Experimental Synthesis of Organic Compounds From Inorganic Materials by the Simulated Impact on the Early Earth

Details Experimental Synthesis of Organic Compounds From Inorganic Materials by the Simulated Impact on the Early Earth Experimental Synthesis of Organic Compounds From Inorganic Materials by the Simulated Impact on the Early Earth

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmmr13a1693f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #MR13A-1693

Biology

0406 Astrobiology And Extraterrestrial Materials, 1055 Organic And Biogenic Geochemistry, 3944 Shock Wave Experiments, 5200 Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology, 5215 Origin Of Life

Scientific paper

How to prepare prebiotic organic molecules on the early Earth has been debated vigorously. One of points of debates is how to overcome the difficulty to produce prebiotic organic molecules under moderately oxidizing CO2 and N2-rich early atmosphere. Previous investigators suggested the existence of early oceans well before 4.0 Ga, late heavy bombardments at around 4.0 Ga, and the earliest life at 3.8 Ga. In order to connect these geological evidences, we hypothesized that meteorite impacts, which brought many reductants, on the early oceans followed by interaction with the atmosphere were responsible for production of prebiotic organic molecules. In order to simulate the impact reaction, we performed shock-recovery experiments with single-stage propellant gun. The shocked materials are composed of mixture of iron, nickel, carbon, water and gaseous nitrogen or dissolved ammonia. The carbon in the starting materials is enriched in 99% of 13C so that the C-bearing products can be distinguished from contaminants. These mixtures were encapsulated in metal containers and then shocked with impact velocities of 1 km/s. Analyses of the experimental products were performed using the state-of-the-art LC/MS and GC/MS. Various organic molecules including bio molecules composed only of 13C are detected, verifying syntheses of those organic molecules during the shock experiments. This result further suggests that the late heavy bombardment on the early oceans, dynamic high-pressure conditions, triggered to form a large mass and variety of prebiotic organic molecules on the early Earth.

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