Pyrolysis of High-Molecular-Weight Complex Organics Synthesized from a Simulated Interstellar Gas Mixture Irradiated with 3 MeV Proton Beam

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Abstract High-molecular-weight organic matter synthesized from mixtures of carbon monoxide, ammonia, and water gases similar to those found in the interstellar medium were irradiated with a 3 MeV proton beam and analyzed by Curie-point pyrolysis with detection by a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer (Pyr–GC–MS). A wide variety of organic compounds, not only a number of amide compounds, but also heterocyclic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), were detected among the products of the pyrolysis. Detection of biologically interesting compounds, such as glycolamide (HOCH2CONH2), is also cosmochemically interesting. The present data show that primary and primitive organic matter serving as “precursors” to bioorganic compounds, such as amino acids, nucleic acid bases, and sugar, might have been formed in a gaseous mixture of similar composition to that of the interstellar dust environment. Consequently, the matrix of extraterrestrial organic compounds delivered by comets and meteorites may have played an important role in the early stages of chemical evolution on the primitive Earth.