Carbon chemistry of the Apollo lunar samples

On the search for the amino acids on the lunar surface as it relates to other extraterrestrial bodies

“…As in the case of the interpretations of the results for the lunar amino acids, hypotheses were abundant. Rho suggested that absorptions observed by Hodgson's group were due to the light scattering anomalies due to grating defects in the spectrofluorometer 17 . Hodgson pointed out that this was not valid since no positive results were obtained with the blank samples 30 which served as negative controls.…”

“…The results by two groups, headed by Rho and Hodgson, differed. Rho has consistently reported negative results 17 . As in the case of the interpretations of the results for the lunar amino acids, hypotheses were abundant.…”

“…The renewed interest in the further exploration of the Moon 28 has been fueled by the recent discovery by Saul et al 29 of ancient water trapped within the interiors of tiny spheres ( Fig. 1.a) of primitive lunar volcanic glass found in the "orange soil" ( Our interest in the re-examination of the presence of the amino acids on the lunar surface will hopefully draw attention to the early reports of search for other organic compounds on the Moon, namely porphyrins 17,[30][31][32][33] , some of which were positive 17, 30 ,31 .…”