[Baps] BU Seminar - 11/19/09 - Cometary Amino Acids from the Stardust Mission

[Paul Withers]

Center for Space Physics

Speaker: Jamie Cook
Affiliation: NASA Goddard
Title: Cometary Amino Acids from the Stardust Mission
Date/Time: Thursday, November 19th, 2009, 4PM

Place: 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 502
Refreshments: 3:30PM, Room 500

Abstract:

NASA’s Stardust spacecraft returned samples from comet 81P/Wild 2 to
Earth in January
2006. Examinations of the organic compounds in cometary samples can
reveal information about the prebiotic organic inventory present on the
early Earth and within the early Solar System, which may have
contributed to the origin of life. Preliminary studies of Stardust
material revealed the presence of a suite of organic compounds including
several amines and amino acids, but the origin of these compounds
(cometary vs. terrestrial contamination) could not be identified. We
have recently measured the
carbon isotopic ratios of these amino acids to determine their origin,
leading to the
first detection of a cometary amino acid.

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Paul Withers                            Center for Space Physics
Office  +1 617 353 1531                 Boston University
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Email   withers at bu.edu                  Boston MA 02215, USA
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