples indicates that the kinds of chemicals present in each sample are similar. This similarity raises the interesting question, "Do the families of compounds in carbonaceous meteorites have an interstellar ice/cometary heritage "... 

Plate 7. (A) Fluorescence micrograph of the water insoluble droplets formed from a Murchison meteorite extract (67) compared to (B) the fluorescent droplets producedfrom the photolysis residue of the interstellar/precometary ice analog H20 CHsOH NH3 CO (100 50 1 1) at 10 K (40). The similarity between these vesicles is another indication of similarity between the laboratory ice residue and extraterrestrial organics in meteorites. 

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