Amino acids in the Yamato carbonaceous chondrite from Antarctica

Abstract

More than one thousand pieces of meteorites have been discovered recently in Antarctica^1–4 which were preserved in the Antarctic Ice Sheet since their fall and were brought out on to the surface of the bare ice. They are likely to have the least possible terrestrial contamination, thus providing a new opportunity for the study of primordial organic synthesis in the early solar nebula⁵ and of chemical evolution before the emergence of life^6,7. Organic compounds of extraterrestrial origin were first detected in the form of protein and non-protein amino acids with an equal abundance of their D- and L-enantiomers in the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite^8,9. This ratio of enantiomers has been used as a criterion for the meteoritic origin of the amino acids detected subsequently in other meteorities^10–13. We present here detailed evidence for the presence of amino acids of extraterrestrial origin in our Antarctic carbonaceous chondrite¹⁴.