Organic material and gases in the early Solar System : the meteorite record

Laboratoire de Minéralogie et Cosmochimie du Muséum, UMR CNRS 7202, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CP. 52, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France

Abstract

The most primitive chondrites and comets have undergone few modifications during the 4.56 billion years of the Solar System and can deliver to laboratories the components that witnessed the origin of the protosolar nebula. These components include organics, water and other volatile components that were formed in the parent molecular cloud of the solar system or during the protosolar epoch. This paper focuses on organic matter, water and noble gases contained in carbonaceous chondrites with a special emphasis on opened questions that could be assessed by laboratory experiments in order to shed new light on the origin of the solar system materials and planets.