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Hare, P. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Hare, P. E..

9 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1981

Organic analysis of the Antarctic carbonaceous chondrites

Thus far, organic analysis of carbonaceous chondrites has proven the only fruitful means of examining complex organic matter of extraterrestrial origin. The present paper presents the results of organic analysis of two Antarctic meteorites, Allan Hills (77306) and Yamato (74662), which may be considered free from terrestrial contamination. Ion-exchange chromatography, gas chromatography and mass spectrometery of meteorite samples reveal the presence in Yamato of 15 and in Allan Hills of 20 protein and nonprotein amino acids, the most abundant of which are glycine and alanine. Abundances of the D and L enantiomers of each amino acid are also found to be nearly equal. Data thus indicate an abiotic extraterrestrial origin for the matter, and confirm a lack of terrestrial contamination.

Kotra, R. K.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Amino acids in a carbonaceous chondrite from Antarctica

A carbonaceous chondrite from the Antarctic, referred to as the Allan Hills meteorite 77306, appears to be free from terrestrial organic contamination. The presence of both protein and non-protein amino acids and an equal abundance of D- and L-enantiomers of amino acids, is testimony to the extraterrestrial nature of these compounds.

Kotra, R. K.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Amino acid precursors in lunar fines - Limits to the contribution of jet exhaust

A sample of lunar fines collected at a maximum distance, 6.5 km, from the descent engine on Apollo 17 has been analyzed for total amino acids obtainable by hydrolysis of aqueous extracts. The minimum amounts of amino acids, calculated for a disk of 6 km radius are 10,000 to 100,000 times those which could be contributed by the lunar module jet exhaust, on the basis of conservatively limiting assumptions. The amino acids thus obtained are not explainable as due to chemical or biological contamination; their source is accordingly inferred as lunar. Under the conditions of hydrolysis of lunar extracts, cyanide is found to be converted, almost exclusively to glycine, to an extent of 0.0001.

Fox, S. W.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Accumulated analyses of amino acid precursors in returned lunar samples

Six amino acids (glycine, alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, serine, and threonine) obtained by hydrolysis of extracts have been quantitatively determined in ten collections of fines from five Apollo missions. Although the amounts found, 7-45 ng/g, are small, the lunar amino acid/carbon ratios are comparable to those of the carbonaceous chondrites, Murchison and Murray, as analyzed by the same procedures. Since both the ratios of amino acid to carbon, and the four or five most common types of proteinous amino acid found, are comparable for the two extraterrestrial sources despite different cosmophysical histories of the moon and meteorites, common cosmochemical processes are suggested.

Fox, S. W.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Amino acid precursors in lunar samples.

The use of hot water to extract lunar samples, followed by the hydrolysis of the aqueous extract, appears to be the method of choice for identification and quantitation of amino acid precursors in extraterrestrial sources. The net inferences from the analyses to date are (1) that amino acid precursors are verifiably present in lunar dust, and (2) that they are quite certainly not the consequence of contamination by terrestrial organisms, including man. It is suggested that prebiotic evolutionary pathways such as have been traversed on the earth were terminated on the moon for lack of sufficient water. Although some or all of the amino acid precursors may be indigenous, the low level observed suggests that they may also result from onfall of organic compounds from interstellar matter, comets, tails, solar wind, or meteorites.

Fox, S. W.↗