Sulfur and hydrogen isotope anomalies in meteorite sulfonic acids.
Abstract
Intramolecular carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur isotope ratios were measured on a homologous series of organic sulfonic acids discovered in the Murchison meteorite. Mass-independent sulfur isotope fractionations were observed along with high deuterium/hydrogen ratios. The deuterium enrichments indicate formation of the hydrocarbon portion of these compounds in a low-temperature environment that is consistent with that of interstellar clouds. Sulfur-33 enrichments observed in methanesulfonic acid could have resulted from gas-phase ultraviolet irradiation of a precursor, carbon disulfide. The source of the sulfonic acid precursors may have been the reactive interstellar molecule carbon monosulfide.
- Publication:
-
Science
- Pub Date:
- August 1997
- DOI:
- 10.1126/science.277.5329.1072
- Bibcode:
- 1997Sci...277.1072C
- Keywords:
-
- Sulfur Isotopes;
- Hydrogen Isotopes;
- Anomalies;
- Sulfonic Acid;
- Carbon Compounds;
- Vapor Phases;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Hydrogen;
- Isotope Ratios;
- Murchison Meteorite;
- Fractionation;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Irradiation;
- Astrophysics;
- Meteorites: Organic Matter;
- Meteorites: Isotopic Anomalies