Protosolar Carbon Isotopic Composition: Implications for the Origin of Meteoritic Organics

Abstract

New ion probe isotopic measurements of carbon trapped within the 50 nm thick surface layer of lunar regolith grains strongly suggest that solar wind C is depleted in 13C by at least 10% relative to terrestrial C. In order to account for the general 13C enrichment of planetary C relative to solar C, we propose that the main carriers of C in these objects, i.e., organics, were formed in an environment that allowed a strong isotopic enrichment of 13C in the solid phase. Such an environment is most likely a dense and warm circumstellar or interstellar gas medium, which could well correspond to the nebula surrounding the proto-Sun, where isotopic fractionation could be triggered by photochemical reactions.