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

该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。它的目标是描述这一过程，并了解它们对利用这些陨石进行后续研究的影响。这些影响目前还没有得到很好的限制，但对许多陨石研究领域，特别是那些关于生命起源的研究领域至关重要。将对1977年ANSMET野外季节的三颗陨石进行取样和检查，以确定其微生物数量以及代谢活动的类型和水平。这些陨石还将被检查是否受到石油产品、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。获得的信息最终将用于构建更全面的南极陨石污染研究。T瓦格纳

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