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The results of laboratory experiments involving Vitamin B3 by a team of NASA researchers support a theory that the origin of life may have been assisted by a supply of 'biologically important molecules produced in space and brought to Earth by comet and meteor impacts'.
The new work, published last month online in Chemical Communications, follows earlier research by the team which revealed that vitamin B3 was present on 'carbon-rich meteorites at concentrations ranging from about 30 to 600 parts-per-billion'. In that work, the team performed experiments that showed vitamin B3, which is found in foods such as fish, peanuts and sunflower seeds, could be made from an organic molecule called pyridine in carbon dioxide ice under conditions that simulated the environment in space.
The new experiments went further by adding water ice to the mixture and using amounts closer to what is expected for interstellar ices and comets. NASA reports that the team found that even with the addition of water, the vitamin could be made under a wide variety of scenarios where the water ice abundance varied by up to ten times.
Study author, Karen Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland noted, 'This result suggests that these important organic compounds in meteorites may have originated from simple molecular ices in space. This type of chemistry may also be relevant for comets, which contain large amounts of water andcarbon dioxide ices. These experiments show that vitamin B3 and other complex organic compounds could be made in space and it is plausible that meteorite and comet impacts could have added an extraterrestrial component to the supply of vitamin B3 on ancient Earth.'
Read more here. (PhysOrg)
The new work, published last month online in Chemical Communications, follows earlier research by the team which revealed that vitamin B3 was present on 'carbon-rich meteorites at concentrations ranging from about 30 to 600 parts-per-billion'. In that work, the team performed experiments that showed vitamin B3, which is found in foods such as fish, peanuts and sunflower seeds, could be made from an organic molecule called pyridine in carbon dioxide ice under conditions that simulated the environment in space.
The new experiments went further by adding water ice to the mixture and using amounts closer to what is expected for interstellar ices and comets. NASA reports that the team found that even with the addition of water, the vitamin could be made under a wide variety of scenarios where the water ice abundance varied by up to ten times.
Study author, Karen Smith of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland noted, 'This result suggests that these important organic compounds in meteorites may have originated from simple molecular ices in space. This type of chemistry may also be relevant for comets, which contain large amounts of water andcarbon dioxide ices. These experiments show that vitamin B3 and other complex organic compounds could be made in space and it is plausible that meteorite and comet impacts could have added an extraterrestrial component to the supply of vitamin B3 on ancient Earth.'
Read more here. (PhysOrg)
