Steele, A, Benning, LG orcid.org/0000-0001-9972-5578, Wirth, R et al. (12 more authors) (2018) Organic synthesis on Mars by electrochemical reduction of CO₂. Science Advances, 4 (10). eaat5118. ISSN 2375-2548
Abstract
The sources and nature of organic carbon on Mars have been a subject of intense research. Steele et al. (2012) showed that 10 martian meteorites contain macromolecular carbon phases contained within pyroxene- and olivine-hosted melt inclusions. Here, we show that martian meteorites Tissint, Nakhla, and NWA 1950 have an inventory of organic carbon species associated with fluid-mineral reactions that are remarkably consistent with those detected by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. We advance the hypothesis that interactions among spinel-group minerals, sulfides, and a brine enable the electrochemical reduction of aqueous CO₂ to organic molecules. Although documented here in martian samples, a similar process likely occurs wherever igneous rocks containing spinel-group minerals and/or sulfides encounter brines.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Earth Surface Science Institute (ESSI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 23 Nov 2018 10:24 |
Last Modified: | 08 Jul 2019 12:44 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Identification Number: | 10.1126/sciadv.aat5118 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:139052 |