[meteorite-list] NPA 01-09-1970 Gehrke Links Moon Rocks, Allende Meteorite

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Coshocton Tribune
City: Coshocton, Ohio
Date: Friday Evening, January 9, 1970
Page: 1

Gehrke Links Moon Rocks, Meteorite

     Research on the Apollo 11 moon rocks shows a striking similarity 
between the materials in the moon and in a meteorite that hit the earth 
recently. The research, done by a team of ag scientists from the University 
of Columbia, was revealed at the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration's Apollo 11 reporting session in Houston Thursday.
     Following their analyses of moon rocks returned by the Apollo 11 
astronauts, the UMC scientists led by Dr. Charles W. Gehrke, former resident 
of Coshocton, reported their findings to NASA officials. Dr. Cyril 
Ponnamperuma, director of the NASA Ames Laboratory, released the Missouri 
findings Thursday as part of the total report made in Houston.
     "The Missouri team found that the lunar samples returned from the Sea 
of Tranquility area of the moon and a large meteorite which fell near 
Pueblito de Allende in northern Mexico last February contain the same 
materials. The make-up is not just close, it is strikingly similar," Dr. 
Ponnamperuma told the Houston meeting this morning.
     "This finding opens vast new areas for speculation and will require 
further search and study to put it into proper scientific framework," Dr. 
Gehrke explained. The studies of Apollo 12 and 13 samples will make 
important contributions to this subject, he believes.
     Working with Dr. Gehrke were Dr. Walter Aue, Dr. David Stalling, Bob 
Zumwalt and Dr. Don Roach. All are present or recent staff members of the 
Agricultural Experiment Station Chemical Laboratories, of which Gehrke is 
director.
     The UMC team was called to the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett 
Field, Calif., primarily to look for important life molecules in the moon 
rocks. Using methodology refined in the Experiment Station lab, this team 
could analyze the samples with a high degree of sensitivity and still not 
damage the molecules. These methods are not offered by any other research 
group.
     The Houston report confirmed that the UMC team did not find any of the 
so-called life molecules in the lunar samples, particularly the amino acids 
which are essentials of life as we know it. They did, however, find 
fragments and other pieces and parts of molecules which could conceivable be 
assembled into the beginnings of life in its most basic forms.
     "We found carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, hitrogen, silicon, and 
organo-silicon compounds," Dr. Gehrke explained. "Except for organo-silicon 
compounds, these are important in the make-up of life on this earth when 
they are combined and arranged in the ways that make the essential life 
building blocks."
     The UMC investigators told NASA officials that they did not find any 
indications of such life molecules having been assembled on the moon or 
clues that any such formation was likely to happen under moon conditions as 
we understand them. Given the right atmospheric conditions, however, life 
molecules would be a definite possibility.
     As a part of their analysis of the returned lunar samples, the UMC 
scientists compared them with various other materials. This is how the 
Pueblito de Allende meteorite was included in the analysis.
     Other samples studied included a piece of basalt from the Hawaiian 
Islands and quartz crystals estimated to be more than three billion years 
old - from the bottom of a gold mine in Africa. They showed none of the 
organic compounds which the scientists detected in the moon and meteorite 
samples.
     Extensive tests were conducted to eliminate all chances of coincidence 
influencing the findings and to make certain that the tests were valid in 
themselves. Analyses of the rocket exhaust from the lunar lander showed two 
points of similarity with the moon rocks and the meteorite. While it is 
possible that the moon rocks could have been contaminated by the exhaust, 
NASA officials point out "the possibility of contamination of the meteorite 
by rocket exhaust is extremely remote."
     On the basic of such double checking, it is believed that the findings 
are valid, Dr. Gehrke points out. Now it remains to determine their 
significance. The UMC team may help with that later on their month when they 
begin analysis of the Apollo 12 lunar samples returned from the moon's Sea 
of Storms area. No date has been set for the report of those studies.

(end)