AMINO-ACIDS IN THE YAMATO CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITE FROM ANTARCTICA

More than one thousand pieces of meteorites have been discovered recently in Antarctica1-4 which were preserved in the Antarctic Ice Sheet since their fall and were brought out on to the surface of the bare ice. They are likely to have the least possible terrestrial contamination, thus providing a new opportunity for the study of primordial organic synthesis in the early solar nebula5 and of chemical evolution before the emergence of life6,7. Organic compounds of extraterrestrial origin were first detected in the form of protein and non-protein amino acids with an equal abundance of their D- and L-enantiomers in the Murchison carbonaceous chondrite8,9. This ratio of enantiomers has been used as a criterion for the meteoritic origin of the amino acids detected subsequently in other meteorities10-13. We present here detailed evidence for the presence of amino acids of extraterrestrial origin in our Antarctic carbonaceous chondrite14. © 1979 Nature Publishing Group.