Meteorite discovered in Antarctica offers scientists peek at solar system, mystery of life

Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Flight Center found that an abundance of ami acids was locked up inside an ancient meteorite discovered in Antarctica in 2012 that may give scientists a sneak peek into secrets of solar system and life.

 golf ball-sized meteorite named Asuka 12236 was discovered by a team of Japanese and Belgian researchers after y picked up a small rock that appeared coal-black against sw-white Antarctica during a 2012 expedition re. 

As it turns out, Asuka 12236 is one of best-preserved meteorites of its kind ever discovered. And w, NASA scientists have shown that it contains microscopic clues that could help m solve a universal mystery: How did building blocks of life flourish on Earth?

se primordial molecules included aspartic and glutamic acids, which are among 20 ami acids that form mselves into countless arrangements, making up millions of proteins. Proteins n go on to power chemical gears of life on Earth, including essential bodily functions in animals.

Led by Goddard astrobiologist Daniel P. Glavin, team also found that Asuka 12236 had more left-handed versions of some ami acids. re’s a right-handed and left-handed mirror-im version of each ami acid, like your hands are mirror ims of each or. All kwn life uses only left-handed ami acids to build proteins. Increasingly, Glavin and his colleagues are finding that meteorites are chock-full of se left-handed chemical precursors to life.

“ meteorites are telling us that re was an inherent bias toward left-handed ami acids before life even started,” Glavin said. “ big mystery is why?”

Differences in types and amounts of ami acids preserved in such rocks allow scientists to build a record of how se molecules evolved through time and circumstances, including exposure to water and heat inside ir parent asteroids.

^{NASA Goddard astrobiologist Daniel Glavin poses in 2002 next to a meteorite he had just found during an expedition in Antarctica. Credits: Antarctic Search for Meteorites/Daniel Glavin}

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Discover mysteries of universe

On timeline of solar system, Asuka 12236 fits in toward very beginning – in fact, some scientists think that tiny pieces of meteorite predate solar system. se are among most interesting rocks to study for scientists who focus on origin of life since many contain a highly complex mixture of organic compounds associated with living things.

“It's fun to think about how se things fall to Earth and happen to be full of all this different information about how solar system formed, what it formed from, and how elements built up in galaxy,” said Conel M. O'D. Alexander, a scientist at Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., who collaborated on Asuka 12236 analysis.

Meteorites like Asuka 12236 are pieces of much larger asteroids. se fragments were flung into solar system during asteroid collisions more than 4.5 billion years ago and ultimately made ir way to Earth’s surface after surviving a fiery descent through our atmosphere. For Alexander and Glavin, se rocks are like history books that fall from sky and deliver chemical information about early solar system. rocks are only source of this information because erosion and plate tectonics on Earth have wiped away chemical history of our planet.

With Asuka 12236, scientists are getting a peek at very first ami acids produced in solar system and conditions that led to variety and complexity of se molecules.

“Understanding kinds of molecules, and ir handedness, that were present in earliest days of solar system puts us closer to kwing how planets and life formed,” said Jason P. Dworkin, a Goddard astrobiologist.

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