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Circular Polarisation in Star Forming Regions: The Origin of Homochirality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2017

P. W. Lucas ,
J. H. Hough ,
A. C. Chrysostomou  and
J. A. Bailey
P. W. Lucas
Affiliation:
Dept of Physical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
J. H. Hough
Affiliation:
Dept of Physical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
A. C. Chrysostomou
Affiliation:
Dept of Physical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
J. A. Bailey
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, Post Office Box 296, Epping, New South Wales 121, Australia

Abstract

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The origin of homochirality is one of the longest-standing puzzles in understanding the origins of life. In the laboratory, illumination by circularly polarised UV radiation (asymmetric photolysis) is an effective means of producing an enantiomeric excess in an otherwise racemic mix of chiral molecules. In the natural world, however, it has proven difficult to identify a suitable source of Circularly Polarised Light (CPL). Recent observations of L-excesses of 2–9% for a number of α-methyl amino acids in the Murchison meteorite and our discovery of large degrees of CPL in some star forming regions has added weight to the suggestion that the origin of homochirality is extra-terrestrial. Here we report initial modelling of the production of that CPL.

Type
Astrochemistry
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 213: Bioastronomy 2002: Life Among the stars , 2004 , pp. 145 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

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