Murchison meteorite tagged posts

A glimpse of the solar system’s origins: Striking details on the molecules inside a meteorite

Meteorite molecules with their corresponding chemical diagrams
Brookhaven Lab scientist Percy Zahl of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, a DOE Office of Science user facility, used high-resolution noncontact atomic force microscopy to image the structures of individual molecules from one of the meteorites. This provided a more detailed look at these extraterrestrial organic compounds. For more information about Brookhaven’s role in this research, contact Peter Genzer (genzer@bnl.gov, 631-344-3174).

Researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory have teamed up to get a fresh look at the complex makeup of meteorites and glimpse into our solar system’s past.

Powerful spectrometry found only at the MagLab identified the vast array of organic compounds inside two meteorites, and Brookhaven scien...

Read More

New study provides Novel Insights into the Cosmic Evolution of Amino Acids

image picture
Image by Triff/Shutterstock

Scientists perform computational simulations for biological molecules detected in meteorites to clarify the origin of life on Earth. All biological amino acids on Earth appear exclusively in their left-handed form, but the reason underlying this observation is elusive. Recently, scientists from Japan uncovered new clues about the cosmic origin of this asymmetry. Based on the optical properties of amino acids found on the Murchison meteorite, they conducted physics-based simulations, revealing that the precursors to the biological amino acids may have determined the amino acid chirality during the early phase of galactic evolution.

If you look at your hands, you will notice that they are mirror images of each other...

Read More