Yasuhiro Oba
Commendation
Organic astrochemical evolution in interstellar environment and the solar system
A list of five major papers
- Oba, Y., Takano, Y., Furukawa, Y., Koga, T., Glavin, D.P., Dworkin, J.P. and Naraoka, H. (2022)Identifying the wide diversity of extraterrestrial purine and pyrimidine nucleobases in carbonaceous meteorites. Nature Communications, 13, Article number: 2008. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29612-x.
- Oba, Y., Takano, Y., Naraoka, H., Furukawa, Y., Glavin, D.P., Dworkin, J.P. and Tachibana, S.(2020) Extraterrestrial hexamethylenetetramine in meteorites ? – A precursor of prebiotic chemistry in the inner solar system. Nature Communications, 11, Article number: 6243. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20038-x.
- Oba, Y., Takano, Y., Naraoka, H., Watanabe, N. and Kouchi, A. (2019) Nucleobase synthesis in interstellar ices. Nature Communications, 10, Article number: 4413. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12404-1.
- Oba, Y., Tomaru, T., Lamberts, T., Kouchi, A. and Watanabe, N. (2018) An infrared measurement of chemical desorption from interstellar ice analogues. Nature Astronomy, 2, 228-232. doi:10.1038/s41550-018-0380-9.
- Oba, Y., Watanabe, N., Osamura, Y. and Kouchi, A. (2015) Chiral glycine formation on cold interstellar grains by quantum tunneling hydrogen–deuterium substitution reactions. ChemicalPhysics Letters, 634, 53-59. doi: 10.1016/j.cplett.2015.05.070.
Major achievements
Dr. Yasuhiro Oba has made remarkable achievements using his own low-temperature experimental apparatus.
Regarding the evolution of water and organic molecules on the surface of extremely cold interstellar dusts, he studied the elementary processes toward the formation of these molecules and on the chemical desorption from icy dust at low temperatures.
He developed a highly original technique for analyzing tiny amounts of organic matter in carbonaceous meteorites, and was the first to find a molecule called hexamethylenetetramine, which can be a precursor of amino acids and sugars, from primitive meteorites.
In addition, he also found the nucleobases of DNA and RNA from primitive meteorites, and his achievements have been highly acclaimed both in domestic and international scientific communities.
He found the presence of uracil, one of the nucleobases that makes up RNA, from the asteroid Ryugu.
This is the first discovery of RNA-constituting molecules on a C-type asteroid, and the research will also be applied to Bennu samples, which are scheduled to return to Earth September 2023.
The above results demonstrate the importance of extraterrestrial substances to the major scientific question of how life first emerged on the primitive Earth.
Dr. Yasuhiro Oba is a worthy recipient of the Nishida Prize.
Nominator
Yoshinori Takano
Supporters
Hiroshi Naraoka, Shogo Tachibana