Abstract
CONFLICTING claims have arisen concerning the significance of the discovery of a small laevo-rotation in the saponified material of a carbonaceous chondrite1–6. The discovery has been questioned on two grounds—that the optical activity may be caused by terrestrial contamination and that the reported optical activity is an instrumental artefact caused by the high optical density and by the presence of colloidal particles in the extract of the meteorite. Unless the second objection, is resolved, it is doubtful whether projected tests for optical activity on extra-terrestrial bodies can have much significance.
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ROUY, A., CARROLL, B. Limitations of the Spectropolarimeter in reference to Optical Activity in Meteorites. Nature 212, 1458–1459 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2121458a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2121458a0
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