The origin of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in meteorites

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in C1 and C2 Carbonaceous Chondrites appear to be the product of a high-temperature synthesis. This observation counters a prevailing view that PAHs in meteorites are a thermal alternation product of preexisting aliphatic compounds, which in turn required the presence of low-temperature mineral phases such as magnetite and hydrated phyllosilicates for their formation. Such a process would necessarily lead to a more low-temperature assemblage of PAHs, as many low-temperature minerals and compounds are extant in meteorites. Ivuna, a C1 carbonaceous chondrite, has been shown to contain abundant amounts of the three-ring PAHs phenanthrene/anthracene, but no detectable levels of the two- and four-ring PAHs naphthalene and pyrene/fluoranthene. Ivuna and other C1 carbonaceous chondrites are known to have been extensively altered by water. The aqueous solubities of PAHs indicate that some PAHs would have been mobilized during the aqueous alteration phase in meteorite parent bodies. Model geochromatography experiments using crushed serpentine or beach sand as the solid phase and water for elution suggest that the complete separation of two, three, and four-ring PAHs could be expected to occur in the parent body of C1 carbonaceous chondrites. It is proposed that aqueous fluids driven by heat in the parent body of Ivuna migrated from the interior to the surface, in the process transporting, separating and concentrating PAHs at various zones in the parent body. The presence of indigenous PAHs and absence of indigenous amino acids in the H4 ordinary chondrite Forest Vale provides support for the contention that different processes and environments contributed to the synthesis of the organic matter in the solar system. © 1992 Kluwer Academic Publishers.