ORIGIN: a novel and compact Laser Desorption – Mass Spectrometry system for sensitive in situ detection of amino acids on extraterrestrial surfaces

摘要

Top: Mass spectra of various biotic (red) and abiotic (green) amino acids (14 pmol mm average surface concentration), and of a mixture of NaCl/KCl salt (blue, ~0.7 µg mm average surface concentration). See Sect. 4.2 for a list of the abbreviations used for the amino acids. The primary fragments are labelled according to their mass. Bottom: Fragmentation pattern of the measured amino acid spectra (lysine omitted), grouped by masses corresponding to the parent (i.e. intact) molecule (green), the amino acid without its −COOH group (red), the side chain of the amino acid (blue), and other contributions (purple). Signals from −COOH-stripped and side chain masses dominate the amino acid spectra.