Evidence for sodium-rich alkaline water in the Tagish Lake parent body and implications for amino acid synthesis and racemization

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: White, Lee F., Tait, Kimberly T., Langelier, Brian, Lymer, Elizabeth A., Černok, Ana, Kizovski, Tanya V., Ma, Chi, Tschauner, Oliver, Nicklin, Richard I.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2020
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Tagish; Tagish Lake
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7260959/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32393617; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003276117

Understanding the timing and mechanisms of amino acid synthesis and racemization on asteroidal parent bodies is key to demonstrating how amino acids evolved to be mostly left-handed in living organisms on Earth. It has been postulated that racemization can occur rapidly dependent on several factors,...