Exploring the link between molecular cloud ices and chondritic organic matter in laboratory

G. Danger, V. Vinogradoff, M. Matzka, J-C. Viennet, L. Remusat, S. Bernard, A. Ruf,L. Le Sergeant d’Hendecourt and P. Schmitt-Kopplin

Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23895-2

Abstract

Carbonaceous meteorites are fragments of asteroids rich in organic material. In the formingsolar nebula, parent bodies may have accreted organic materials resulting from the evolutionof icy grains observed in dense molecular clouds. The major issues of this scenario are thesecondary processes having occurred on asteroids, which may have modified the accretedmatter. Here, we explore the evolution of organic analogs of protostellar/protoplanetary diskmaterial once accreted and submitted to aqueous alteration at 150 °C. The evolution ofmolecular compounds during up to 100 days is monitored by high resolution mass spec-trometry. We report significant evolution of the molecular families, with the decreases ofH/C and N/C ratios. Wefind that the post-aqueous products share compositional similaritieswith the soluble organic matter of the Murchison meteorite. These results give a compre-hensive scenario of the possible link between carbonaceous meteorites and ices of densemolecular clouds.