With experience in school administration, Greg Gerkens is a New York professional who has taught biology and earth science at the high school level. Knowledgeable about physical sciences, Greg Gerkens maintains an interest in minerals.
In April 2019, an asteroid about the size of a small refrigerator broke up as it passed through the earth’s atmosphere and fragmented into more than a dozen meteorites that landed across a six-kilometer away from central Costa Rica. Known as Aguas Zarcas, the fragments are composed of carbonaceous chondrite and represent a “pristine remnant” from the early Solar System, predating the Sun’s creation.
Instead of the usual inorganic metal and rock found in the vase majority of meteorites, these unique fragments are rich in organic carbon-based molecules that have the complexity of the amino acids that served as building blocks for proteins and life on earth. The complex chemical reactions that enabled these molecular formations occurred in space, with some scientists believing that a similar asteroid may have crashed into a lifeless Earth 4.5 billion years ago and begun a process that created life.
Aguas Zarcas is not the first carbonaceous chondrite meteorite collection, with Murchison in 1969 crashing into rural Australia. Studies over the past 50 years have identified more than 100 amino acids, from those that are common on Earth’s life forms to those that are rare or otherwise nonexistent in known life. In addition, Murchison fragments contained nucleobases, which are the building blocks of RNA and other genetic molecules.
With researchers expecting similar insights to emerge from Aguas Zarcas, this represents an important development in the field of astrobiology. While extraterrestrial-origin life has not yet been observed, the components are all in place.
In April 2019, an asteroid about the size of a small refrigerator broke up as it passed through the earth’s atmosphere and fragmented into more than a dozen meteorites that landed across a six-kilometer away from central Costa Rica. Known as Aguas Zarcas, the fragments are composed of carbonaceous chondrite and represent a “pristine remnant” from the early Solar System, predating the Sun’s creation.
Instead of the usual inorganic metal and rock found in the vase majority of meteorites, these unique fragments are rich in organic carbon-based molecules that have the complexity of the amino acids that served as building blocks for proteins and life on earth. The complex chemical reactions that enabled these molecular formations occurred in space, with some scientists believing that a similar asteroid may have crashed into a lifeless Earth 4.5 billion years ago and begun a process that created life.
Aguas Zarcas is not the first carbonaceous chondrite meteorite collection, with Murchison in 1969 crashing into rural Australia. Studies over the past 50 years have identified more than 100 amino acids, from those that are common on Earth’s life forms to those that are rare or otherwise nonexistent in known life. In addition, Murchison fragments contained nucleobases, which are the building blocks of RNA and other genetic molecules.
With researchers expecting similar insights to emerge from Aguas Zarcas, this represents an important development in the field of astrobiology. While extraterrestrial-origin life has not yet been observed, the components are all in place.
