The synthesis of organic molecules in a laser plasma similar to the plasma that emerges in hypervelocity collisions of matter at the early evolutionary stage of the Earth and in interstellar clouds

Abstract

Ions of organic molecules and polymers as well as multiply ionized hydrocarbons were synthesized and detected with a time-of-flight mass analyzer in laboratory experiments simulating with a laser the plasma processes that accompany a hypervelocity micrometeorite impact on the target surface. A hypervelocity impact of micrometeorites moving at velocities of 80 km s−1 on a inorganic target was simulated with a Q-switched laser. The laser provided a power density of 109−1011 W cm−2 in a spot with an impact diameter of 30–150 μm for a pulse duration of 7–10 ns and a laser plasma electron density of 105−106 K. The ions of organic compounds are shown to be synthesized mostly during the free expansion of a hot laser plasma at the stage of its cooling and recombination if, initially, the plasma was completely atomized and ionized. Molecular ions have high yields only for a carbon target. The results obtained indicate that organic or other polyatomic compounds can be abiogenically synthesized in intense hypervelocity meteorite impacts on the Earth’s surface at the early stage of its formation during meteorite showers and in hypervelocity collisions of dust particles in interstellar molecular clouds.