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ORM is complex, nonvolatile organic matter. In meteorites, such material is normally called insoluble organic matter (IOM) and is broadly defined to have low to no solubility in a weak acid bath and is also referred to as protokerogen or humin. Many models of interstellar dust include an organic refractory mantle over a silicate core, with the ORM produced by ultraviolet or cosmic ray irradiation of an accreted icy grain mantle. Organic refractory matter can be synthesized in the laboratory by bombarding ices containing species thought to be present in comets and interstellar ices (i.e., water, methane, and ammonia) with high-energy photons or particles.
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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Irvine, W.M. (2014). Organic Refractory Matter. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1125-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1125-3
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4
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