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Vitamin
B3 might have been made in space, delivered to Earth by meteorites
Vitamin
B3 might have been made in space, delivered to Earth by meteorites
Date:
April 17,
2014
Source:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Summary:
Ancient Earth might have had an extraterrestrial
supply of vitamin B3 delivered by carbon-rich meteorites, according to a new
analysis. The result supports a theory that the origin of life may have been
assisted by a supply of key molecules created in space and brought to Earth by
comet and meteor impacts.
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Ancient Earth might have had an extraterrestrial supply of
vitamin B3 delivered by carbon-rich meteorites, according to a new
analysis by NASA-funded researchers. The result supports a theory that the
origin of life may have been assisted by a supply of key molecules created in
space and brought to Earth by comet and meteor impacts.
"It is
always difficult to put a value on the connection between meteorites and the
origin of life; for example, earlier work has shown that vitamin B3 could
have been produced non-biologically on ancient Earth, but it's possible that an
added source of vitamin B3 could have been helpful," said Karen
Smith of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa. "Vitamin B3,
also called nicotinic acid or niacin, is a precursor to NAD (nicotinamide
adenine dinucleotide), which is essential to metabolism and likely very ancient
in origin." Smith is lead author of a paper on this research, along with
co-authors from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., now
available online in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
This is not
the first time vitamin B3 has been found in meteorites. In 2001 a
team led by Sandra Pizzarello of Arizona State University, in Tempe discovered
it along with related molecules called pyridine carboxylic acids in the Tagish Lake
meteorite.
In the new
work at Goddard's Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory, Smith and her team
analyzed samples from eight different carbon-rich meteorites, called "CM-2
type carbonaceous chondrites" and found vitamin B3 at levels
ranging from about 30 to 600 parts-per-billion. They also found other pyridine
carboxylic acids at similar concentrations and, for the first time, found
pyridine dicarboxylic acids.
"We
discovered a pattern -- less vitamin B3 (and other pyridine
carboxylic acids) was found in meteorites that came from asteroids that were
more altered by liquid water. One possibility may be that these molecules were
destroyed during the prolonged contact with liquid water," said Smith.
"We also performed preliminary laboratory experiments simulating
conditions in interstellar space and showed that the synthesis of vitamin B3
and other pyridine carboxylic acids might be possible on ice grains."
Scientists
think the solar system formed when a dense cloud of gas, dust, and ice grains
collapsed under its own gravity. Clumps of dust and ice aggregated into comets
and asteroids, some of which collided together to form moon-sized objects or
planetesimals, and some of those eventually merged to become planets.
Space is
filled with radiation from nearby stars as well as from violent events in deep
space like exploding stars and black holes devouring matter. This radiation
could have powered chemical reactions in the cloud (nebula) that formed the
solar system, and some of those reactions may have produced biologically
important molecules like vitamin B3.
Asteroids
and comets are considered more or less pristine remnants from our solar
system's formation, and many meteorites are prized samples from asteroids that
happen to be conveniently delivered to Earth. However, some asteroids are less
pristine than others. Asteroids can be altered shortly after they form by
chemical reactions in liquid water. As they grow, asteroids incorporate
radioactive material present in the solar system nebula. If enough radioactive
material accumulates in an asteroid, the heat produced as it decays will be
sufficient to melt ice inside the asteroid. Researchers can determine how much
an asteroid was altered by water by examining chemical and mineralogical
signatures of water alteration in meteorites from those asteroids.
When
asteroids collide with meteoroids or other asteroids, pieces break off and some
of them eventually make their way to Earth as meteorites. Although meteorites
are valued samples from asteroids, they are rarely recovered immediately after
they fall to Earth. This leaves them vulnerable to contamination from
terrestrial chemistry and life.
The team
doubts the vitamin B3 and other molecules found in their meteorites
came from terrestrial life for two reasons. First, the vitamin B3
was found along with its structural isomers -- related molecules that have the
same chemical formula but whose atoms are attached in a different order. These
other molecules aren't used by life. Non-biological chemistry tends to produce
a wide variety of molecules -- basically everything permitted by the materials
and conditions present -- but life makes only the molecules it needs. If
contamination from terrestrial life was the source of the vitamin B3
in the meteorites, then only the vitamin should have been found, not the other,
related molecules.
Second, the
amount of vitamin B3 found was related to how much the parent
asteroids had been altered by water. This correlation with conditions on the
asteroids would be unlikely if the vitamin came from contamination on Earth.
The team
plans to conduct additional interstellar chemistry experiments under more
realistic conditions to better understand how vitamin B3 can form on
ice grains in space. "We used pyridine-carbon dioxide ice in the initial
experiment," said Smith. "We want to add water ice (the dominant
component of interstellar ices) and start from simpler organic precursors
(building-block molecules) of vitamin B3 to help verify our
result."
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. The original
article was written by Bill Steigerwald. Note: Materials may be edited for
content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Karen E. Smith, Michael P. Callahan, Perry A. Gerakines, Jason P. Dworkin, Christopher H. House. Investigation of Pyridine Carboxylic Acids in CM2 Carbonaceous Chondrites: Potential Precursor Molecules for Ancient Coenzymes. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2014; DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2014.04.001
Cite This
Page:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
"Vitamin B3 might have been made in space, delivered to Earth by
meteorites." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 April 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140417191742.htm>.