Comets: Role and importance to exobiology

Details Comets: Role and importance to exobiology Comets: Role and importance to exobiology

Aug 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992esse.nasa..177d&link_type=abstract

In NASA. Ames Research Center, Exobiology in Solar System Exploration p 177-198 (SEE N93-18545 06-51)

Biology

Chemical Composition, Comet Nuclei, Comets, Cosmic Dust, Exobiology, Halley'S Comet, Interstellar Space, Organic Compounds, Organic Materials, Protoplanets, Terrestrial Planets, Carbon, Carbon Monoxide, Isotopes, Quantitative Analysis, Spatial Distribution

Scientific paper

The transfer of organic compounds from interstellar space to the outskirts of a protoplanetary disk, their accretion into cometary objects, and the transport of the latter into the inner solar system by orbital diffusion throw a new light on the central problem of exobiology. It suggests the existence of a cosmic mechanism, working everywhere, that can supply prebiotic compounds to ubiquitous rocky planets, in search of the proper environment to start life in many places in the Universe. Under the heading of chemistry of the cometary nucleus, the following topics are covered: radial homogeneity of the nucleus; the dust-to-ice ratio; nature of the dust grains; origin of the dust in comets; nature of the volatile fraction; the CO distribution in comet Halley; dust contribution to the volatile fraction; elemental balance sheet of comet Halley; quantitative molecular analysis of the volatile fraction; and isotopic ratios. Under the heading of exogenous origin of carbon on terrestrial planets the following topics are covered: evidence for a high-temperature phase; from planetesimals to planets; a veneer of volatile and organic material; and cometary contribution.

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