scholarly journals Molecular, isotopic and in situ analytical approaches to the study of meteoritic organic material

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan S. Watson ◽  
Victoria K. Pearson ◽  
Mark A. Sephton ◽  
Iain Gilmour
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Interstellar Space ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Stable Isotopic ◽  
Isotopic Studies ◽  
Biological Sources ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Organic materials isolated from carbonaceous meteorites provide us with a record of pre-biotic chemistry in the early Solar System. Molecular, isotopic and in situ studies of these materials suggest that a number of extraterrestrial environments have contributed to the inventory of organic matter in the early Solar System including interstellar space, the Solar nebula and meteorite parent bodies.There are several difficulties that have to be overcome in the study of the organic constituents of meteorites. Contamination by terrestrial biogenic organic matter is an ever-present concern and a wide variety of contaminant molecules have been isolated and identified including essential plant oils, derived from either biological sources or common cleaning products, and aliphatic hydrocarbons, most probably derived from petroleum-derived pollutants. Only 25% of the organic matter in carbonaceous chondrites is amenable to extraction with organic solvents; the remainder is present as a complex macromolecular aromatic network that has required the development of analytical approaches that can yield structural and isotopic information on this highly complex material.Stable isotopic studies have been of paramount importance in understanding the origins of meteoritic organic matter and have provided evidence for the incorporation of interstellar molecules within meteoritic material. Extending isotopic studies to the molecular level is yielding new insights into both the sources of meteoritic organic matter and the processes that have modified it.Organic matter in meteorites is intimately associated with silicate minerals and the in situ examination of the relationships between organic and inorganic components is crucial to our understanding of the role of asteroidal processes in the modification of organic matter and, in particular, the role of water as both a solvent and a reactant on meteorite parent bodies.

Laboratory and in-situ analysis of comet dust

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 8-9
Author(s):  
D.E. Brownlee ◽  
A.L. Albee
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Sem Analysis ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Cometary Material ◽  
Comet Dust

Comets are primitive, kilometer-sized bodies that formed in the outer regions of the solar system. Composed of ice and dust, comets are generally believed to be relic building blocks of the outer solar system that have been preserved at cryogenic temperatures since the formation of the Sun and planets. The analysis of cometary material is particularly important because the properties of cometary material provide direct information on the processes and environments that formed and influenced solid matter both in the early solar system and in the interstellar environments that preceded it.The first direct analyses of proven comet dust were made during the Soviet and European spacecraft encounters with Comet Halley in 1986. These missions carried time-of-flight mass spectrometers that measured mass spectra of individual micron and smaller particles. The Halley measurements were semi-quantitative but they showed that comet dust is a complex fine-grained mixture of silicates and organic material. A full understanding of comet dust will require detailed morphological, mineralogical, elemental and isotopic analysis at the finest possible scale. Electron microscopy and related microbeam techniques will play key roles in the analysis. The present and future of electron microscopy of comet samples involves laboratory study of micrometeorites collected in the stratosphere, in-situ SEM analysis of particles collected at a comet and laboratory study of samples collected from a comet and returned to the Earth for detailed study.

scholarly journals Synthesis of 13C-enriched amino acids with 13C-depleted insoluble organic matter in a formose-type reaction in the early solar system

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (18) ◽  
pp. eabd3575
Author(s):  
Yoshihiro Furukawa ◽  
Yoshinari Iwasa ◽  
Yoshito Chikaraishi
Keyword(s):  
Aqueous Solution ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Acid Synthesis ◽  
Soluble Organic Matter ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Cold Region ◽  
Amino Acid Synthesis ◽  
Type Reaction ◽  
Insoluble Organic Matter

Solvent-soluble organic matter (SOM) in meteorites, which includes life’s building molecules, is suspected to originate from the cold region of the early solar system, on the basis of 13C enrichment in the molecules. Here, we demonstrate that the isotopic characteristics are reproducible in amino acid synthesis associated with a formose-type reaction in a heated aqueous solution. Both thermochemically driven formose-type reaction and photochemically driven formose-type reaction likely occurred in asteroids and ice-dust grains in the early solar system. Thus, the present results suggest that the formation of 13C-enriched SOM was not specific to the cold outer protosolar disk or the molecular cloud but occurred more widely in the early solar system.

scholarly journals No evidence for interstellar planetesimals trapped in the Solar system

2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (1) ◽  
pp. L46-L49 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Morbidelli ◽  
K Batygin ◽  
R Brasser ◽  
S N Raymond
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Oort Cloud ◽  
Giant Planets ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Interstellar Space ◽  
Fast Decay ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Solar System Bodies ◽  
Main Asteroid Belt

ABSTRACT In two recent papers published in MNRAS, Namouni and Morais claimed evidence for the interstellar origin of some small Solar system bodies, including: (i) objects in retrograde co-orbital motion with the giant planets and (ii) the highly inclined Centaurs. Here, we discuss the flaws of those papers that invalidate the authors’ conclusions. Numerical simulations backwards in time are not representative of the past evolution of real bodies. Instead, these simulations are only useful as a means to quantify the short dynamical lifetime of the considered bodies and the fast decay of their population. In light of this fast decay, if the observed bodies were the survivors of populations of objects captured from interstellar space in the early Solar system, these populations should have been implausibly large (e.g. about 10 times the current main asteroid belt population for the retrograde co-orbital of Jupiter). More likely, the observed objects are just transient members of a population that is maintained in quasi-steady state by a continuous flux of objects from some parent reservoir in the distant Solar system. We identify in the Halley-type comets and the Oort cloud the most likely sources of retrograde co-orbitals and highly inclined Centaurs.

scholarly journals Short-Lived Nuclei in the Early Solar System: A Low Mass Stellar Source?

