HOMOCHIRALITY AS THE SIGNATURE OF LIFE - THE SETH CIGAR

A characteristic hallmark of life is its homochirality: all biomolecul es are usually of one hand, e.g. on Earth life uses only L-amino acids for protein synthesis and not their D mirror images. It is therefore suggested that a search for extra-terrestrial life can be approached a s a Search for Extra-Terrestrial Homochirality (SETH). A novel miniatu rized space polarimeter, called the SETH Cigar, is described which cou ld be used to detect optical rotation as the homochiral signature of l ife on other planets. Moving parts are avoided by replacing the normal rotating polarizer by multiple fixed polarizers at different angles a s in the eye of the bee. It is believed that homochirality will be fou nd in the subsurface layers on Mars as a relic of extinct life. Copyri ght (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd