Organic matter is present in most primitive meteorites, the highest concentrations occurring among carbonaceous chondrites. Most organic matter in meteorites is in the form of an acid-insoluble macromolecular material similar in structure to terrestrial kerogen, primarily composed of aromatic moieties linked together by eithers and aliphatic chains. Attempts to make more detailed structural characterization, or identify subcomponents of meteoritic kerogen, have had limited success, though an empirical formula has been determined as C100H48N1.8O12S2. Roughly 10% of meteoritic organic matter occurs as solvent-extractable compounds. Although early analyses of organic extracts were plagued by obvious terrestrial contamination, improvements in sample handling and analytic techniques have largely overcome these difficulties. Some organic compounds are proven to be indigenous to their parent meteorites because they exhibit a non-terrestrial H, N or C isotopic composition. Biological...
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Messenger, S. (1998). Organic matter In meteorites . In: Geochemistry. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_228
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4496-8_228
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