Erster Fund des Meteoritenminerals Allabogdanit am Toten Meer – wie kommt es da hin?
9. Juli 2021
Das eingerahmte Körnchen dieser Gesteinsprobe enthält das seltene Mineral Allabogdanit - es ist der erste Fund in einem irdischen Gestein. © Mineralogical Society of America
Mysteriöser Ursprung: Forscher haben das seltene Meteoritenmineral Allabogdanit am Toten Meer entdeckt – es ist der erste Nachweis dieses Minerals in irdischem Gestein. Das Merkwürdige daran: Dieses Mineral entsteht nur bei einem Druck von mindestens 25 Gigapascal. Dieser kommt auf der Erde aber nur bei großen Meteoriteneinschlägen oder 500 Kilometer tief im Erdmantel vor – beides passt für den Fundort nicht. Wie das Allabogdanit vom Toten Meer entstand, ist daher rätselhaft.
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Credit: Britvin et al / Geology, 2020
Phosphorus is an element essential for life. It is fundamental to all living organisms, and is a key component of RNA, DNA, and cell membranes. Phosphorus compounds must have been involved in the emergence of primordial life. Importantly though, these compounds were water soluble and reactive so that they could participate in various chemical processes. Only in this case could phosphorus be involved in phosphorylation, which enables the synthesis of complex molecules. However, phosphorus in nature is only found as a phosphate ion in fairly inert minerals of the phosphate class. Hence, phosphate minerals are unlikely to have been a source for the prebiotic synthesis of phosphorus-containing compounds - the precursors of the first living organisms. For scientists, it remains a mystery which phosphorus compounds contributed to the appearance of the building blocks of RNA and DNA molecules.