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Comet dust as a source of amino acids at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundaryIt is suggested here that the large amounts of apparently extraterrestrial amino acids detected recently in rocks at the K/T boundary at Stevns Klint, Denmark were actually deposited with the dust from a giant comet trapped in the inner solar system, a fragment of which comprised the K/T impactor. Amino acids or their precursors in the comet dust would have been swept up by the earth both before and after the impact, but any conveyed by the impactor itself would have been destroyed. The observed amino acid layers would thus have been deposited without an impact.
Document ID
19910029599
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Zahnle, Kevin
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Grinspoon, David
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 14, 2013
Publication Date
November 8, 1990
Publication Information
Publication: Nature
Volume: 348
ISSN: 0028-0836
Subject Category
Space Biology
Accession Number
91A14222
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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