by EDMONTONA meteorite stored at the University of Alberta may contain important clues about how life began on Earth. NASA researchers say the Tagish Lake meteorite has been found to contain organic compounds that formed in the distant reaches of space as the solar system was being born. The findings were revealed in a paper published by the researchers in the journal Science. The scientists say compounds such as those found in the meteorite may have been responsible for seeding the earth with the building blocks of life. While such compounds have been found in space debris before, scientists thought they had been picked up after the meteorite entered the atmosphere. But powerful nanotechnology instruments at the Johnson Space Center in Texas helped prove the compounds in the Tagish Lake material had formed in space. The meteorite is particularly important because it was collected almost immediately after it fell on the Yukon in January 2000 and has been preserved in its frozen state in Edmonton ever since.
Canadian Press