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Wednesday 25 June 2014

Organic compounds found in the Murchison Meteorite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murchison_meteorite

Murchison contains common amino acids such as glycinealanine andglutamic acid as well as unusual ones like isovaline and pseudoleucine.A complex mixture of alkanes was isolated as well, similar to that found in the Miller–Urey experimentSerine and threonine, usually considered to be earthly contaminants, were conspicuously absent in the samples. A specific family of amino acids called diamino acids was identified in the Murchison meteorite as well.


Nucleobases

Measured purine and pyrimidine compounds are indigenous components of the Murchison meteorite. Carbonisotope ratios for uracil and xanthine of δ13C = +44.5 and +37.7, respectively, indicate a non-terrestrial origin for these compounds. These results demonstrate that many organic compounds which are components of life on Earth, were already present in the early Solar System and may have played a key role in life's origin.

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