¹Maksimova, A.A.,²Unsalan, O.,¹Chukin, A.V.,³Karabanalov, M.S.,⁴Jenniskens, P.,⁵Felner, I.,¹Semionkin, V.A.,¹Oshtrakh, M.I.
Spectrochimica Acta – Part A: Molecular abd Biomolecular Spectroscopy 228, 117819 Link to Article [DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2019.117819]
¹Institute of Physics and Technology, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620002, Russian Federation
²Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, Ege University, Bornova, Izmir 35100, Turkey
³Institute of Material Science and Metallurgy, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, 620002, Russian Federation
⁴SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
⁵Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

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¹Daniel P. Glavin,¹Jamie E. Elsila,^1,2Hannah L. McLain,^1,2José C. Aponte,¹Eric T. Parker,¹Jason P. Dworkin,⁴Dolores H. Hill,^3,4Harold C. Connolly Jr.,⁴Dante S. Lauretta
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13451]
¹NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, 20771 USA
Catholic University of America, Washington, District of Columbia, 20064 USA
²Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721 USA
³Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, 08028 USA
⁴Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721 USA
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

The abundances, distributions, enantiomeric ratios, and carbon isotopic compositions of amino acids in two fragments of the Aguas Zarcas CM2 type carbonaceous chondrite fall and a fragment of the CM2 Murchison meteorite were determined via liquid chromatography time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry and gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometry. A suite of two‐ to six‐carbon aliphatic primary amino acids was identified in the Aguas Zarcas and Murchison meteorites with abundances ranging from ~0.1 to 158 nmol/g. The high relative abundances of α‐amino acids found in these meteorites are consistent with a Strecker‐cyanohydrin synthesis on these meteorite parent bodies. Amino acid enantiomeric and carbon isotopic measurements in both fragments of the Aguas Zarcas meteorites indicate that both samples experienced some terrestrial protein amino acid contamination after their fall to Earth. In contrast, similar measurements of alanine in Murchison revealed that this common protein amino acid was both racemic (D ≈ L) and heavily enriched in ¹³C, indicating no measurable terrestrial alanine contamination of this meteorite. Carbon isotope measurements of two rare non‐proteinogenic amino acids in the Aguas Zarcas and Murchison meteorites, α‐aminoisobutyric acid and D‐ and L‐isovaline, also fall well outside the typical terrestrial range, confirming they are extraterrestrial in origin. The detections of non‐terrestrial L‐isovaline excesses of ~10–15% in both the Aguas Zarcas and Murchison meteorites, and non‐terrestrial L‐glutamic acid excesses in Murchison of ~16–40% are consistent with preferential enrichment of circularly polarized light generated L‐amino acid excesses of conglomerate enantiopure crystals during parent body aqueous alteration and provide evidence of an early solar system formation bias toward L‐amino acids prior to the origin of life.

^1,2Sylvain Bouley,³James Tuttle Keane,⁴David Baratoux,⁵Benoit Langlais,⁶Isamu Matsuyama,¹Francois Costard,⁷Roger Hewins,⁸Valerie Payré,⁷Violaine Sautter,¹Antoine Séjourné,⁴Olivier Vanderhaeghe,²Brigitte Zanda

Nature Geoscience 13, 105-109 Link to Article [DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0512-6]

¹GEOPS – Géosciences Paris Sud, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
²IMCCE – Observatoire de Paris, CNRS-UMR 8028, Paris, France
³California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
⁴Geosciences Environnement Toulouse, UMR 5563 CNRS, IRD & Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
⁵Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique, CNRS UMR 6112, Université de Nantes, Université d’Angers, Nantes, France
⁶Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
⁷Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux, et de Cosmochimie (IMPMC) – Sorbonne Université- Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, UPMC Université Paris 06, UMR CNRS 7590, IRD UMR 206, Paris, France
⁸Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

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