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Self-Assembling Amphiphilic Molecules: A Possible Relationship Between Interstellar Chemistry and Meteoritic OrganicsInterstellar gas and dust comprise the primary material from which the solar system formed. Evidence that some of this material was organic in nature and survived incorporation into the protosolar nebula is provided by the presence of deuterium-enriched organics in meteorites and interplanetary dust particles. Once the inner planets had sufficiently cooled, late accretionary infall of meteoroids and cosmic dust must have seeded them with some of these complex organic compounds. 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 ultraviolet (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.
Document ID
20010050108
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Sandford, Scott A.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Dworkin, Jason P.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Deamer, David W.
(California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA United States)
Allamandola, Louis J.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
DeVincenzi, Donald
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2001
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Funding Number(s)
PROJECT: RTOP 344-37-44-01
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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