Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered that complex organic compounds and water are found in meteorites from the asteroid belt. An article by planetary scientists was published in the journal Science Advances. Briefly about the scientific work is described in a press release on the Phys.org website.
According to the researchers, their finding indicates that cosmic bodies falling to the Earth could play a decisive role in the emergence of life on the planet.
Researchers have studied the chemical composition in tiny rock salt crystals inside meteorites. These crystals have a different color, which is given by impurities of inorganic and organic compounds. The age of cosmic bodies reaches 4.5 billion years, and their sources were probably the dwarf planet Ceres and the asteroid Hebe, which are located in the main asteroid belt (between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter).
X-ray images of the minerals showed that the crystals contained inclusions of a salt-saturated aqueous solution containing various organic molecules. Including amino acids, their precursors and other substances. Aromatic, ketone and imidazole compounds have also been discovered, which on Earth have important biological functions.
Scientists believe that the discovery demonstrates that primitive life, such as microorganisms, could exist in other places in the solar system, as well as move between planets on fragments of asteroids or planetoids.