The scientists hydrothermally treated pieces of the meteorite and then identified the compounds discharged by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

According to a news release from Arizona State University, a significant finding has been made having to do with the possible stock of molecules accessible to the early Earth. Scientists discovered that the Sutter’s Mill meteorite, which burst into a spectacular fireball over California in 2012, holds organic molecules not previously detected in any meteorites.

These results imply a much greater availability of alien organic molecules than previously believed possible, a stock that could actually have played a significant role in molecular development and life itself.

Interestingly, Sutter’s Mill is also the gold discovery site that resulted in the 1849 California Gold Rush. Identification of the falling meteor by Doppler weather radar gave scientists the ability to quickly recover the meteorite before it could be exposed to the elements for an extended period of time. According to scientists, a quick recovery offered the cleanest look yet at the surface of a primitive asteroids.

“The analyses of meteorites never cease to surprise you and make you wonder,” says Sandra Pizzarello, a research professor at Arizona State University. “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.”

The scientists hydrothermally treated pieces of the meteorite and then identified the compounds discharged by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The hydrothermal settings of the experiments, which also mirror early Earth conditions, discharged an intricate combination of oxygen-rich compounds, the likely result of oxidative processes that took place in the parent body. According to Pizzarello and her colleagues, they involve a number of long chain linear and branched polyethers, whose quantity is very perplexing.

This addition to the stock of organic compounds generated in alien conditions advances the discussion of whether their dispatch to the early Earth by comets and meteorites might have helped the molecular development that predated the origins of life.

The findings are described in greater detail in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.