meteors fell in Australia and they smelled like rotting meat.

[Cainkane1]

I was watching the science channel and the program concerned meteors falling to earth. There was apparently a meteor shower in Australia and the meteors were found to have amino acids to the extent that they actually smelled like decaying meat. Could those meteors actually have been harboring life? Could they have been alive themselves?

[rjh01]

I live in australia and never heard of meteors crashing that smelt like decaying meat.

Would have thought most of any acids would have evaporated on the way down. But I could be wrong. Could not find anything in a search of the internet.


Also found this http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/08/07/1186252680988.html
Deteriorated DNA from microbes, frozen for millions of years in the Antarctic ice, shows that organisms could not have survived the bombardment of cosmic radiation during deep space travel from outside the solar system, said Paul Falkowski, a Rutgers biologist and oceanographer.
"It's almost an impossibility for comets to seed other planets with life after they've been in space for millions of years," Falkowski said.

[jasonpatterson]

Lots of meteors have been examined in very fine detail, and none have shown anything we'd describe as life. I don't know about what has been done with these in particular, but amino acids are fairly easy to form from water, ammonia, methane, ultraviolet light, and time, entirely separate from biological systems. Could they? Sure, but it is terribly unlikely.

[jasonpatterson]

Would have thought most of any acids would have evaporated on the way down. But I could be wrong. Could not find anything in a search of the internet.


I can't remember where I learned it, but it turns out that most of the meteorite isn't unduly cooked by falling through the atmosphere. The outer layers are vaporized, but the process happens fast enough that the inside isn't damaged overly much. Of course, the giant meteorites are obliterated, but smaller rocks just fall.

[Cainkane1]

I might try to find this on youtube.

[Roboramma]

I was watching the science channel and the program concerned meteors falling to earth. There was apparently a meteor shower in Australia and the meteors were found to have amino acids to the extent that they actually smelled like decaying meat. Could those meteors actually have been harboring life? Could they have been alive themselves?

You misspelled "meateors".

[scottmsg]

The show was referring to the Murchison meteorite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murchison_meteorite).

Astrobiology Magazine (http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/375/murchisons-amino-acids-tainted-evidence) also has an article about the meteorite.

[casebro]

What if meteorite landed in some rotting meat? Like it hit a 'roo when it landed?

[rjh01]

Be a very unlucky roo. Mind you it probably DID kill smaller things like insects.

[Cainkane1]

The show was referring to the Murchison meteorite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murchison_meteorite).

Astrobiology Magazine (http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/375/murchisons-amino-acids-tainted-evidence) also has an article about the meteorite.
Thanks for finding this for me.

[Cainkane1]

You misspelled "meateors".
Meat e or?