1. The Seeds of Life - Exogenous Delivery of Organics to Earth
Pascale Ehrenfreund1,2
1Space Policy Institute, Washington DC, USA
2 Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden, NL

2. First stars
13.7 billion years
WMAP
CO detected
Joyce 2002

3. Where do the organics come from ?
Intrinsic
Extraterrestrial influx (comets, meteorites)
What environment on Earth ?
(shallow basins, hydrothermal vents ?)
What is coming from space ?
(biomolecules as we know it, something else?)

4. Chemistry in space Shock waves Late heavy bombardment
Violent catastrophicity ?
Ehrenfreund et al. 2006

5. Organic compounds in Murchison
Compound Class Concentration(ppm) CO CO CH NH
Aliphatic hydrocarbons
Aromatic hydrocarbons
Amino Acids 60
Monocarboxylic acids 332
Dicarboxylic acids 26
a-hydroxycarboxylic acids 14
Polyols (sugar-related) ~24
Basic N-heterocycles
Purines
Pyrimidines
Amines
Urea 25
Benzothiophenes 0.3
Alcohols 11
Aldehydes 11
Ketones 16
Sephton 2002

6. Dartois et al. 2005

7. Small bodies in our Solar System
Their destiny…..
Impact on planets
Trapped by gravitational interaction
Ejected out of the Solar System

8. The origin of life depends on a planet’s geology, hydrosphere and atmosphere
National Geographic 1999

9. CARBON CHEMISTRY IN SPACE
The carbon chemistry seems to follow
common pathways throughout the Universe
SPITZER
Yan et al. 2005