Publication:
Constraints for Use of Ultraviolet Spectropolarimetry to Detect Chiral Amino Acids from Comets

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dc.contributor.authorGómez de Castro, Ana Inés
dc.contributor.authorIsidro Gómez, Ana I. de
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-17T09:14:22Z
dc.date.available2023-06-17T09:14:22Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractLife is pervasive on planet Earth, but whether life is ubiquitous in the Galaxy and sustainable over timescales comparable to stellar evolution is unknown. Evidence suggests that life first appeared on Earth more than 3.77 Gyr ago, during a period of heavy meteoric bombardment. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, have been demonstrated to exist in interstellar ice. As such, the contribution of space-generated amino acids to those existing on Earth should be considered. However, detection of space amino acids is challenging. In this study, we used analytical data from several meteorites and in situ measurements of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko collected by the Rosetta probe to evaluate the detectability of alanine by ultraviolet spectropolarimetry. Alanine is the second-most abundant amino acid after glycine and is optically active. This chirality produces a unique signature that enables reliable identification of this amino acid using the imprint of optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) and circular dichroism (CD) in the ultraviolet spectrum (130–230 nm). Here, we show that the ORD signature could be detected in comets by using ultraviolet spectropolarimetric observations conducted at middle size space observatories. These observations can also provide crucial information for the study of sources of enantiomeric imbalance on Earth.
dc.description.departmentUnidad Deptal. de Astronomía y Geodesia
dc.description.facultyFac. de Ciencias Matemáticas
dc.description.refereedTRUE
dc.description.sponsorshipMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
dc.description.statuspub
dc.eprint.idhttps://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/67936
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dc.identifier.doi10.1089/ast.2020.2310
dc.identifier.issn1531-1074
dc.identifier.officialurlhttps://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2020.2310
dc.identifier.relatedurlhttps://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/ast.2020.2310
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/8454
dc.issue.number6
dc.journal.titleAstrobiology
dc.language.isoeng
dc.page.final728
dc.page.initial718
dc.publisherMary Ann Liebert
dc.relation.projectIDESP2017-87813-R
dc.rightsAtribución-NoComercial 3.0 España
dc.rights.accessRightsopen access
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es/
dc.subject.cdu52
dc.subject.cdu573.5
dc.subject.keywordAstrobiology
dc.subject.keywordChirality
dc.subject.keywordComets
dc.subject.keywordRemote sensing
dc.subject.keywordUltraviolet spectroscopy
dc.subject.ucmAstronomía (Física)
dc.subject.ucmGeodesia
dc.subject.ucmQuímica analítica (Química)
dc.subject.unesco2504 Geodesia
dc.subject.unesco2301 Química Analítica
dc.titleConstraints for Use of Ultraviolet Spectropolarimetry to Detect Chiral Amino Acids from Comets
dc.typejournal article
dc.volume.number21
dspace.entity.typePublication
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