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Organic matter in interplanetary dust particles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2008

G. J. Flynn ,
L. P. Keller ,
S. Wirick  and
C. Jacobsen
G. J. Flynn
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, SUNY-Plattsburgh, 101 Broad St, Plattsburgh NY 12901USA email: flynngj@plattsburgh.edu
L. P. Keller
Affiliation:
NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA Rt. 1, Houston TX, 77058USA
S. Wirick
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, SUNY- Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY 11794
C. Jacobsen
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, SUNY- Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY 11794
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Abstract

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Anhydrous interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), which are the most mineralogically primitive extraterrestrial materials available for laboratory analysis, contain several percent organic matter. The high O:C and N:C ratios suggest the organic matter in the anhydrous IDPs is significantly less altered by thermal processing than the organic matter in meteorites. X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure (XANES) spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy demonstrate the presence of C=C, most likely as C-rings, C=O, and aliphatic C-H2 and C-H3 in all the IDPs examined. A D-rich spot, containing material that is believed to have formed in a cold molecular cloud, has C-XANES and infrared spectra very similar to the organic matter in the anhydrous IDPs, possibly indicating a common formation mechanism. However the primitive organic matter in the IDPs differs from the interstellar/circumstellar organic matter characterized by astronomical infrared spectroscopy in the relative strengths of the asymmetric aliphatic C-H2 and C-H3 absorptions, with the IDP organic having a longer mean chain length. If both types of organic matter originated by the same process, this may indicate the interstellar organic matter has experienced more severe radiation processing than the organic matter in the primitive IDPs.

Keywords

Astrochemistryastrobiologyinfrared: general
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 4 , Symposium S251: Organic Matter in Space , February 2008 , pp. 267 - 276
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

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