Project Description: Organic nanoglobules are tiny, spherical structures rich in carbon - typically just a few nanometers to micrometers in diameter - found in certain carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. These globules contain prebiotic organic molecules that may have acted as essential ingredients delivered to the early Earth, potentially seeding the planet with the building blocks of life. Previous studies of carbonaceous chondrites and samples returned from carbonaceous asteroids by the JAXA Hayabusa2 and NASA OSIRIS-REx missions have revealed that nanoglobules fluoresce under UV light and exhibit a wide variety of structures, often linked to aqueous alteration products. The project aims to enhance our understanding of the distribution and variations in the fluorescence of nanoglobules, as well as how these might relate to their compositions/structures in samples from a newly discovered CI meteorite that closely resembles Bennu samples.
NASA Relevance: This project contributes to further understanding the origins of prebiotic organics and how they might have contributed to the origin of life on Earth and possibly other planets.
Work Description: The intern will learn and get hands-on experience on optical, UV fluorescence and electron microscopes. They will then use these microscopes to study samples of a newly discovered CI meteorite that most closely resembles samples from asteroid Bennu returned by the NASA OSIRIS-REx mission. The intern will then compare their data with observations of nanoglobules in Bennu samples.
Open or Reserved Project: Open, 2 positions