Comment on "Organics captured from comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft"

Science. 2007 Sep 21;317(5845):1680; author reply 1680. doi: 10.1126/science.1142407.

Abstract

Sandford et al. (Reports, 15 December 2006, p. 1720) reported on organic compounds captured from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft. We emphasize the difficulty in assigning the origin of compounds detected diffusely along particle impact tracks and show that rapid heating of aerogel that has never been exposed to cometary particle capture can generate complex aromatic molecules from low-mass carbon impurities present in the aerogel.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Comment

MeSH terms

  • Cosmic Dust*
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Meteoroids*
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / analysis*
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / chemistry

Substances

  • Cosmic Dust
  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons