As messengers from the early Solar System, comets contain key information from the time of planet formation and even earlier – some may contain material formed in our natal interstellar cloud. Along with water, the cometary nucleus contains ices of natural gases (CH4, C2H6), alcohols (CH3OH), acids (HCOOH), embalming fluid (H2CO), and even anti-freeze (ethylene glycol). Comets today contain some ices that vaporize at temperatures near absolute zero (CO, CH4), demonstrating that their compositions remain largely unchanged after 4.5 billion years. By comparing their chemical diversity, several distinct cometary classes have been identified but their specific relation to chemical gradients in the proto-planetary disk remains murky. How does the compositional diversity of comets relate to nebular processes such as chemical processing, radial migration, and dynamical scattering? No current reservoir holds a unique class, but their fractional abundance can test emerging dynamical models for origins of the scattered Kuiper disk, the Oort cloud, and the (proposed) main-belt comets. I will provide a simplified overview emphasizing what we are learning, current issues, and their relevance to the subject of this Symposium.

Organic compounds are ubiquitous in space: they are found in diffuse clouds, in the envelopes of evolved stars, in dense star-forming regions, in protoplanetary disks, in comets, on the surfaces of minor planets, and in meteorites and interplanetary dust particles. This brief overview summarizes the observational evidence for the types of organics found in these regions, with emphasis on recent developments. The Stardust sample-return mission provides the first opportunity to study primitive cometary material with sophisticated equipment on Earth. Similarities and differences between the types of compounds in different regions are discussed in the context of the processes that can modify them. The importance of laboratory astrophysics is emphasized.

We have studied the Raman spectroscopic signatures of nanodiamonds from the Allende meteorite in which some portions must be of presolar origin as indicated by the isotopic compositions of various trace elements. The spectra of the meteoritic nanodiamond show a narrow peak at 1326 cm−1 and a broad band at 1590 cm−1. Compared to the intensities of these peaks, the background fluorescence is relatively high. A significant frequency shift from 1332 to 1326 cm−1, peak broadening, and appearance of a new peak at 1590 cm−1 might be due to shock effects during formation of the diamond grains. Such changes may have several origins: an increase in bond length, a change in the electron density function or charge transfer, or a combination of these factors. However, Raman spectroscopy alone does not allow distinguishing between a shock origin of the nanodiamonds and formation by a CVD process as is favored by most workers.

The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered several objects with unusual spectra, where the emission features from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are shifted to longer wavelengths than normally observed. Previously, only two of these class C PAH spectra had been identified. The new and larger sample reveals that PAHs emit at longer wavelengths when processed by cooler radiation fields. Limited laboratory data show that samples with mixtures of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons produce emission features at longer wavelengths than purely aromatic samples. The aliphatic bonds are more fragile and would only survive in cooler radiation fields. In harsher radiation fields, the aliphatics attached to the aromatic hydrocarbons are destroyed.

The population of Saturn's outermost tenuous E-ring is dominated by tiny water ice particles, some of which contain organic or mineral impurities. Active cryo-volcanism on the moon Enceladus, embedded in the E-ring, has been known to be a major source of particles replenishing the ring since late 2005. Therefore, particles in the vicinity of Enceladus provide crucial information about the dynamic and chemical processes occurring far below the moon's icy surface.

We present a compositional analysis of thousands of impact ionisation mass spectra of Saturn's E-ring particles, with sizes predominantly below 1 μm, detected by the Cosmic Dust Analyser onboard the Cassini spacecraft. Our findings imply that organic compounds are a significant component of icy particles ejected by Enceladus plumes. Our in situ measurements are supported by detections of other Cassini instruments. They hint at a dynamic interaction of a hot rocky core with liquid water below the icy surface, where the organic molecules are generated. Further insights are expected from two close Enceladus flybys to be performed by Cassini in 2008. Then, for the first time, we will obtain spectra of freshly ejected particles at the traversals through the cryo-volcanic plumes.

Good evening. I'd like to invite you to join me on a journey that could be entitled “Full Circle: Star Ferry to Stardust”. “Star Ferry” represents Hong Kong, my home town, and especially its university - Hong Kong University - as I knew it during the years of World War II. “Stardust” refers to our gathering here to report on our research on possible organic chemistry in space.

Through the techniques of millimeter-wave and infrared spectroscopy, over 60 species of gas-phase molecules and a variety of inorganic and organic solids have been detected in the short phase of stellar evolution between the asymptotic giant branch and planetary nebulae. The chemical pathways that lead to the synthesis of complex organic compounds in such low-density environments are therefore important topics of astrochemistry. In this review, we summarize the observational evidence for the existence of complex aliphatic and aromatic compounds in these circumstellar environments, and discuss the nature of their possible carriers. Also discussed are a number of unidentified emission features which may also have an organic origin. The possible relations between these circumstellar organic matter with Solar System organic matter are explored.

Carbonaceous materials play an important role in space. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a ubiquitous component of organic matter in space. Their contribution is invoked in a broad spectrum of astronomical observations that range from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared and cover a wide variety of objects and environments from meteorites and interplanetary dust particles to outer Solar System bodies to the interstellar medium in the local Milky Way and in other galaxies. Extensive efforts have been devoted in the past two decades to experimental, theoretical, and observational studies of PAHs. A brief review is given here of the evidence obtained so far for the contribution of PAHs to the phenomena aforementioned. An attempt is made to distinguish the cases where solid evidence is available from cases where reasonable assumptions can be made to the cases where the presence - or the absence - of PAHs is purely speculative at this point.

According to semiempirical models, photoabsorption by fullerenes (single and multishell) could explain the shape, width and peak energy of the most prominent feature of the interstellar absorption, the UV bump at 2175 Å. Other weaker transitions are predicted in the optical and near-infrared providing a potential explanation for diffuse interstellar bands. In particular, we find that several fullerenes could contribute to the well known strong DIB at 4430 Å. Comparing cross sections and available data for this DIB and the UV bump we estimate a density of fullerenes in the diffuse interstellar medium of 0.1–0.2 ppm. These molecules could then be a major reservoir for interstellar carbon. We also study the rotation rates and electric dipole emission of hydrogenated icosahedral fullerenes. We investigate these molecules as potential carriers of the anomalous (dust-correlated) microwave emission recently detected by several cosmic microwave background experiments.

We carry out a Monte-Carlo simulation to study the formation of methanol on the grain surfaces. We found that the recombination efficiencies are strongly dependent on the extrinsic properties of the grain, such as the number of sites on the grain surface and the flux of the accreting matter. This uses the concept of effective grain surface (denoted through a factor α) area which changes as the grain is populated.

To interpret the concentrations of the products measured in Titan's atmosphere and to better understand the associated chemistry, many theoretical models have been developed so far. Unfortunately, large discrepancies are still found between theoretical and observational data. A critical examination of the chemical scheme included in these models points out some problems regarding the reliability of the description of critical reaction pathways as well as the accuracy of kinetic parameters. Laboratory experiments can be used to reduce these two sources of uncertainty. It can be:

i) experimental simulations: in our laboratory (LISA), representative Titan's simulation experiments are planned to be carried out in a reactor where the initial gas mixture will be exposed, for the first time, to both electrons and photons. Thus, the chemistry between N atoms and CH3, CH2, CH fragments, issued from electron dissociation of N2 and photo-dissociation of CH4 respectively, will be initiated. Thank to a time resolved technique, we will be able to analyse “in situ”, qualitatively and quantitatively, the stable species as well as the short life intermediates. Then, the implied chemistry will be determined precisely, and consequently, its description will be refined in theoretical models. The current status of this program will be given.

ii) specific experiments: they are devoted, for example, to determine kinetic rate constants and low temperature VUV spectra that will be used to feed models and to interpret observational data. Such experiments performed in LISA and in Rennes' laboratory concern polyynes and cyanopolyynes as these compounds could link the gaseous and the solid phase in planetary atmosphere. Results concerning C4H+ hydrocarbons kinetic rate constants and VUV cross section of HC3N and HC5N will be detailed.

For over three decades tholins have been synthesized from mixtures of the cosmically abundant gases CH4, C2H6, NH3, H2O, HCHO, N2, and H2, previously in the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University and in recent years at NASA Ames Research Center. The tholin synthesized by UV light or spark discharge on sequential and non-sequential pyrolysis GC-MS revealed hundreds of compounds, and on hydrolysis produced a large number of amino acids including racemic protein amino acids. Optical constants have been measured of many of the tholins, tholins produced from a condensed mixture of water and ethane at 77 K, poly HCN, and Titan tholin produced on electrical discharge through a mixture of 90% N2 and 10% CH4. Its optical constants were measured from soft x-rays to microwave for the first time.

Here we report the absorption properties of Titan tholin that is produced in the temperature range 135 to 178 K where tholins are produced by magnetospheric charged particles, then pass through lower temperature at 70 K and finally to the ground at 95 K. While descending to the ground, it gets coated and processed on the way by other sources of energy such as long UV and cosmic rays. It is therefore expected that the stable products of CH4 photolysis react with Titan tholin to recycle the CH4 supply in Titan's atmosphere. Furthermore, the reactions of gaseous C2H6 with the reactive materials on the surface of the tholin could incorporate atmospheric C2H6 into the tholin and therefore might reduce the deposition rate of C2H6 onto the ground of Titan.

It is important to say that the formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide have been detected in the interstellar medium through resonance spectrum emission. Here I describe a way to produce uracil in interstellar space.

The sequence that brings matter from a molecular cloud to a fully developed star plus planetary system seems to be a unique and rich chemistry laboratory where, step by step, molecular complexity increases. During the cold pre-collapse phase, atoms and simple molecules, like CO, freeze out onto the dust grains, forming icy mantles. Reactions on the grain surfaces likely form hydrogenated molecules (notably H2O, CH4, H2CO, CH3OH, and NH3) and perhaps even more complex organic molecules. The hallmark of this era is the super-deuteration phenomenon, i. e. the abnormal enhancement of molecules containing one or more D atoms instead of H atoms, by up to 13 orders of magnitude with respect to the cosmic elemental D/H ratio (~10−5). The frozen molecules are released into the gas upon warming by the forming star and undergo reactions which further increase the molecular complexity, leading to several complex organic molecules. Products of this efficient chemical factory are observed in the hot corinos, which are warm (~100 K), dense (~107–108 cm−3) solar-system-sized regions at the centre of the collapsing envelopes of solar type protostars. In this contribution, I review what is known about the organic molecules in protostellar environments, with emphasis on the hot corinos, and how possibly the organic molecules formed at this stage may constitute an heritage for the forming planetary system.

The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) will be more sensitive for ultraviolet spectroscopy than either the GHRS or the STIS, especially in the far UV where many absorption lines and bands formed by atoms and molecules have electronic transitions from the ground state. Here we outline our plans for using the COS to observe interstellar gas and dust in the cold ISM, along with a report on the results of preliminary archival HST search for UV diffuse interstellar bands.

We present observations of the Rosette Nebula and its near environment in the CO 3–2 transition obtained with an angular resolution of 20″. The gas dynamics of the region are complex; we find (1) a ring of gas expanding at about 20 km s−1, (2) a number of collimated outflow sources, and (3) a chain of dust clumps having a velocity gradient along its length.

The reflected spectral energy distribution of low-albedo, red-colored, airless bodies in the outer Solar System (planetary satellites, Centaur objects, Kuiper Belt objects, bare comet nuclei) can be modeled with spectral models that incorporate the optical properties of refractory complex organic materials synthesized in the laboratory and called tholins. These materials are strongly colored and impart their color properties to the models. The colors of the bodies cannot be matched with plausible minerals, ices, or metals. Iapetus, a satellite of Saturn, is one such red-colored body that is well matched with tholin-rich models. Detection of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons on Iapetus by the Cassini spacecraft, and the presence of these hydrocarbons in the tholins, is taken as evidence for the widespread presence of solid organic complexes aromatic and aliphatic units on many bodies in the outer Solar System. These organic complexes may be compositionally similar to the insoluble organic matter in some classes of the carbonaceous meteorites, and thus may ultimately derive from the organic matter in the interstellar medium.

Over the last decade, we have made great strides in better understanding dust composition and evolution in dense clouds and the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). Thanks to improvements in IR detector sensitivity on ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope mission, we are no longer limited to a handful of bright background stars in order to study dust composition in quiescent dense clouds and the diffuse ISM. More thorough sampling of lines of sight in these regions has highlighted the dichotomy of the nature and composition of dust in these environments. In addition, successes in recreating interstellar processes and dust-analogs in the laboratory have helped us to understand the differences in dust absorption features we observe in the ISM. In this article, we focus on the organic components of interstellar dust, reviewing past work and highlighting the most recent observations and laboratory experiments.

A wide variety of organic compounds have been found in carbonaceous chondrites and comets, which suggests that extraterrestrial organic compounds could have been an important source of the first terrestrial biosphere. In the Greenberg model, these organic compounds in the small bodies were originally formed in interstellar dusts (ISD) in dense clouds by the action of cosmic rays and ultraviolet light. We irradiated a frozen mixture of methanol, ammonia and water with high-energy heavy ions from an accelerator (“HIMAC” in NIRS, Japan) to simulate the action of cosmic rays in dense clouds. Racemic mixtures of amino acids were detected after hydrolysis of the irradiation products. A mixture of carbon monoxide, ammonia and water also gave such complex amino acid precursors with large molecular weights. When such amino acid precursors were irradiated with circular polarized UV light from a synchrotron, enantiomeric excesses were detected. The yield of amino acids was not largely changed between, before, and after CPL-irradiation. The present results suggest that the seed of homochirality of terrestrial amino acids were originally formed in interstellar space.

Aromatic features at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3 μm are observed in proto-planetary nebulae (PPNe) as well as in PNe and H ii regions. Aliphatic features at 3.4 and 6.9 μm are also observed; however, these features are often stronger in PPNe than in PNe. These observations suggest an evolution in the features from simple molecules (C2H2) in AGB stars to aliphatics in PPNe to aromatics in PNe. In the same carbon-rich PPNe, a strong, broad, unidentified 21 μm emission feature has been found. We will present recent observations of the aromatic, aliphatic, and 21 μm emission features, along with C2H2 (13.7 μm) and a new feature at 15.8 μm, and discuss correlations among them and other properties of these PPNe.