Preliminary Study on Curated Antarctic Meteorites for the Antarctic Meteorite Contamination Study (AMCS)

这一SGER奖支持对南极陨石在长期储存过程中的污染和变化的研究。它的目标是描述这些过程，并了解它们对使用这些陨石进行后续研究的影响。目前，这些效应受到的限制很少，但对许多陨石研究领域，特别是关于生命起源的领域来说，是至关重要的。1977年ANSMET野外季节的三块陨石将被取样并检查其微生物种群以及代谢活动的类型和水平。陨石还将接受石油产品、塑料、增塑剂和其他直接影响其无机和有机碳成分的化合物的人为污染检查。所获得的信息最终将被用于制定一项更全面的南极陨石污染研究。

This SGER award supports studies of contamination and alteration of Antarctic meteorites during long-term storage. It's goal is to both characterize the processes and understand their effects on subsequent research using these meteorites. These effects are poorly constrained at present, but are critical to a number of meteorite research areas, especially those regarding the origin of life. Three meteorites from the 1977 ANSMET field season will be sampled and examined for their microbial populations, as well as the type and level of metabolic activity. The meteorites will also be examined for anthropogenic contamination by petroleum products, plastics, plasticizers, and other compounds that directly affect their inorganic and organic carbon componet. The information gained will ultimately be used to frame a more comprehensive Antarctic meteorite contamination study.T Wagner