Organic Compounds in Meteorites

It appears that conditions in the solar nebula were appropriate for the FTT but not the Miller-Urey reaction. Kinetic calculations (Lewis and Prinn, 1980) as well as observations on comets (Delsemme, 1977) show that CO and COj, not CH, were the principal forms of carbon. And the dust-laden solar nebula was opaque to UV, precluding any photochemical reactions. It seems best, however, to approach the problem empirically, by examining the meteoritic organic compounds themselves for clues to their formation. We shall review these compounds class by class, looking for the signatures of the FTT or Miller-Urey reactions. 

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Anders, Edward, Hayatsu, Ryoichi, Studier, Martin H., Organic Compounds in Meteorites, Science (1973) 182, 781. 

Anders, E., and Hayatsu, R. Organic Compounds in Meteorites and their Origins. 99, 1-37 (1981). 

Hayatsu R. and Anders E. (1981) Organic compounds in meteorites and their origins. Top. Curr. Chem. 99, 1-37. 

Botta, O. and Bada, J. L. (2002). Extraterrestrial organic compounds in meteorites. Surveys in Geophysics, 23,411-67. 

The determination of the concentrations of soluble organic compounds in meteorites is based on chromatography combined with techniques that detect the eluting compounds. Depending on the exact nature of the compounds and the goal of the study, the choice is between several methods ... 

The organic material in carbonaceous chondrites is of more direct interest with regard to the problem of the origin of life on the Earth, not only because of the possible participation of similar material in the formation of the Earth, but because of the possibility that the mechanisms of formation of terrestrial and meteoritic organic compounds may be related. It has been suggested by Anders et al. (1974) that many of the organic compounds in meteorites may have been formed by Fischer—Tropsch-type reactions. There is reasonable agreement, for example, between certain hydrocarbon isomers... 

It is noteworthy that a portion of the amino acids, and many of the purines are only identifiable after acid extraction or hydrolysis. It is therefore unlikely that they exist in the free form. A polymeric precursor has been suggested for the purines (Hayatsu et al., 1975). It is interesting that HCN oligomerization leads to the formation of all of the purines which have been identified in carbonaceous chondrites. Although HCN may have played a role in the formation of some of the organic compounds in meteorites, it is unlikely that any one mechanism can account for all of the products of these remarkably complex and interesting samples of primitive material. 

Anders, E., Hayatsu, R. and Studier, M.H., 1974. Catalytic reactions in the solar nebula implications for interstellar molecules and organic compounds in meteorites. Origins Life, 5 57—67. 

Bott, A. and G. R. Carmichael (1993) Multiphase chemistry in a microphysical radiation fog model. A numerical study. Atmospheric Environment 27A, 503-522 Botta, O. and J. L. Bada (2002) Extraterrestrial organic compounds in meteorites. Survey... 

Regardless of what the early Earth s atmosphere was like, the planet was undoubtedly bombarded then, as now, by extraterrestrial material such as meteorites. The presence of organic compounds in meteorites was recognized since the mid-19th century, when Berzelius analyzed the Alais meteorite. Today the presence of a complex array of extraterrestrial organic molecules in meteorites, comets, interplanetary dust and interstellar molecules is firmly established, and has lead some to propose them as sources of the prebiotic organic compounds necessary for the origin of life (109-112). 

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