Scientists have discovered a range of new organic molecules in a meteorite which have never been seen before.

The discovery adds dramatically to the possible inventory of organic matter whizzing around in space, waiting to come into contact with the appropriate conditions for starting life – as likely happened here on Earth.

A team from the Arizona State University conducted a molecular survey of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite, which exploded in a blazing fireball over California last year. Their findings have been published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, titled “Processing of meteoritic organic materials as a possible analog of early molecular evolution in planetary environments.” 

Sandra Pizzarello, a research professor and co-author of the study says: “The analyses of meteorites never cease to surprise you ... and make you wonder. This is a meteorite whose organics had been found altered by heat and of little appeal for bio- or prebiotic chemistry, yet the very Solar System processes that lead to its alteration seem also to have brought about novel and complex molecules of definite prebiotic interest such as polyethers.”

Adding to the inventory of organic compounds produced in extraterrestrial environments furthers the idea that their delivery to the Earth by comets and meteorites might have stimulated the molecular evolution that preceded the origins of life.