Bailey J, Chrysostomou A, Hough J H, Gledhill T M, McCall A, Clark S, Ménard F, Tamura M
Anglo-Australian Observatory, Epping, New South Wales, Australia.
Science. 1998 Jul 31;281(5377):672-4.
Strong infrared circular polarization resulting from dust scattering in reflection nebulae in the Orion OMC-1 star-formation region has been observed. Circular polarization at shorter wavelengths might have been important in inducing chiral asymmetry in interstellar organic molecules that could be subsequently delivered to the early Earth by comets, interplanetary dust particles, or meteors. This could account for the excess of L-amino acids found in the Murchison meteorite and could explain the origin of the homochirality of biological molecules.
在猎户座OMC-1恒星形成区域的反射星云尘埃散射中，已观测到强烈的红外圆偏振现象。较短波长的圆偏振可能在诱导星际有机分子的手性不对称方面发挥了重要作用，这些分子随后可能通过彗星、行星际尘埃颗粒或流星被输送到早期地球。这可以解释在默奇森陨石中发现的L-氨基酸过量现象，并能解释生物分子同手性的起源。
