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A left-handed Solar System?

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  • Christopher F. Chyba

    (University of Arizona)

Abstract

Why is life left-handed? Protein amino acids on Earth are almost entirely L-enantiomers, rather than right-handed D-enantiomers. When an excess of L-amino acids was discovered on the Murchison meteorite, it seemed that our chemical bias might have had an extraterrestrial origin; but then questions were raised about contamination of the samples. Now the extraterrestrial nature of this excess has been confirmed, re-igniting speculation that an astrophysical process of some sort decided our chemical handedness.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher F. Chyba, 1997. "A left-handed Solar System?," Nature, Nature, vol. 389(6648), pages 234-235, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:389:y:1997:i:6648:d:10.1038_38392
    DOI: 10.1038/38392
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