Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T00:46:23.392Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Organic matter in interplanetary dust particles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2008

G. J. Flynn
Affiliation:
Dept. of Physics, SUNY-Plattsburgh, 101 Broad St, Plattsburgh NY 12901USA email: [email protected]
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
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

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.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Anders, E. 1989, Nature, 342, 255CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anders, E., & Grevesse, N. 1989, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 53, 197Google Scholar
Brownlee, D. E. 1985, Ann. Rev. Earth & Planetary Sci., 13, 147CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flynn, G. J. 1989, Icarus, 77, 287CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flynn, G. J., Bajt, S., Sutton, S. R., Zolensky, M. E., Thomas, K. L., & Keller, L. P. 1996, in: Physics; chemistry; and dynamics of interplanetary dust, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 310, 291ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flynn, G. J., Keller, L. P., Feser, M., Wirick, S., & Jacobsen, C. 2003, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 67 4791Google Scholar
Flynn, G. J., & Sutton, S. R. 1991, in: Cosmic dust particle densities - Evidence for two populations of stony micrometeorites, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 21st, Proceedings, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, p. 541Google Scholar
Ishii, H. A., Bradley, J. P., Dai, Z. R., Rong, Z., Chi, M., Kearsley, A. T., Burchell, M. J., Browning, N. D., & Molster, F. 2008, Science, 319, 447CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keller, L. P., Messenger, S., Flynn, G. J., Clemett, S., Wirick, S., & Jacobsen, C. 2004, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 68, 2577CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messenger, S. 2000, Nature, 404, 968CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandford, S. A., Allamandola, L. J., Tielens, A. G., Sellgren, K., Tapia, M., & Pendleton, Y. 1991, ApJ, 371, 607Google Scholar
Sandford, S. A., et al. , 2006, Science, 314, 1721CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stohr, J. 1992, NEXAFS Spectroscopy, Springer-VerlagCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, K. L., Keller, L. P., Blanford, G. E., & McKay, D. S. 1994, in: Quantitative analysis of carbon in anhydrous and hydrated interplanetary dust particles, Analysis of interplanetary Dust, AIP Conf. proc. #310, (American Institute of Physics), p. 165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zagorski, P. A. 2007, Origin of life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 37, 351CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zinner, E. 1988, in: Interstellar cloud material in meteorites, Meteorites and the early solar system, (University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ), p. 956Google Scholar