Scientists have recreated the reaction by which carbon isotopes made their way into different organic compounds, challenging the notion that organic compounds, such as amino acids, were formed by isotopically enriched substrates. Their discovery suggests that the building blocks of life in meteorites were derived from widely available substrates in the early solar system.
Their findings were published online in Science Advances on April 28, 2021.
Carbonaceous meteorites contain the building blocks of life, including amino acids, sugars, and nucleobases. These meteorites are potential providers of these molecules to the prebiotic Earth.
The small organic molecules found in meteorites are generally enriched in a heavy carbon isotope (13C)...
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