Signatures of abiotic organic matter and its processing: Implications for the detection of biosignatures

非生物有机物的特征及其加工：对生物特征检测的影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06456
• 负责人: Slater, Gregory
• 金额: $ 5.46万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=754862
• 关键词: Signatures; abiotic; organic; matter; its

Understanding how life originated on Earth and whether it may have arisen elsewhere in the Universe are the most fundamental questions we can ask, but they are also the most daunting. Nonetheless, progress is being made that is increasing our understanding of how we might answer them. Central to these questions is the ability to identify signatures of life, "biosignatures", and to differentiate them from signatures of abiotic processes, "abiosignatures". Biosignatures of life include recognizable organic molecules, isotopic ratios and mineral compositions, and patterns therein that can be unambiguously attributed to life. These biosignatures must be differentiated from patterns in these same parameters that existed prior to the advent of life, when only abiotic processes were operating. This understanding is all the more necessary as we continue to expand our interest in searching for evidence of life beyond the Earth. We need to interpret new observations including the detection of organic molecules on Mars by the Curiosity rover, the results of the ongoing Hyabusa 2 and OSIRIS Rex missions to asteroids, the planned Mars 2020 and ExoMars missions to Mars that include proposed sample return, and the proposed explorations of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. This research proposal will continue my research program that seeks to further our understanding of biosignatures and abiosignatures with a much stronger emphasis on abiosignatures. It will further develop newly established collaborations with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) that brings an organic geochemistry perspective to their ongoing work characterizing and investigating meteorites. This will include analysis of the ROMs samples of the uniquely pristine and carbon rich Tagish Lake meteorite as well as analysis of meteorites from North West Africa which have yet to be characterized. The samples will be selected to provide insights into the amounts and signatures of organic matter that was delivered to the prebiotic Earth and thus supported the advent of life. Complimentary to the meteorite analyses, this research program will continue my investigation of microbial communities in the Earth's subsurface. It will seek to assess the extent to which we can identify biosignatures of microbial communities in the presence of abiosignatures of organic compounds produced via water-rock interaction. Finally, the stability of both biosignatures and abiosignatures will also be addressed via experimental studies of organic compound stability in the planetary simulators at McMaster and York Universities. These facilities allow the impact of changes in temperature, humidity, UV flux and atmospheric composition on the preservation, or potentially on the production, of organic compounds to be assessed. This research program will increase our ability to recognize abiosignatures and biosignatures and concurrently provide insight into the organic compounds that supported the advent of life.

了解生命是如何起源于地球上的，以及宇宙中其他地方是否可能出现它是我们可以问的最根本的问题，但它们也是最艰巨的问题。但是，正在取得进步，这正在增加我们对如何回答它们的理解。这些问题的核心是能够识别生命的签名，“生物签名”，并将其与非生物过程的签名（“ Abiosignatures””区分开。生命的生物签名包括可识别的有机分子，同位素比和矿物质成分以及可能明确归因于生命的模式。这些生物签名必须与在生命出现之前存在的相同参数中的模式区分开，当时只有非生物过程正在运行。随着我们继续扩大对寻找地球以外的生命证据的兴趣，这种理解更加必要。我们需要解释新的观察结果，包括好奇心流动站对火星上有机分子的检测，正在进行的Hyabusa 2和Osiris Rex任务对小行星的结果，计划中的MARS 2020以及向MARS的外事物任务，其中包括拟议的样本返回以及拟议的Saturn and Jupiter和Jupiter和Jupiter和Jupiter和Jupiter和Juper and Jupiter和Jupiter和Juper and Jupiter和Jupiter的探索。这项研究建议将继续我的研究计划，该计划旨在进一步了解生物签名和对象，并更加强调对象签名。它将进一步与安大略省皇家博物馆（ROM）建立新建立的合作，该合作将有机地球化学的观点带到了他们正在进行的工作，以表征和调查陨石。这将包括对独特原始和富含碳含碳的tagish湖陨石的ROM样品的分析，以及对尚未表征的西北非洲的陨石的分析。将选择样品以提供有关传递给益生元地球的有机物数量和签名的见解，从而支持生命的出现。对陨石分析的补充，该研究计划将继续我对地球地下微生物群落的调查。它将试图评估我们可以在通过水摇滚相互作用产生的有机化合物的定期化的情况下确定微生物群落的生物签名的程度。最后，也将通过对麦克马斯特和约克大学行星模拟器中有机复合稳定性的实验研究来解决生物签名和化学的稳定性。这些设施允许评估温度，湿度，紫外线和大气成分的变化对保存的影响，或可能在生产中的有机化合物的影响。该研究计划将提高我们识别假设和生物签名的能力，并同时洞悉支持生命出现的有机化合物。