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Nature and History of the Organic Compounds in Comets: an Astrophysical View
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Abstract
The chemical similarities between comets, carbonaceous chondrites, and interstellar molecules and grains are reviewed first. The evolution of frosty interstellar grains is then followed during the collapse of a molecular cloud fragment and the subsequent formation of the Solar System. The paradigm clarifies the probable origin of the two populations of comets of different symmetry (the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt) and implies an exogenous origin for all carbon and water on Earth. This origin is explained by the orbital diffusion of planetesimals that is required by the growth of protoplanets.
- Type
- Section III: Comets, Origins, and Evolution
- Information
- International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 116 , Issue 1: Comets in the Post-Halley Era , 1989 , pp. 377 - 428
- Copyright
- Copyright © Kluwer 1991