One-Pot Hydrogen Cyanide-Based Prebiotic Synthesis of Canonical Nucleobases and Glycine Initiated by High-Velocity Impacts on Early Earth

Ferus, Martin; Rimmer, Paul B.; Cassone, Giuseppe; Knížek, Antonín; Civiš, Svatopluk; Šponer, Judit E.; Ivanek, Ondřej; Šponer, Jiřı́; Saeidfirozeh, Homa; Kubelík, Petr; Dudžák, R.; Petera, Lukáš; Juha, L.; Pastorek, Adam; Křivková, Anna; Krůs, M.

doi:10.1089/ast.2020.2231

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…Nucleobases are also known to be a product of processes related to impact events [24,26]. Ferus et al [27][28][29][30] recently reported the synthesis of nucleobases and amino acids starting from formaldehyde, mimicking high-velocity asteroidal impact using a high-intensity laser. Di-and tri-peptides are also synthesized by simulating impacts into icy bodies starting from the amino acid [31,32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Signatures of Bio-Molecular Complexity in the Hypervelocity Impact Ejecta of Icy Moon Analogues

Surendra

Dilip

Meka

et al. 2022

Life

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Impact delivery of prebiotic compounds to the early Earth from an impacting comet is considered to be one of the possible ways by which prebiotic molecules arrived on the Earth. Given the ubiquity of impact features observed on all planetary bodies, bolide impacts may be a common source of organics on other planetary bodies both in our own and other solar systems. Biomolecules such as amino acids have been detected on comets and are known to be synthesized due to impact-induced shock processing. Here we report the results of a set of hypervelocity impact experiments where we shocked icy mixtures of amino acids mimicking the icy surface of planetary bodies with high-speed projectiles using a two-stage light gas gun and analyzed the ejecta material after impact. Electron microscopic observations of the ejecta have shown the presence of macroscale structures with long polypeptide chains revealed from LCMS analysis. These results suggest a pathway in which impact on cometary ices containing building blocks of life can lead to the synthesis of material architectures that could have played a role in the emergence of life on the Earth and which may be applied to other planetary bodies as well.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Signatures of Bio-Molecular Complexity in the Hypervelocity Impact Ejecta of Icy Moon Analogues

Surendra

Dilip

Meka

et al. 2022

Life

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“…Since then, many experiments have been performed to understand the role of impact-shock chemistry using various experimental design to simulate various impact environments. As a result of these investigations, many biomolecules such as amino acids, nucleobases and fatty acids were known to be synthesized by impact-generated shock and related processes (Bar-Nun et al, 1970;Ferus et al, 2019;Ferus et al, 2020;Martins et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since then, many experiments have been performed to understand impact-shock chemistry using various experimental designs to simulate various impact environments. As a result of these investigations, many biomolecules, such as amino acids and nucleobases were known to be synthesized by impact-generated shock and related processes (Bar-Nun et al, 1970; Ferus et al, 2019; Ferus et al, 2020; Martins et al, 2013). Molecular dynamics simulations have also shown that complex chemistry can occur as a result of impact induced shock processes (Goldman et al, 2010; Goldman & Tamblyn, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-dimensional complex architectures observed in shock processed amino acid mixtures

et al. 2022

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Asteroid and cometary impacts have been considered one of the possible routes for exogenous delivery of organics to the early Earth. It is well established that amino acids can be synthesized due to impact-driven shock processes of simple molecules and that amino acids can survive the extreme conditions of impact events. In the present study, we simulate impact-induced shock conditions utilizing a shock tube that can maintain a reflected shock temperature of about 5500 K for 2 ms time scale. We have performed shock processing of various combinations of amino acids with subsequent morphological and structural analysis carried out using SEM, revealing that the shock processed amino acids demonstrate an extensive range of complex structures. These results provide evidence for the further evolution of amino acids in impact-induced shock environments leading towards the formation of complex structures and thus providing a pathway for the origin of life.

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“…In particular young planets, comparable to the Hadean Earth and Pre-Noachian Mars, are sensitively affected by both the delivery during primary accretion, and potential secondary volatile delivery from scattering and dynamical transfer of left-over planetesimals, after the primary accretion phase has ceased (Raymond et al 2020). Late volatile delivery can shift the atmospheric composition during transient epochs in the direction of the impactor composition: volatile-rich, metal-poor impactors oxidize Hadean-like atmospheres, volatile-poor, iron-rich impactors reduce the atmosphere; the latter is regarded Corresponding author: Tim Lichtenberg tim.lichtenberg@physics.ox.ac.uk a favorable environment for subaerial prebiotic chemistry (Benner et al 2019;Zahnle et al 2020;Ferus et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

System-level fractionation of carbon from disk and planetesimal processing

Lichtenberg,

Krijt

2021

Preprint

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Finding and characterizing extrasolar Earth analogs will rely on interpretation of the planetary system's environmental context. The total budget and fractionation between C-H-O species sensitively affect the climatic and geodynamic state of terrestrial worlds, but their main delivery channels are poorly constrained. We connect numerical models of volatile chemistry and pebble coagulation in the circumstellar disk with the internal compositional evolution of planetesimals during the primary accretion phase. Our simulations demonstrate that disk chemistry and degassing from planetesimals operate on comparable timescales and can fractionate the relative abundances of major water and carbon carriers by orders of magnitude. As a result, individual planetary systems with significant planetesimal processing display increased correlation in the volatile budget of planetary building blocks relative to no internal heating. Planetesimal processing in a subset of systems increases the variance of volatile contents across planetary systems. Our simulations thus suggest that exoplanetary atmospheric compositions may provide constraints on when a specific planet formed.

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One-Pot Hydrogen Cyanide-Based Prebiotic Synthesis of Canonical Nucleobases and Glycine Initiated by High-Velocity Impacts on Early Earth

Cited by 29 publications

References 99 publications

New Signatures of Bio-Molecular Complexity in the Hypervelocity Impact Ejecta of Icy Moon Analogues

New Signatures of Bio-Molecular Complexity in the Hypervelocity Impact Ejecta of Icy Moon Analogues

Three-dimensional complex architectures observed in shock processed amino acid mixtures

System-level fractionation of carbon from disk and planetesimal processing

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