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Nature and History of the Organic Compounds in Comets: an Astrophysical View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

A.H. Delsemme
A.H. Delsemme*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of ToledoToledo, OH 43606, U.S.A.

Abstract

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The chemical similarities between comets, carbonaceous chondrites, and interstellar molecules and grains are reviewed first. The evolution of frosty interstellar grains is then followed during the collapse of a molecular cloud fragment and the subsequent formation of the Solar System. The paradigm clarifies the probable origin of the two populations of comets of different symmetry (the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt) and implies an exogenous origin for all carbon and water on Earth. This origin is explained by the orbital diffusion of planetesimals that is required by the growth of protoplanets.

Type
Section III: Comets, Origins, and Evolution
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 116 , Issue 1: Comets in the Post-Halley Era , 1989 , pp. 377 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991

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