Prebiotic Molecules from Comet Impact

Nir Goldman, of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and his colleagues modeled the shock compression and subsequent expansion of a typical comet mixture of water, methanol, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide molecules to see what could happen if a comet were to impact a planet's surface. For shock compressions lasting about 20 picoseconds at temperatures up to 4,000 K and pressures about 60 gigapascals, the researchers observed formation of chains of carbon and nitrogen atoms, some parts of which were akin to chains of amino acids. The results show that a comet colliding with a planet could produce prebiotic chemicals from common interstellar building blocks regardless of the planetary environment.