New research describes amino acids found in water-bearing salt crystals from the Zag meteorite, discovered in Morocco. The study marks the first investigation of the amino acid contents found in halite from a meteorite sample. The study, “Amino Acids in the Asteroidal Water-Bearing Salt Crystals Hosted in the Zag Meteorite,” was presented at the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held March 21-25, 2016, at The Woodlands, Texas.

The work was supported in part by the Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology element of the NASA Astrobiology Program, NASA’s Early Career Program, the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Johnson Space Center, and the NASA Cosmochemistry Program.