Direct evidence of complex prebiotic chemistry from a water-rich world in the outer solar system is provided by the 4.5-billion-year-old halite crystals hosted in the Zag and Monahans (1998) meteorites. This study offers the first comprehensive organic analysis of the soluble and insoluble organic compounds found in the millimeter-sized halite crystals containing brine inclusions and sheds light on the nature and activity of aqueous fluids on a primitive parent body. Associated with these trapped brines are organic compounds exhibiting wide chemical variations representing organic precursors, intermediates, and reaction products that make up life's precursor molecules such as amino acids. The organic compounds also contain a mixture of C-, O-, and N-bearing macromolecular carbon materials exhibiting a wide range of structural order, as well as aromatic, ketone, imine, and/or imidazole compounds. The enrichment in ¹⁵N is comparable to the organic matter in pristine Renazzo-type carbonaceous chondrites, which reflects the sources of interstellar ¹⁵N, such as ammonia and amino acids. The amino acid content of the Zag halite deviates from the meteorite matrix, supporting an exogenic origin of the halite, and therefore, the Zag meteorite contains organics synthesized on two distinct parent bodies. Our study suggests that the asteroidal parent body where the halite precipitated, potentially asteroid 1 Ceres, shows evidence for a complex combination of biologically and prebiologically relevant molecules.

中文翻译：

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地外含水盐晶体中的有机物。

Zag and Monahans（1998）陨石中存在的45亿年前的盐岩晶体提供了外部太阳系中水源丰富的世界中复杂的益生元化学的直接证据。这项研究对包含盐水夹杂物的毫米大小的盐岩晶体中发现的可溶性和不溶性有机化合物进行了首次综合有机分析，并阐明了原始母体上水性流体的性质和活性。与这些被捕集的盐水相关的是有机化合物，它们表现出广泛的化学变化，代表构成生命前体分子的有机前体，中间体和反应产物，例如氨基酸。有机化合物还包含具有广泛结构顺序的C，O和N的大分子碳材料的混合物，以及芳族，酮，亚胺和/或咪唑化合物。丰富¹⁵ N可与原始Renazzo型碳质球粒陨石中的有机物相比，后者反映了星际¹⁵ N的来源，例如氨和氨基酸。Zag陨石的氨基酸含量偏离陨石基质，支持了halite的外源起源，因此Zag陨石包含在两个不同的母体上合成的有机物。我们的研究表明，盐酸盐沉淀的小行星母体（可能是1 Ceres小行星）显示出生物学和生物学上相关分子的复杂组合的证据。