The Organic Content of the Tagish Lake Meteorite

The Tagish Lake meteorite fell last year on a frozen lake in Canada and may provide the most pristine material of its kind. Analyses have now shown this carbonaceous chondrite to contain a suite of soluble organic compounds (∼100 parts per million) that includes mono- and dicarboxylic acids, dicarbo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Pizzarello, Sandra, Huang, Yongsong, Becker, Luann, Poreda, Robert J., Nieman, Ronald A., Cooper, George, Williams, Michael
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2001
Subjects:
Canada
Frozen Lake
Tagish
Tagish Lake
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1062614
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1062614
Description
Summary:The Tagish Lake meteorite fell last year on a frozen lake in Canada and may provide the most pristine material of its kind. Analyses have now shown this carbonaceous chondrite to contain a suite of soluble organic compounds (∼100 parts per million) that includes mono- and dicarboxylic acids, dicarboximides, pyridine carboxylic acids, a sulfonic acid, and both aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. The insoluble carbon exhibits exclusive aromatic character, deuterium enrichment, and fullerenes containing “planetary” helium and argon. The findings provide insight into an outcome of early solar chemical evolution that differs from any seen so far in meteorites.

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