We bring you the news that a cooperative Japanese-US team of scientists has found an important building block for organic molecules in meteorites.

The article is published in Nature Communications with lead author Yasuhiro Oba, and the work details the presence of hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) in three different carbon-rich meteorites. (And unlike the last time I had to say a long chemical name on stream, I did this one to myself.)

Of course, what is found in meteorites means it’s also likely found in asteroids, and we consider these meteorites to potentially be at least part of the origin of life here on Earth. Per the press release: If some asteroids were warm enough and had liquid water, HMT could have broken down to provide building blocks that in turn reacted to make other important biological molecules which have been found in meteorites, including amino acids. Some types of amino acids are used by life to make proteins, which are used to build structures like hair and nails, or to speed up and regulate chemical reactions.

The press release goes on to explain: Experimental models have shown that a combination of water, ammonia and methanol, when subjected to photochemical and thermal conditions common in extraterrestrial environments, give rise to a number of organic compounds, the most common of which is HMT. Interstellar ice is rich in methanol. Hypothetically, HMT should be common in water-containing extraterrestrial materials, but, until this study, it had not been detected.

However, it should be noted, again, from the press release: While they were unable to make definitive conclusions in this study, the discovery of HMT and its derivatives in these meteorites will lead to future experiments to understand the origin and chemical formation processes of amino acids and other prebiotic compounds in extraterrestrial environments.

This discovery is really cool. That’s my professional take on it. Really. Cool. We continue to get closer and closer to understanding where life came from, and in doing so, we gather more information on what to look for elsewhere in the galaxy. Some day, we will find we are not alone.

More Information

University of Hokkaido press release 

“Extraterrestrial hexamethylenetetramine in meteorites—a precursor of prebiotic chemistry in the inner solar system,” Yasuhiro Oba et al., 2020 Dec 7, Nature Communications.