High impact information on Solar System

• Carbonates on large Solar System bodies like Earth and Mars (the latter represented by the meteorite ALH84001) form through the weathering of silicates in a watery (CO3)2- solution [1].
• Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only satellite in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere [2].
• Alanine is not racemic, and the 13C enrichment of its D- and L-enantiomers implies that the excess of the L-enantiomer is indigenous rather than terrestrial contamination, suggesting that optically active materials were present in the early Solar System before life began [3].
• The astrophysical conditions under which this Krypton has been produced were distinct from those that have been invoked to explain the Solar System s-process abundance [4].
• The now extinct short-lived radionuclides beryllium-10 and, possibly, manganese-53 that were present in meteorites probably resulted from energetic particle irradiation within the solar system [5].

Biological context of Solar System

• Key questions deal with the source of abiotic organic material on the early Earth, the nature of interstellar organic material and its relationship to the observed organic compounds in the outer solar system, and the possible origin of life on Mars early in its history [6].
• They are relevant to the formation and evolution of complex organics on interstellar dust, comets and other small bodies in the external Solar System. In particular the formation of CN-bearing species is discussed [7].
• Thus, this satellite of Saturn appears as a privileged place in the solar system for the study of extraterrestrial organic chemistry which can be considered as part of Exobiology [8].

Associations of Solar System with chemical compounds

• If the upper atmosphere and ionosphere of Triton are controlled by precipitation of electrons from Neptune's magnetosphere as previously proposed, Triton could have the only ionosphere in the solar system not controlled by solar radiation [9].
• The existence of 16O-enriched olivine-rich inclusions suggests that oxygen isotopic anomalies were more extensive in the early solar system than was previously thought and that their origin may be attributed to a nebular chemical process rather than to an unidentified 16O-rich carrier of presolar origin [10].
• The observed values of D/H in water and HCN imply a kinetic temperature >/=30 +/- 10 K in the fragment of interstellar cloud that formed the solar system [11].
• The identification of the CN versus H atom exchange channel makes these reactions compelling candidates to synthesize unsaturated nitriles in solar system environments [12].
• All orbit closer to their stars than do the giant planets in our Solar System, and most of those that do not orbit closer to their star than Mercury is to the Sun travel on highly elliptical paths [13].

Gene context of Solar System

• The technique allows one to understand the localization of preserved organic matter before undertaking destructive chemical analyses and, because it is nondestructive, offers a potentially important tool for astrobiological investigations of samples returned from Mars or other solar system bodies [14].
• These molecules are all found in the Comet Halley coma, and are probable but, (except for CH4 detected on Triton and Pluto) undetected subsurface constituents in icy outer solar system objects [15].
• beta Pictoris (beta Pic) is a main-sequence star with an edge-on dust disk that might represent a state of the early Solar System. The dust does not seem to be a remnant from the original protoplanetary disk, but rather is thought to have been generated from large bodies like planetesimals and/or comets [16].
• We summarize the current status of atmospheric chemistry in the atmospheres of the outer solar system with special emphasis on the question of HCN formation on Jupiter, differences between polar and equatorial compositions on Jupiter, the coloration of the Great Red Spot, and the unique environment of Titan [17].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Solar System

• We also outline a new scattering model for atmosphereless bodies in the solar system and show how it fits Mariner 10 surface photometry of the planet Mercury [18].

References