Murray meteorite

On 20 September 1950 at approximately 1:35 a.m. local time, near Jasper County, Illinois, a red-orange fireball was seen travelling south. About five seconds later, the fireball exploded with a 'blinding flash' at a height of over 45 km above western Kentucky. The sound of the explosion was heard over a thousand-square-mile area. A shower of fragments fell to Earth in Calloway County, Kentucky near Wildcat Creak, Kentucky Lake 9 miles east of Murray. A search was made on 22 October 1950 by a party from Vanderbilt University but only a few small pieces were found, other pieces were found by local farmers.

The Murray meteorite is an CM2 carbonaceous chondrite with 58.8 matrix and 0.96% insoluble organic matter.{{cite journal |last1=Alexander |first1=C.M.O'D. |last2=Fogel |first2=M. |last3=Yabuta |first3=H. |last4=Cody |first4=G.D. |title=The origin and evolution of chondrites recorded in the elemental and isotopic compositions of their macromolecular organic matter |journal=Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta |date=2007 |volume=71 |issue=17 |pages=4380–4403 |doi=10.1016/j.gca.2007.06.052 |bibcode=2007GeCoA..71.4380A |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001670370700395X |access-date=19 March 2025|url-access=subscription }} Silicon carbide grains found in the Murray meteorite had anomalous isotope ratios of silicon, carbon and nitrogen. This suggests that the grains formed before our Solar System existed, possibly in the atmospheres of red giant stars.{{cite journal |last1=Bernatowicz |first1=Thomas |last2=Fraundorf |first2=Gail |last3=Tang |first3=Ming |last4=Anders |first4=Edward |last5=Wopenka |first5=Brigitte |last6=Zinner |first6=Ernst |last7=Fraundorf |first7=Phil |title=Evidence for interstellar SiC in the Murray carbonaceous meteorite |journal=Nature |date=1987 |volume=330 |issue=6150 |pages=728–730 |doi=10.1038/330728a0 |bibcode=1987Natur.330..728B |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/330728a0 |access-date=3 April 2025|url-access=subscription }}

17 amino acids were found in the Murray meteorite in 1971. Only six of these amino acids were proteinogenic amino acids.{{cite journal |last1=Lawless |first1=James G. |last2=Kvenvolden |first2=Keith A. |last3=Peterson |first3=Etta |last4=Ponnaperuma |first4=Cyril |last5=Moore |first5=Carleton |title=Amino Acids Indigenous to the Murray Meteorite |journal=Science |date=1971 |volume=173 |issue=3997 |pages=626–627 |doi=10.1126/science.173.3997.626 |pmid=17833108 |bibcode=1971Sci...173..626L |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.173.3997.626|url-access=subscription }} By 2001, the list of organic materials identified in the meteorite was extended to include polyols.{{cite web |last1=Savage |first1=Donald |last2=Burton |first2=Kathleen |title=NASA Scientist Finds Some Meteorites Not Sugar-Free |url=https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/nasa-scientist-finds-some-meteorites-not-sugar-free/ |website=NASA |date=19 December 2001 |access-date=4 April 2025}}{{cite journal |title=Carbonaceous meteorites as a source of sugar-related organic compounds for the early Earth |last1=Cooper |first1=George |last2=Kimmich |first2=Novelle |last3=Belisle |first3=Warren |last4=Sarinana |first4=Josh |last5=Brabham |first5=Katrina |last6=Garrel |first6=Laurence |journal=Nature |volume=414 |pages=879–883 |date=20 December 2001 |doi=10.1038/414879a |pmid=11780054 |issue=6866 |bibcode=2001Natur.414..879C |s2cid=199294 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1233202 |access-date=2 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116010831/https://zenodo.org/record/1233202 |archive-date=16 January 2020 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }} In 2020 NASA announced that hexamethylenetetramine had been found in the Murchison, Murray and Tagish Lake meteorites.{{cite web |last1=Steigerwald |first1=William |title=Key Building Block for Organic Molecules Discovered in Meteorites |url=https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/key-building-block-for-organic-molecules-discovered-in-meteorites/ |website=NASA |date=18 December 2020 |access-date=31 March 2025}}{{cite journal |last1=Oba |first1=Yasuhiro |last2=Takano |first2=Yoshinori |last3=Naraoka |first3=Hiroshi |last4=Furukawa |first4=Yoshihiro |last5=Glavin |first5=Daniel P. |last6=Dworkin |first6=Jason P. |last7=Tachibana |first7=Shogo |title=Extraterrestrial hexamethylenetetramine in meteorites—a precursor of prebiotic chemistry in the inner solar system |journal=Nature Communications |date=2020 |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=6243 |doi=10.1038/s41467-020-20038-x |pmid=33288754 |pmc=7721876 |bibcode=2020NatCo..11.6243O }} Purine and pyrimidine nucleobases have been detected in parts-per-billion in a 2022 study of the Murchison, Murray and Tagish Lake meteorites. nicotinic acid (626ppb), isonicotinic acid (307ppb), 1-Methyl-1H-imidazole-5-carboxylic acid (a thymine isomer, 100ppb) and 4-Imidazole carboxylic acid (a uracil isomer, 99ppb) were the most abundant N-heterocycles found in the Murray sample.{{Cite news |date=2022-04-27 |title=Australian meteorite one of three with key building blocks for life's 'prebiotic soup' |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-27/australian-meteorite-one-of-three-with-key-dna-building-blocks/101018500 |access-date=2022-04-27}}{{cite journal |last1=Oba |first1=Yasuhiro |last2=Takano |first2=Yoshinori |last3=Furukawa |first3=Yoshihiro |last4=Koga |first4=Toshiki |last5=Glavin |first5=Daniel P. |last6=Dworkin |first6=Jason P. |last7=Naraoka |first7=Hiroshi |title=Identifying the wide diversity of extraterrestrial purine and pyrimidine nucleobases in carbonaceous meteorites |journal=Nature Communications |date=2022 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=2008 |doi=10.1038/s41467-022-29612-x |pmid=35473908 |pmc=9042847 |bibcode=2022NatCo..13.2008O }}

• [https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/fq=%7B!type%3Daqp%20v%3D%24fq_database%7D&fq_database=(database%3Aastronomy%20OR%20database%3Aphysics)&q=abs%3A(%22Murray%20meteorite%22)&sort=date%20desc%2C%20bibcode%20desc&p_=0 Murray meteorite] at the Astrophysics Data System

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Category:Meteorite falls

Category:Meteorite minerals