Existing comment:
CARBONACEOUS METEORITES CONTAIN MANY ORGANIC CHEMICALS
The >100-kilogram ( >220-pound) Murchison meteorite landed in Australia in 1969 and has been extensively studied. It contains many types of chemicals that are used by life on Earth. A pebble-sized fragment (less than an ounce or 23 grams) is shown at lower right. Magnified 10 times and seen in polarized light, a thin slice reveals colors that indicate different minerals.
Many meteorites are pieces of asteroids and comets that land on Earth. Others are rocks from Mars or the Moon. Some contain a variety of organic (carbon-containing) chemicals. These include amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and nucleobases that form the rungs of the DNA ladder (life's genome). Astrobiologists study these meteorites to discover their chemical content. |