Production of Organic Precursors via Meteoritic Impacts and Its Implications for Prebiotic Inventory of Early Planetary Surfaces.

IF 2.6 3区 物理与天体物理 Q2 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Astrobiology Pub Date : 2025-01-01 DOI:10.1089/ast.2023.0031
Benjamin Farcy, Ziqin Ni, Ricardo Arevalo, Michael Eller, Veronica T Pinnick, Emile A Schweikert, William B Brinckerhoff
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Meteoritic impacts on planetary surfaces deliver a significant amount of energy that can produce prebiotic organic compounds such as cyanides, which may be a key step to the formation of biomolecules. To study the chemical processes of impact-induced organic synthesis, we simulated the physicochemical processes of hypervelocity impacts (HVI) in experiments with both high-speed 13C60+ projectiles and laser ablation. In the first approach, a 13C60+ beam was accelerated to collide with ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) to reproduce the shock process and plume generation of meteoritic impacts on nitrogen-rich planetary surfaces. In a complementary investigation, a high-power laser was focused on a mixture of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and either ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) or sodium nitrate (NaNO3) to induce atomization and enable the study of molecular recombination in the postimpact plume. Additionally, isotopically spiked starting material, namely, Ca13CO3, 15NH4Cl, Na15NO3, and 15NH415NO3, was also employed to disambiguate the source of prebiotic molecule production in the resulting recombination plume. Both experiments independently demonstrated the formation of CN- ions as recombination products, with characteristic mass peak shifts corresponding to the isotopic labeling of the starting material. Yield curves generated from the laser experiments using varying ratios of calcite and NH4Cl or NaNO3 indicate that nitrate enables more efficient production of CN- than ammonium. Thermodynamic software modeling of the laser ablation plume confirmed and further elucidated the experimental yield results, producing good agreement of modeled CN- yield with observed yield curves. These models indicate that the reduction of atomic N from incomplete NH4- atomization during the ablation pulse may have contributed to the lower CN- yield from the ammonia source relative to the nitrate source. The results of these experiments demonstrated that CN-, and by proxy, hydrogen cyanide, and other organic precursor molecules could have formed from carbonate deposits, a previously under-appreciated source of organic carbon for impact-induced organic synthesis. These results have implications for the formation of life during meteoritic bombardment on early Earth as well as for other carbonate-bearing planetary bodies such as Mars and Ceres.

陨石撞击产生的有机前体及其对早期行星表面益生元库存的影响。
陨石对行星表面的撞击带来了大量的能量,可以产生像氰化物这样的益生元有机化合物,这可能是形成生物分子的关键一步。为了研究冲击诱导有机合成的化学过程,在高速13C60+弹丸和激光烧蚀实验中模拟了超高速撞击(HVI)的物理化学过程。在第一种方法中,13C60+束被加速与硝酸铵(NH4NO3)碰撞,以重现陨石撞击富氮行星表面时的激波过程和羽流生成。在一项补充研究中,高功率激光聚焦在碳酸钙(CaCO3)和氯化铵(NH4Cl)或硝酸钠(NaNO3)的混合物上,以诱导原子化,并研究撞击后羽流中的分子重组。此外,同位素加标的起始物质,即Ca13CO3、15NH4Cl、Na15NO3和15NH415NO3,也被用来澄清重组羽流中益生元分子产生的来源。两个实验都独立地证明了CN-离子作为重组产物的形成,其特征质量峰移与起始物质的同位素标记相对应。用不同比例方解石和NH4Cl或NaNO3的激光实验生成的产率曲线表明,硝酸盐比铵能更有效地生成CN-。激光烧蚀羽流的热力学软件模拟证实并进一步阐明了实验产率结果,模拟的CN产率与观测到的产率曲线吻合较好。这些模型表明,在烧蚀脉冲期间,由于NH4-不完全雾化,原子N的减少可能是氨源相对于硝酸盐源的CN-产率较低的原因。这些实验的结果表明,CN-及其替代物氰化氢和其他有机前体分子可能是由碳酸盐沉积物形成的,碳酸盐沉积物是一种以前未被重视的撞击诱导有机合成的有机碳来源。这些结果对早期地球上陨石轰击期间生命的形成以及其他含碳酸盐的行星体(如火星和谷神星)具有启示意义。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Astrobiology
Astrobiology 生物-地球科学综合
CiteScore
7.70
自引率
11.90%
发文量
100
审稿时长
3 months
期刊介绍: Astrobiology is the most-cited peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the understanding of life''s origin, evolution, and distribution in the universe, with a focus on new findings and discoveries from interplanetary exploration and laboratory research. Astrobiology coverage includes: Astrophysics; Astropaleontology; Astroplanets; Bioastronomy; Cosmochemistry; Ecogenomics; Exobiology; Extremophiles; Geomicrobiology; Gravitational biology; Life detection technology; Meteoritics; Planetary geoscience; Planetary protection; Prebiotic chemistry; Space exploration technology; Terraforming
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