Extraterrestrial nucleobases in the Murchison meteorite

Authors: Zita Martins, Oliver Botta, Marilyn L. Fogel, Mark A. Sephton, Daniel P. Glavin, Jonathan S. Watson, Jason P. Dworkin, Alan W. Schwartz, Pascale Ehrenfreund

(Submitted on 13 Jun 2008)

Abstract: Carbon-rich meteorites, carbonaceous chondrites, contain many biologically relevant organic molecules and delivered prebiotic material to the young Earth. We present compound-specific carbon isotope data indicating that measured purine and pyrimidine compounds are indigenous components of the Murchison meteorite. Carbon isotope ratios for uracil and xanthine of delta13C=+44.5per mil and +37.7per mil, respectively, indicate a non-terrestrial origin for these compounds.

These new results demonstrate that organic compounds, which are components of the genetic code in modern biochemistry, were already present in the early solar system and may have played a key role in life's origin.

Comments: 31 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables

Subjects: Space Physics (physics.space-ph); Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph)

Journal reference: Earth and Planetary Science Letters 270, 130-136. 15 June 2008

DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.03.026

Cite as: arXiv:0806.2286v1 [physics.space-ph]

Submission history

From: Zita Martins [view email]

[v1] Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:06:00 GMT (341kb)

http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.2286