NASA says amino acids in lunar soil samples are from Earth

PanARMENIAN.Net - The mystery of where amino acids found in lunar soil samples from the Apollo missions has stumped scientists for decades. They certainly didn't come from the moon, which is completely inhospitable to life. But with help from the Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory, NASA researchers have finally tracked down the source of the contamination, Engadget reports.

"People knew amino acids were in the lunar samples, but they didn't know where they came from," Jamie Elsila of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. "The scientists in the 1970s knew the right questions to ask and they tried pretty hard to answer them, but they were limited by the analytical capabilities of the time. We have the technology now, and we've determined that most of the amino acids came from terrestrial contamination, with perhaps a small contribution from meteorite impacts."

Figuring that out, however, was not nearly as cut and dry as it sounds. NASA initially identified four potential sources for the contamination: the astronauts themselves; the lunar module's exhaust fumes, which contain organic compounds; solar winds that could have deposited elemental precursors like carbon and nitrogen onto the moon's surface; or meteorites which could have delivered the molecules from a far-flung corner of the galaxy.

NASA researchers hope to use this as a teaching moment and apply what they've learned to future surveys.