title: Simulations of Prebiotic Chemistry under Post-Impact Conditions on Titan.
abstract: The problem of how life began can be considered as a matter of basic chemistry. How did the molecules of life arise from non-biological chemistry? Stanley Miller's famous experiment in 1953, in which he produced amino acids under simulated early Earth conditions, was a huge leap forward in our understanding of this problem. Our research first simulated early Earth conditions based on Miller's experiment and we then repeated the experiment using Titan post-impact conditions. We simulated conditions that could have existed on Titan after an asteroid strike. Specifically, we simulated conditions after a potential strike in the subpolar regions of Titan that exhibit vast methane-ethane lakes. If the asteroid or comet was of sufficient size, it would also puncture the icy crust and bring up some of the subsurface liquid ammonia-water mixture. Since, O'Brian, Lorenz and Lunine showed that a liquid water-ammonia body could exist between about 102-104 years on Titan after an asteroid impact we modified our experimental conditions to include an ammonia-water mixture in the reaction medium. Here we report on the resulting amino acids found using the Titan post-impact conditions in a classical Miller experimental reaction set-up and how they differ from the simulated early Earth conditions.
authors.affiliation: School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. carol@turse.org.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Turse
authors.affiliation: Research Platform on ExoLife, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstraße 17, Vienna 1180, Austria. johannes.leitner@univie.ac.at.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leitner
authors.affiliation: Research Platform on ExoLife, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstraße 17, Vienna 1180, Austria. maria.firneis@univie.ac.at.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Firneis
authors.affiliation: School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. dirksm@wsu.edu.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schulze-Makuch