A Search for Extraterrestrial Amino Acids in Polar Ice: A Progress Report

Fifteen polar ice samples-fourteen from Greenland and one from Antarctica-have been analyzed for the extraterrestrial amino acid alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) in an effort to estimate the flux of interplanetary organic material to the Earth's surface. Only one sample (Greenland GISP II, 4270...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Brinton, Karen L. F., McDonald, Gene D., Bada, Jeffrey L., Wang, Xueyun
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:unknown
Published: 1996
Subjects:
Geophysics
Greenland
Antarc*
Antarctica
GISP
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19980200979
Description
Summary:Fifteen polar ice samples-fourteen from Greenland and one from Antarctica-have been analyzed for the extraterrestrial amino acid alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) in an effort to estimate the flux of interplanetary organic material to the Earth's surface. Only one sample (Greenland GISP II, 4270-4440 years old) contains detectable amounts of AIB, apparently the signature of a transient delivery event. The maximum oceanic concentration of AIB from such an event would be less than 10(exp-9) M.

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