Constraints for Use of Ultraviolet Spectropolarimetry to Detect Chiral Amino Acids from Comets.

ABSTRACT: Life is pervasive on planet Earth, but whether life is ubiquitous in the Galaxy and sustainable over timescales comparable to stellar evolution is unknown. Evidence suggests that life first appeared on Earth more than 3.77 Gyr ago, during a period of heavy meteoric bombardment. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, have been demonstrated to exist in interstellar ice. As such, the contribution of space-generated amino acids to those existing on Earth should be considered. However, detection of space amino acids is challenging. In this study, we used analytical data from several meteorites and in situ measurements of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko collected by the Rosetta probe to evaluate the detectability of alanine by ultraviolet spectropolarimetry. Alanine is the seco

SUBMITTER: Gomez de Castro AI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8219194 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature