Special Feature: Self-assembling amphiphilic molecules: Synthesis in simulated interstellar/precometary ices
Abstract
* Astrochemistry Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 245-6, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000; Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, 2035 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043; and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Edited by Stanley L. Miller, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved December 13, 2000 (received for review October 25, 2000) Interstellar gas and dust constitute the primary material from which the solar system formed. Near the end of the hot early phase of star and planet formation, volatile, less refractory materials were transported into the inner solar system as comets and interplanetary dust particles. Once the inner planets hadsufficiently cooled, late accretionary infall seeded them with complex organic compounds [Oró, J. (1961) Nature (London) 190, 389-390; Delsemme, A. H. (1984) Origins Life 14, 51-60; Anders, E. (1989) Nature (London) 342, 255-257; Chyba, C. F. & Sagan, C.(1992) Nature (London) 355,125-131]. Delivery of such extraterrestrial compounds may have contributed to the organic inventory necessary for the origin of life. Interstellar ices, the building blocks of comets, tie up a large fraction of the biogenic elements available in molecular clouds. In our efforts to understand their synthesis, chemical composition, and physical properties, we report here that a complex mixture of molecules is produced by UV photolysis of realistic, interstellar ice analogs, and that some of the components have properties relevant to the origin of life, including the ability to self-assemble into vesicular structures.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- January 2001
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.98.3.815
- Bibcode:
- 2001PNAS...98..815D
- Keywords:
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- Special Feature