From the vast expanses of interstellar space to the tiny world of atoms: Researchers use advanced microscopes to reveal chemical and molecular traces of the early solar system inside a newly discovered meteorite »Vinccombe“.

Meteorites are the building blocks of the solar system and provide important information about the components that make up planets, including our own. Research conducted in collaboration with institutions including the University of Leeds has done just that.

A rare group of meteorites called “carbonaceous meteorites” are rich in chemicals such as carbon and nitrogen and likely played a crucial role in transporting water and organic molecules to the early Earth.

Vinccombe It is a carbonaceous meteorite whose fall was widely seen in the UK in February 2021, with the first samples collected just 12 hours after landing. Thus, it gives scientists the opportunity to study the composition of organic matter in the early solar system without the serious effects of terrestrial changes that often compromise the study of meteorites.

Nanoscale analysis and discovery

A multidisciplinary research team consisting of scientists from the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and York, in collaboration with colleagues from the Natural History Museum in London, the Diamond Light Source and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, and led by the University of Münster in Germany. performed the first in-depth analysis of organic matter in the Winchcombe meteorite at the nanoscale.

Using one of the world’s most powerful electron microscopes at the SuperSTEM facility in Darsbury, they were able to clearly correlate synchrotron radiation data with additional ultra-high-resolution spectroscopic information about the nature of functional chemical groups present in organic matter. . ,Cheshire.

This enabled in situ detection of nitrogen-containing bio-relevant molecules, including amino acids and nucleotide bases, which are essential components of larger complex proteins used in biology. The study shows that Winchcombe still contains intact extraterrestrial organic molecules, which may have been surprisingly crucial to the emergence of life on early Earth. The findings were published in a journal Nature Communication.

Quentin Ramasse, Professor of Advanced Electron Microscopy at the Leeds School of Chemical and Technology Engineering, who leads the electron microscopy team at SuperSTEM, said: “This work demonstrates the latest advances in electron microscopy, including high-resolution monochrome electron sources and new, highly sensitive detector designs allow extraterrestrial organic matter to be analyzed with unprecedented resolution and efficiency.

“This opens new avenues to investigate these materials in the future using a compact and readily available electron microscope device in addition to synchrotron radiation.”

Best Practices and Future Implications

Senior researcher Christian Vollmer from the University of Münster, who led the research, said: “The identification of bio-relevant molecules such as amino acids and nucleobases at Winchcombe without the use of any chemical extraction methods is extremely exciting, especially since we can highlight the spatial distribution of their local concentrations at the nanoscale.” changes.

“This shows that our approach allows us to map functional chemistry in meteorites, even though the sizes of organic domains are extremely small and the number of chemical compounds is very small.”

The researchers used the SuperSTEM laboratory, the UK’s National Research Facility for Advanced Electron Microscopy, supported by the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC). The facility hosts some of the world’s most advanced facilities for studying the atomic structure of matter and is supported by an academic consortium led by the University of Leeds (which also includes the universities of Manchester and York, as well as the universities of Oxford, which are also involved in the project). , Glasgow and Liverpool).

Targeting an area of ​​interest rich in carbonaceous chemicals, an extremely thin slice of the meteorite can be extracted very precisely for further studies under an X-ray beam (in the Diamond Light Source) or in an electron microscope (in SuperSTEM).

Dr. is a research assistant at the Natural History Museum, which hosts the Winchcombe meteorite. Ashley King said: “Our observations show that Winchcombe is an important addition to the collection of carbonaceous meteorites and its pristine composition offers new breakthroughs in our understanding of meteorites.” Organic molecules of the early Solar System.”