1:45 PM - 2:10 PM
[MIS02-01] Organics in Extraterrestrial Samples
★Invited Papers
Keywords:Organics, extraterrestrial, Astrobiology, Sample Return Missions, meteorites, cosmic dust
Organic materials are now known to be present in a wide range of astrophysical environments, both within and outside the Solar System. Within our galaxy, organics are seen throughout the diffuse and dense interstellar media and are present in star formation regions. Pre-existing organics were undoubtedly incorporated into the protosolar nebula, which was itself a good environment for the creation of additional organic materials. Both pre-existing and newly formed organics were incorporated into the planetesimals that ultimately formed comets, asteroids, and the planets and their satellites. Extraterrestrial organics incorporated into planetary environments were ultimately altered or destroyed, but organics that ended up in small bodies like comets and asteroids have a chance survive largely untouched for the age of the Solar System. Organics in these objects can now be studied in extraterrestrial samples like cosmic dust, meteorites, and samples returned by sample return missions like Stardust, Hayabusa, Hayabusa2, and OSIRIS-REx. These organics are of considerable interest to the field of Astrobiology since their delivery to early planetary surfaces must have played a critical role in the generation of habitable surfaces and may have played key roles in the origin of life.