ESA Mission ROSETTA Will Probe for Chirality of Cometary Amino Acids

New crucial theoretical investigations on the origin of biomolecular chirality are reviewed briefly. With the goal to investigate these theories our team is going to perform the `chirality-experiment' in the near future with cometarymatter. In 2012 the robotical lander RoLand will detach fromthe orbiter of the ROSETTA spacecraft and set down on the surface of comet 46P/Wirtanen in order to separate andidentify cometary organic compounds via GC-MS in situ.Chiral organics will be separated into their enantiomers by application of 3 capillary columns coated with different kindsof stationary phases. Non-volatile compounds like amino acidswill be derivatized in especially developed gas phasealkylation steps avoiding reactions in the liquid phase. Theresults of these preliminary gas phase reactions are presentedin this article.

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