Complex Organic Molecules Found in Interplanetary Dust Particles

Two research groups—one in Missouri that specializes in the identification and analysis of extraterrestrial particles, and one in California that has a long history of using laser technology to solve a range of problems—have combined their expertise to confirm the presence of polycyclic aromatic (benzene‐skelton‐containing) hydrocarbon molecules on interplanetary dust particles. Frank Stadermann (now at the Technische Hochschule in Darmstadt, Germany), Patrick Swan and Robert Walker, in work done at the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University, Saint Louis, demonstrated that the particles were indeed extraterrestrial and classified them mineralogically. Then the microprobe two‐step laser mass spectrometer, an instrument built by graduate students Simon Clemett and Claude Maechling in the laboratory of Richard Zare at Stanford University, provided evidence of the complex organic compounds: aromatic hydrocarbons composed of two or more six‐carbon rings, and their alkylated (hydrocarbon‐chain‐containing) derivatives.