title: Molecular chirality in meteorites and interstellar ices, and the chirality experiment on board the ESA cometary Rosetta mission.
abstract: Life, as it is known to us, uses exclusively L-amino acid and D-sugar enantiomers for the molecular architecture of proteins and nucleic acids. This Minireview explores current models of the original symmetry-breaking influence that led to the exogenic delivery to Earth of prebiotic molecules with a slight enantiomeric excess. We provide a short overview of enantiomeric enhancements detected in bodies of extraterrestrial origin, such as meteorites, and interstellar ices simulated in the laboratory. Data are interpreted from different points of view, namely, photochirogenesis, parity violation in the weak nuclear interaction, and enantioenrichment through phase transitions. Photochemically induced enantiomeric imbalances are discussed more specifically in the topical context of the "chirality module" on board the cometary Rosetta spacecraft of the ESA. This device will perform the first enantioselective in situ analyses of samples taken from a cometary nucleus.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Chimie de Nice ICN, UMR CNRS 7272, Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Faculté des Sciences, Parc Valrose, 06108, Nice (France) http://www.unice.fr/meierhenrich/
authors.forename: Iuliia
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Myrgorodska
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meinert
authors.forename: Zita
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Le Sergeant d'Hendecourt
authors.forename: Uwe J
authors.initials: UJ
authors.lastname: Meierhenrich
keywords: Rosetta mission; chirality; circularly polarized light; mirror-symmetry breaking; origin of life