ORGANIC CHEMISTRY IN METEORITES

摘要

Carbonaceous chondrites contain a suite of soluble organic compounds that possess characteristics that help to understand their formation and to trace back the early history of the solar system. Relative amino acid abundances can be used to discriminate between different parent bodies. The Tagish Lake meteorite is a unique sample from a new type of solar system object that will help to further constrain the physical and chemical conditions found on parent bodies. Enantiomeric excesses have been detected in non-biological amino acids in the Murchison and Murray meteorites that are still difficult to explain in the current scenario for the synthesis of extraterrestrial amino acids. Finally, new classes of compounds, dipeptides and sugar-related molecules, have been detected in CM carbonaceous chondrites.