Enrichment of the solar system by organic compounds delivered from evolved stars

Comet 67P/CG Nucleus Composition and Comparison to Other Comets

“…While cometary ice species are easily identifiable on VIS-IR reflectance data by means of their high albedo and numerous and well-known absorption bands, a much more challenging effort is to determine the composition of complex organic materials which can be grouped in the 'CHON' (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen) families (Whipple 1950;Clark et al 1987). The emission features caused by the stretching and bending modes of organic (aliphatic and aromatic) compounds observed in the circumstellar envelope of evolved stars and in the interstellar medium (Kwok 2007) clearly indicate that plentiful C is available in the Universe (Pendleton and Allamandola 2002) and in the early solar system (Kerridge 1999). A large fraction of the carbon in the Universe is assembled in Polycyclic Aromatics (PAHs) resulting in the third most abundant molecular species after H 2 and CO (Wooden et al 2004).…”

Organic matter in space - An overview

“…Observations over the last century have established that these molecules are ubiquitous throughout the universe, not only in our Galaxy (Kwok 2007b) but even out to high redshifts (Yan et al 2005). With the detection of more than 200 exoplanetary systems, a major question is whether these organic compounds can be delivered in tact to new planetary systems where they could form the basis for the origin of life.…”