[meteorite-list] NPA 10-15-2000 Tagish Lake Meteorite May Give Clues To Life Origins

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Star Herald
City: Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Date: Sunday, October 15, 2000
Page: 4B (Science Section)

Carbon-rich meteorite may give clues to life origins

     WASHINGTON (AP) - In a search for new clues about the origin of life, 
researchers worldwide are analyzing bits of a bus-sized meteorite that 
blazed in Earth last January in a spectacular fireball, giving science that 
most pristine primordial matter ever recovered.
     The meteorite, estimated to weigh about 220 tons when it smashed into 
the atmosphere, shattered before it hit the ground and sprayed bits of space 
rock over a frozen lake in Canada's British Columbia.
     More than 70 eyewitness saw the fireball and a week later Canadian Jim 
Brook, while driving on the ice of Tagish Lake spotted bits of the 
meteorite. Working in minus-20-degree temperatures, Brook collected about 
two pounds of black, charcoal-like fragments in a plastic bag and stored 
them in a freezer.
     Brook's careful handling will allow scientists to study matter that in 
virtually unchanged since the solar system formed some 4.6 billion years 
ago, said Peter G. Brown of the University of Western Ontario in London, 
Ontario, Canada.
     "There are the most pristine meteorite specimens on the planet right 
now," said Brown, who is first author of a study appearing Friday in the 
journal Science.
     Later expeditions gathered some 410 additional fragments, but by then 
the material had been sitting in the open for weeks, was most likely 
contaminated and was beginning to erode.  The material is about the 
consistency of dried mud, and rain can cause it to crumble and wash away.
     Preliminary tests of the pristine material found it is loaded with 
organic molecules of the type that some experts have suggested could have 
been the original raw materials for the formation of life on Earth.
     "Stuff like (the) Tagish Lake (meteorite) were pelting the early 
Earth," said Brown. "It is natural to assume that not only could organic 
molecules have been synthesized in the primordial sop on Earth, but they 
could have been brought here from an extraterrestrial origin."
     The meteorite's fireball was detected by satellites, enabling Brown and 
others to estimate the path of the space rock and track it back into space. 
They believe the object came from the asteroid belt between the orbits of 
Mars and Jupiter. Brown said the object was probably jolted off a larger 
body and could have spent millions of years in orbit before being captured 
by Earth's gravity.
     Bits of the meteorite have been distributed to a number of labs 
worldwide, and researchers are painstakingly analyzing it, looking for amino 
acids and other organic compounds. A report on those studies may be a year 
away, Brown said.

(end)

Diagram with article shows the Tagish Lake meteorite orbit and the area of 
impact.

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
www.meteoritearticles.com
www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com