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Busso ◽  
R. Gallino ◽  
G. J. Wasserburg
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Asymptotic Giant Branch ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Uncertainty Range ◽  
System A ◽  
Free Decay ◽  
Low Mass ◽  
Stellar Source ◽  
Review Current

AbstractWe discuss possible stellar origins of short-lived radioactive nuclei with meanlife τ ≤ 100 Myr, which were shown to be alive in the Early Solar System (ESS). We first review current ideas on the production of nuclides having 10 ≤ τ ≤ 100 Myr, which presumably derive from the continuous interplay of galactic astration, nucleosynthesis from massive supernovae and free decay in the interstellar medium. The abundance of the shorter lived 53Mn might be explained by this same scenario. Then we consider the nuclei 107Pd, 26Al, 41Ca and 60Fe, whose early solar system abundances are too high to have originated in this way. Present evidence favours a stellar origin, particularly for 107Pd, 26Al and 60Fe, rather than an in situ production by energetic solar particles. The idea of an encounter (rather close in time and space) between the forming Sun and a dying star is therefore discussed: this star may or may not have also triggered the solar formation. Recent nucleosynthesis calculations for the yields of the relevant short-lived isotopes and of their stable reference nuclei are discussed. Massive stars evolving to type II supernovae (either leaving a neutron star or a black hole as a remnant) seem incapable of explaining the four most critical ESS radioactivities in their observed abundance ratios. An asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star seems to be a viable source, especially if of relatively low initial mass (M ≤ 3 M⊙) and with low neutron exposure: this model can provide a solution for 26Al, 41Ca and 107Pd, with important contributions to 60Fe, which are inside the present uncertainty range of the 60Fe early solar system abundance. Such a model requires that 26Al is produced substantially on the AGB by cool bottom processing. The remaining inventory of short-lived species in the solar nebula would then be attributed to the continuous galactic processing, with the exception of 10Be, which must reflect production by later proton bombardment at a low level during early solar history.

The role of comets and asteroids in Solar System development: space exploration

1994 ◽  
Vol 349 (1690) ◽  
pp. 323-334 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
System Development ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Interplanetary Dust ◽  
Calibration Data ◽  
Mixed Classes ◽  
Asteroids And Comets

Exploration by space missions of the near-nucleus regions of comets Halley and Grigg-Skjellerup has resulted in valuable but expensive snapshots of cometary phenomena. The ‘ground truth’ from such missions, which can be established only by this means of dedicated space exploration, provides essential inputs to models of cometary processes. It also gives calibration data for a very wide base of cometary and asteroidal observations, past, present and future. Seen as objects which are both eroded by impacts from interplanetary dust and also the progenitors of interplanetary dust, we find both asteroids and comets are needed to contribute to this population. Contrary to expectations, as new data on the asteroids and comets is analysed, we find the differences between the two classes of primordial body is very much less distinct; accounting for the interplanetary distribution and properties of dust mass requires not only both classes of object but also a distribution of mixed classes. ESA’s newly selected cometary mission Rosetta will offer a unique opportunity, during a rendezvous encounter from aphelion to perihelion, for the extended and detailed in situ observations of a target comet. It will also act as a valuable focus on the nature and role of comets in both the origin and development of the Solar System.

Organic matter in carbonaceous meteorites: past, present and future research

2005 ◽  
Vol 363 (1837) ◽  
pp. 2729-2742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A Sephton
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Chemical Environment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Organic Chemical ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Organic Mixtures ◽  
Prebiotic Chemical ◽  
Life On Earth

Carbonaceous meteorites are fragments of ancient asteroids that have remained relatively unprocessed since the formation of the Solar System. These carbon-rich objects provide a record of prebiotic chemical evolution and a window on the early Solar System. Many compound classes are present reflecting a rich organic chemical environment during the formation of the planets. Recent theories suggest that similar extraterrestrial organic mixtures may have acted as the starting materials for life on Earth.

scholarly journals The role of massive AGB stars in the early solar system composition

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 627-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep M. TRIGO-RODRÍGUEZ ◽  
Domingo Aníbal GARCÍA-HERNÁNDEZ ◽  
Maria LUGARO ◽  
Amanda I. KARAKAS ◽  
M. RAAI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Agb Stars ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
System Composition

scholarly journals Circumstellar disks in high-mass star environments: the early solar system

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (H15) ◽  
pp. 746-747
Author(s):  
Thierry Montmerle ◽  
Matthieu Gounelle ◽  
Georges Meynet
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Circumstellar Disks ◽  
Energetic Particles ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Circumstellar Disk ◽  
Mass Star ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Explosive Nucleosynthesis ◽  
By Products

AbstractThe early solar system represents the only case we have of a circumstellar disk that can be investigated “in situ” -albeit 4.6 Gyr after its formation. Meteorites studies give mounting evidence for an intense irradiation phase of the young circumsolar disk by energetic particles, and also for contamination by products of high-mass stellar and/or explosive nucleosynthesis. We thus discuss the conditions of the birth of the solar system in a high-mass star environment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document