AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
Generation of Abiotic Molecular Complexity at Aerosol Air-Water Interfaces
VERONICA VAIDA, Rebecca Rapf, University of Colorado Boulder
Abstract Number: 559 Working Group: Extraterrestrial Aerosols: from Mars to Titan and Beyond
Abstract In the search for other habitable worlds, it is important to understand the key characteristics of habitable environments and the chemical mechanisms involved in the generation of biomolecules that are signatures of life. Sunlight-driven reactions of organic molecules contribute to the atmospheric processing of organic compounds, including the generation of molecular complexity via aqueous chemistry. In addition to bulk processes, the interfacial and heterogeneous chemistry that occurs at environmental water surfaces is a key source of atmospherically-relevant processing. Such favorable interfaces would be widely available on any cosmic body with liquid water, because aqueous atmospheric aerosols are formed by wind action on a liquid ocean. Any planet with a tilted axis of rotation, an atmosphere, and a liquid ocean will generate atmospheric aerosols. The interfaces provided by such aerosols are auspicious reaction environments, including for both photochemical and condensation reactions, leading to the synthesis of more complex molecules. This presentation discusses results of our laboratory experiments modeling the use of sunlight to generate abiotically the chemical complexity needed for the synthesis of biopolymers necessary for life. Specifically, the reactivity of high-energy molecules that are precursors to metabolism as it has evolved in life on Earth will be discussed. The photochemical synthesis and reactivity of complex organic systems under conditions representative of early Earth will be presented and connections will be made to the possibility of such reactions occurring on Earth-analogue exoplanets.