Inspired by Dr. Jennifer Blank’s ground-breaking work (Blank & al. 2001), this experiment should employ cylindrical protoplanetary particle analogues (CPPPAs or C3PAs) mimicking the ice-mantled grains that would've existed on the snowline of the protoplanetary Solar disk, with each C3PA consisting of a clayey, silicate-heavy grain slug topped with an H2O-rich ice layer, to test whether high-velocity impacts between protoplanetary grains could’ve generated other kinds of molecular bonds, such as hydrogen bonds and phosphodiester bonds, and thus yield other complex organic molecules or perhaps even macromolecules.
Calcium-Aluminum-rich or Ca-Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) in carbonaceous chondrites such as the Murchison meteorite.
Perovskite
Calcium-Aluminum-rich or Ca-Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) in carbonaceous chondrites such as the Murchison meteorite.
Uracil
Murchison meteorite
Part II.a-2.
Ice Layer Composition
Ice Layer Composition
Compound
Source
Cytosine
Experiments with astrophysical ice analogues.
Dihydrogen monoxide
Purine
Pyrimidine
Ribose
Experiments with astrophysical ice analogues.
Thymine
Experiments with astrophysical ice analogues.
Part II.b.
Atmosphere
Part III
Methods
Part IV
Projected Results
Just as Jennifer Blank’s experiments input amino acids and output peptides, it may be possible with the inclusion of the nucleobases to produce peptide nucleic acid (PNA), or with the inclusion of phosphates and ribose to produce phosphorylated ribose, or perhaps even phosphodiester bonds and short RNA chains (possibly even taking the form of “messy” RNA).
