[meteorite-list] More evidence of building blocks of DNA in meteorites

[MexicoDoug]

"maybe the physics involved in the impact with the atmosphere where the 
responsibles for the creation of those nucleobases, and maybe those 
nucleobases couldn't be found in meteors."

"It's known that carbonaceous chondrite material, plus water, plus high 
velocity impact, can 'fuse' amino acids into polymers/proteins."

Hi Leo - those are interesting thoughts for a separate experiments.

In this case, the impact with / passage through the atmosphere would 
likely not effect the formation of nucleotide bases.  The reason (in 
this case) is because: to prevent contamination with terrestrial 
sources, virgin material is highly likely being tested from the 
interior of the meteorites in the study.  In the case of carbonaceous 
chondrites, that material's temperature will not exceed the freezing 
temperature (0 C = 32 F), until it starts warming up in the Sun on the 
ground (and in parts of Antarctica, maybe never).  Also the energy for 
that caseis minimal since it is the free fall velocity only - for the 
meteorites tested.

As for the "fusion" of amino acids to produce proteins during impact - 
I hadn't heard of that.  I just googled it and this paper showed up 
which attempted to 'simulate' impacts and concluded that the peptide 
chains are not formed, but rather cleaved, and some of the amino acids 
were changed or decomposed:

"The fate of amino acids during simulated meteoritic impact"
Bertrand M, van der Gaast S, Vilas F, Hörz F, Haynes G, Chabin A, Brack 
A, Westall F.

Abstract: Delivery of prebiotic molecules, such as amino acids and 
peptides, in meteoritic/micrometeoritic materials to early Earth during 
the first 500 million years is considered to be one of the main 
processes by which the building blocks of life arrived on Earth. In 
this context, we present a study in which the effects of impact shock 
on amino acids and a peptide in artificial meteorites composed of 
saponite clay were investigated. The samples were subjected to 
pressures ranging from 12-28.9 GPa, which simulated impact velocities 
of 2.4-5.8 km/s ...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20041747

Any thoughts?

Kindest wishes
Doug





-----Original Message-----
From: Leoncio Cividanes Álvarez <supeindesu at hotmail.com>
To: Meteorite list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tue, Aug 9, 2011 10:17 am
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More evidence of building blocks of DNA 
in meteorites



Well, what I've thinking about this is that the "can" could mean that 
maybe the
physics involved in the impact with the atmosphere where the 
responsibles for
the creation of those nucleobases, and maybe those nucleobases couldn't 
be found
in meteors. It's known that carbonaceous chondrite material, plus 
water, plus
high velocity impact, can 'fuse' amino acids into polymers/proteins.

It's just a personal thought...

Best regards,
Leo

----------------------------------------
> To: magbish3 at lowcountry.com; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 01:58:28 -0400
> From: mexicodoug at aim.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More evidence of building blocks of DNA 
in
meteorites
>
> "NASA Research Shows DNA Building Blocks Can Be Made in Space "
>
> Something about the title of the PR seems strange. If they found some
> DNA/RNA nucleotide bases, then it's not "can be made in space", it is
> "are made in space". If they didn't find any, then we are still with
> the "all the ingredients" are present, something which was already
> shown.
>
> Is the question "Did it happen here, under Miller-Urey type
> conditions?", or "Was the meteorite delivered from the Acme 
Corporation
> in Fairfield, Mars, to Wile E. Coyote (Roadrunner cartoon character),
> "unpack carefully, to replicate life, just add water - Acme Inc."
>
> e.g., http://home.roadrunner.com/~tuco/looney/acme/dehydrated.html
>
> Kindest wishes
> Doug
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mal Bishop <magbish3 at lowcountry.com>
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Sent: Mon, Aug 8, 2011 9:15 pm
> Subject: [meteorite-list] More evidence of building blocks of DNA in
> meteorites
>
>
> Found this of interest:
>
> NASA Research Shows DNA Building Blocks Can Be Made in Space
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2011/11-60AR.html
>
> Mal
>
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