Interstellar and interplanetary solids in the laboratory
Abstract
The composition of the interstellar matter is driven by environmental parameters (e.g. elemental abundance, density, reactant nature, radiations, temperature, time scales) and results also from external interstellar medium physico-chemical conditions. Astrochemists must rely on remote observations to monitor and analyze the composition of interstellar solids. These observations give essentially access to the molecular functionality of the solids, rarely elemental composition constraints and isotopic fractionation only in the gas phase. Astrochemists bring additional information from the study of analogues produced in the laboratory, placed in simulated space environments. Planetologists and cosmochemists can have access and spectroscopically examine collected extra-terrestrial material directly in the laboratory. Observations of the diffuse interstellar medium (DISM) and molecular clouds (MC) set constraints on the composition of organic solids and large molecules, that! can then be compared with collected extraterrestrial materials analyses, to shed light on their possible links.