[meteorite-list] RMC professor studies space rock

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Nov 22 10:30:29 2005
Message-ID: <khe6o19t2n1sghtq4e1tebon9hhqgp9842_at_4ax.com>

Interesting article that should add argument to the debate going on about abogenic oil.

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/11/22/build/local/45-rmc-spacec.inc

RMC professor studies space rock
By MARY PICKETT
Of The Gazette Staff

A Rocky Mountain College professor has added important new information about a meteorite that fell
to Earth 36 years ago.

That information may help scientists learn more about how the solar system began.

Jingdong Mao, assistant professor of chemistry, is studying a piece of the Murchison Meteorite that
hit Earth in Australia in 1969.

The meteorite is considered one of the most important extraterrestrial rocks because it was
retrieved soon after it fell, minimizing contamination from earthly substances. It also it came to
Earth two months after NASA put men on the moon, and labs working on moon rocks were ready to
analyze the meteorite.

Over the past three decades, the meteorite's soluble organic matter - which can be dissolved in
water, acid or alkaline solution or organic solvents - has been analyzed.

Its insoluable organic matter has not been studied as much because there haven't been good research
techniques to do so.

Not, at least, until Mao developed them.

Using those techniques, Mao confirmed earlier findings that the Murchison contains three major
insoluble organic compounds: a kerogenlike material, microscopic diamonds and graphite.

Kerogen found on Earth is a solid bituminous material in some shales that yields petroleum when
heated.

Mao's research went one step further to correct previously stated proportions of the materials in
the meteorite. He found that about 70 percent of the insoluble matter was kerogenlike matter, about
20 percent tiny diamonds and about 10 percent graphite.

The appearance of the piece of meteorite that Mao worked on - less than a half-ounce in weight and
slightly bigger than a dime - belied its importance.

"It's like a little rock that you'd find by the side of the road," Mao said.

He extracted the insoluble organic matter by placing the meteorite in hydrofluoric acid that
dissolved away soluble matter, leaving a black powder that looked like coal dust.

Because of the complexity of his research, Mao used a specialized nuclear magnetic resonance
spectrometer at Iowa State University as well as an NMR spectrometer at Rocky Mountain College. The
spectrometer, which Rocky obtained last year, is a powerful magnet that looks at the atomic
composition of substances.

The spectrometers produced data that Mao has been analyzing for the past year.

Mao, the author of 30 scientific papers, is writing up his research about the Murchison Meteorite
for publication in a scientific journal next summer.

In addition to his research, Mao teaches a soil science class at Rocky.

Meteorites that come to Earth are the easiest way of getting nonearthly material to study, he said.
The other way is to send a spaceship beyond Earth to pick it up.

By looking at the molecular structure of meteorites, scientists hope to learn how the solar system
was formed and what Earth was like before life began.

Polishing off his research on the Murchison is not the end of Mao's study of meteorites.

"This is just the starting point," he said, adding that he'd like to work on kerogenlike materials
in meteorites for years to come.

Mao is applying for a National Science Foundation grant to continue research on other meteorites
using some of the groundbreaking techniques he used on the Murchison. If he gets the grant, he could
hire at least three Rocky students to work on the research with him. Those skills would help them
should they go on to graduate school.

The Montana Space Grant Consortium has supported his research.


Contact Mary Pickett at marypickett_at_billingsgazette.com or 657-1262.
Received on Tue 22 Nov 2005 10:35:18 AM PST