Astrochemistry is the study of the abundance and reactions of molecules in the universe, and their interaction with radiation. The discipline is an overlap of astronomy and chemistry. The word "astrochemistry" may be applied to both the Solar System and the interstellar medium. The study of the abundance of elements and isotope ratios in Solar System objects, such as meteorites, is also called cosmochemistry, while the study of interstellar atoms and molecules and their interaction with radiation is sometimes called molecular astrophysics. The formation, atomic and chemical composition, evolution and fate of molecular gas clouds is of special interest, because it is from these clouds that solar systems form.
Cosmochemistry or chemical cosmology is the study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe and the processes that led to those compositions. This is done primarily through the study of the chemical composition of meteorites and other physical samples. Given that the asteroid parent bodies of meteorites were some of the first solid material to condense from the early solar nebula, cosmochemists are generally, but not exclusively, concerned with the objects contained within the Solar System.
Joan Oró i Florensa was a Spanish biochemist, whose research has been of importance in understanding the origin of life. He participated in several NASA missions, including Apollo mission to the Moon and the Viking lander. He received the Oparin Medal, awarded by the International Astrobiology Society for his contributions to the field of origins of life.
In chemistry, a molecule or ion is called chiral if it cannot be superposed on its mirror image by any combination of rotations, translations, and some conformational changes. This geometric property is called chirality. The terms are derived from Ancient Greek χείρ (cheir) 'hand'; which is the canonical example of an object with this property.
A micrometeorite is a micrometeoroid that has survived entry through the Earth's atmosphere. Usually found on Earth's surface, micrometeorites differ from meteorites in that they are smaller in size, more abundant, and different in composition. The IAU officially defines meteorites as 30 micrometers to 1 meter; micrometeorites are the small end of the range (~submillimeter). They are a subset of cosmic dust, which also includes the smaller interplanetary dust particles (IDPs).
Carbonaceous chondrites or C chondrites are a class of chondritic meteorites comprising at least 8 known groups and many ungrouped meteorites. They include some of the most primitive known meteorites. The C chondrites represent only a small proportion (4.6%) of meteorite falls.
The Murchison meteorite is a meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969 near Murchison, Victoria. It belongs to the carbonaceous chondrite class, a group of meteorites rich in organic compounds. Due to its mass and the fact that it was an observed fall, the Murchison meteorite is one of the most studied of all meteorites.
Homochirality is a uniformity of chirality, or handedness. Objects are chiral when they cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, the left and right hands of a human are approximately mirror images of each other but are not their own mirror images, so they are chiral. In biology, 19 of the 20 natural amino acids are homochiral, being L-chiral (left-handed), while sugars are D-chiral (right-handed). Homochirality can also refer to enantiopure substances in which all the constituents are the same enantiomer, but some sources discourage this use of the term.
The Tagish Lake meteorite fell at 16:43 UTC on 18 January 2000 in the Tagish Lake area in northwestern British Columbia, Canada.
Ronald Charles David Breslow was an American chemist from Rahway, New Jersey. He was University Professor at Columbia University, where he was based in the Department of Chemistry and affiliated with the Departments of Biological Sciences and Pharmacology; he had also been on the faculty of its Department of Chemical Engineering. He had taught at Columbia since 1956 and was a former chair of the university's chemistry department.
In biology, abiogenesis or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities on Earth was not a single event, but a process of increasing complexity involving the formation of a habitable planet, the prebiotic synthesis of organic molecules, molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis, and the emergence of cell membranes. Many proposals have been made for different stages of the process.
Uwe Meierhenrich is a German Physico-Chemist. He is professor of Analytical and Physical Chemistry at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France.
Isovaline is a rare amino acid transported to Earth by the Murchison meteorite, which landed in Australia in 1969. The discovery of isovaline in the biosphere demonstrates an extraterrestrial origin of amino acids and has been linked to the homochirality of life on Earth, suggesting a role in the origin of life.
Zita Carla Torrão Pinto Martins, OSE, is a Portuguese astrobiologist, and an associate professor at Instituto Superior Técnico. She was a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF) at Imperial College London. Her research explores how life may have begun on Earth by looking for organic compounds in meteorite samples.
Sara Imari Walker is an American theoretical physicist and astrobiologist with research interests in the origins of life, astrobiology, physics of life, emergence, complex and dynamical systems, and artificial life. Walker is deputy director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University (ASU), associate director of the ASU-SFI Center for Biosocial Complex Systems and an associate professor at ASU. She is a co-founder of the astrobiology social network SAGANet, and on the board of directors for Blue Marble Space, a nonprofit education and science organization. As a science communicator, she is a frequent guest on podcasts and series, such as Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman.
Donna Blackmond is an American chemical engineer and the John C. Martin Endowed Chair in Chemistry at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA. Her research focuses on prebiotic chemistry, the origin of biological homochirality, and kinetics and mechanisms of asymmetric catalytic reactions. Notable works include the development of Reaction Progress Kinetic Analysis (RPKA), analysis of non-linear effects of catalyst enantiopurity, biological homochirality and amino acid behavior.
Marilyn L. Fogel was an American geo-ecologist and Professor of Geo-ecology at UC Riverside in Riverside, California. She is known for her research using stable isotope mass spectrometry to study a variety of subjects including ancient climates, biogeochemical cycles, animal behavior, ecology, and astrobiology. Fogel served in many leadership roles, including Program Director at the National Science Foundation in geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry.
The Mars Organic Molecule Analyser (MOMA) is a mass spectrometer-based instrument on board the Rosalind Franklin rover to be launched in 2028 to Mars on an astrobiology mission. It will search for organic compounds in the collected soil samples. By characterizing the molecular structures of detected organics, MOMA can provide insights into potential molecular biosignatures. MOMA will be able to detect organic molecules at concentrations as low as 10 parts-per-billion by weight (ppbw). MOMA examines solid crushed samples exclusively; it does not perform atmospheric analyses.
Viedma ripening or attrition-enhanced deracemization is a chiral symmetry breaking phenomenon observed in solid/liquid mixtures of enantiomorphous crystals that are subjected to comminution. It can be classified in the wider area of spontaneous symmetry breaking phenomena observed in chemistry and physics.
Peter R. Buseck is a Regents Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences (SMS) at Arizona State University (ASU). He is a pioneering researcher in the application of transmission electron microscopy to mineralogy, meteoritics, fullerenes and atmospheric chemistry. In 2019 Buseck was awarded the Roebling Medal, the highest award of the Mineralogical Society of America. The scientific journal Nature recognized Buseck's 1978 paper as a milestone in crystallography.
