A Tiny Space Rock Holds Clues About the Evolution of Life (engadget.com) 24
Back in 2012, a team of Japanese and Belgian researchers in Antarctica found a golf ball-sized space rock resting in the snow. Now, NASA astronauts have had a chance to study a piece of that meteorite, Asuka 12236, and they say it may hold new clues about the development of life. From a report: Inside the meteorite, astrobiologists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center found a high concentration of amino acids, particularly aspartic and glutamic acids. Those are two of the 20 amino acids that make millions of proteins, which are essential for the bodily functions of animals. Researchers have found amino acids in other space rocks, but not at such a high concentration. Perhaps most surprisingly, Asuka 12236 contains more left-handed versions of some amino acids. While there are right-handed and left-handed versions of each amino acid, life as we know it uses only left-handed amino acids to build proteins. Researchers want to know why there was an imbalance toward left-handed amino acids and what kinds of space conditions might have led to that. They believe Asuka 12236 was exposed to very little heat or water -- two important clues.
Wow, NASA astronauts studied it. (Score:1)
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Then they scratched their heads and said "why the hell do they have us studying meteorites? We should be training for our next launch."
To be fair, most NASA astronauts have at least one PhD in something or another. It's not impossible that some of those degrees are in astrobiology or another field appropriate for studying the space rock.
Astronauts? or astrobiologists? (Score:5, Funny)
"Now, NASA astronauts have had a chance to study a piece of that meteorite... Inside the meteorite, astrobiologists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center found ..."
I think whoever wrote that press release got confused. Astronaut and astrobiologist are both polysyllabic words starting with a, but they are not the same thing.
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During Covid Times, many of us have to double up on duties.
Heat and water.... (Score:2)
They believe Asuka 12236 was exposed to very little heat or water
If its not a ball of almost entirely hydrogen, then it came from a star, and not only a star, but one that exploded...
Apparently they theorize this came from a cold supernova?
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Yes, the University of Utah just set one off in their lab the other day. Dr. Freeze is interested in the technology.
Re: Heat and water.... (Score:2)
I can't tell if your joking. If not, then the meteorite almost certainly didn't suddenly pop out of a supernova at high heat levels and end up in our solar system. The meteorite (as an asteroid) probably formed from agglomeration of space dust over a very long time, during which said amino acids also formed on or were captured by it. Or it is a fragment of a larger space rock that formed the same way.
The space dust components and amino acid elements could have formed from a supernova, but that wouldn't have
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Sure, the elements that it was made from might have been exposed to massive amounts of heat, and pressure, but the meteorite was not.
Much as you, yourself, have never, I am quite sure, ever been subject to any temperatures above about 54 degrees Celcius, nor above about 4 times atmospheric pressure, and yet you are full of bits that have been through a supernova and spent time at the heart of a sun.
Space rock? Space museum? Space cash? (Score:2)
Here's one more [squarespace-cdn.com].
I'll wait (Score:2)
He can pitch well (Score:1)
God's a lefty, I knew it!
Re: He can pitch well (Score:5, Funny)
Well, its golf ball sized and it was obviously left here. So that means the aliens consider earth to be a hazard that you would rather just take the 1 stroke penalty and get a drop over trying to go in and play the ball where it lies.
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If you care and worry about taxpayer money, never look up how much is wasted by the military. Everything else is pocket change by comparison.
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Re: "This thing I lied about holds truth about lie (Score:1)
Not the only meteorite ... (Score:4, Informative)
This is not the only meteorite that has organic compounds similar to those found in living organisms.
The Murchison meteorite [wikipedia.org] had amino acids and nucleaobases too.