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Originally published in Science Express on 23 August 2001
Science 21 September 2001:
Vol. 293. no. 5538, pp. 2236 - 2239
DOI: 10.1126/science.1062614
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Reports

The Organic Content of the Tagish Lake Meteorite

Sandra Pizzarello,1 Yongsong Huang,2 Luann Becker,3 Robert J. Poreda,4 Ronald A. Nieman,1 George Cooper,5 Michael Williams1

The Tagish Lake meteorite fell last year on a frozen lake in Canada and may provide the most pristine material of its kind. Analyses have now shown this carbonaceous chondrite to contain a suite of soluble organic compounds (~100 parts per million) that includes mono- and dicarboxylic acids, dicarboximides, pyridine carboxylic acids, a sulfonic acid, and both aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. The insoluble carbon exhibits exclusive aromatic character, deuterium enrichment, and fullerenes containing "planetary" helium and argon. The findings provide insight into an outcome of early solar chemical evolution that differs from any seen so far in meteorites.

1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
2 Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
3 Institute of Crustal Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
4 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
5 NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035, USA.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Phil Trans R Soc B 361, 1689-1702
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