Abundant ammonia in primitive asteroids and the case for a possible exobiology

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 108; no. 11; pp. 4303 - 4306
• Main Authors: Pizzarello, Sandra, Williams, Lynda B, Lehman, Jennifer, Holland, Gregory P, Yarger, Jeffery L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 15.03.2011; National Acad Sciences
• Series: From the Cover
• Subjects: alanine; Amino acids; Ammonia; Ammonia - analysis; Asteroids; Chemical composition; Chromatography, Gas; Earth; Evolution; Exobiology; hot water treatment; inventories; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Meteorites; Meteoroids; Meteors & meteorites; Minor Planets; Molecular evolution; Molecules; Physical Sciences; Prebiotics; Solubility; Solvents; Solvents - chemistry; Temperature; Water - chemistry
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1014961108

Carbonaceous chondrites are asteroidal meteorites that contain abundant organic materials. Given that meteorites and comets have reached the Earth since it formed, it has been proposed that the exogenous influx from these bodies provided the organic inventories necessary for the emergence of life. The carbonaceous meteorites of the Renazzo-type family (CR) have recently revealed a composition that is particularly enriched in small soluble organic molecules, such as the amino acids glycine and alanine, which could support this possibility. We have now analyzed the insoluble and the largest organic component of the CR2 Grave Nunataks (GRA) 95229 meteorite and found it to be of more primitive composition than in other meteorites and to release abundant free ammonia upon hydrothermal treatment. The findings appear to trace CR2 meteorites' origin to cosmochemical regimes where ammonia was pervasive, and we speculate that their delivery to the early Earth could have fostered prebiotic molecular evolution.