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Plasma processing of interstellar PAHs into solar system kerogenProcesses resulting in the formation of hydrocarbons of carbonaceous chondrites and the identity of the interstellar molecular precursors involved are an objective of investigations into the origin of the solar system and perhaps even life on earth. We have combined the resources and experience of an astronomer and physicists doing laboratory simulations with those of a chemical expert in the analysis of meteoritic hydrocarbons, in a project that investigated the conversion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) formed in stellar atmospheres into alkanes found in meteorites. Plasma hydrogenation has been found in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Astrophysics Laboratory to produce from the precursor PAH naphthalene, a new material having an IR absorption spectrum (Lee, W. and Wdowiak, T.J., Astrophys. J. 417, L49-L51, 1993) remarkably similar to that obtained at Arizona State University of the benzene-methanol extract of the Murchison meteorite (Cronin, J.R. and Pizzarello, S., Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 54, 2859-2868, 1990). There are astrophysical and meteoritic arguments for PAH species from extra-solar sources being incorporated into the solar nebula, where plasma hydrogenation is highly plausible. Conversion of PAHs into alkanes could also have occurred in the interstellar medium. The synthesis of laboratory analogs of meteoritic hydrocarbons through plasma hydrogenation of PAH species is underway, as is chemical analysis of those analogs. The objective is to clarify this heretofore uninvestigated process and to understand its role during the origin of the solar system as a mechanism of production of hydrocarbon species now found in meteorites. Results have been obtained in the form of time-of-flight spectroscopy and chemical analysis of the lab analog prepared from naphthalene.
Document ID
20040089440
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Wdowiak, T. J.
(University of Alabama, Birmingham [correction of University of Birmingham AL] 35294-1170, United States)
Lee, W.
Cronin, J.
Beegle, L. W.
Robinson, M. S.
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1995
Publication Information
Publication: Planetary and space science
Volume: 43
Issue: 11-Oct
ISSN: 0032-0633
Subject Category
Exobiology
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-4158
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-4079
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-749
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
NASA Discipline Exobiology
Non-NASA Center

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