Comment on "Organics captured from comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft".
Sandford et al. (Reports, 15 December 2006, p. 1720) reported on organic compounds captured from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust spacecraft. We emphasize the difficulty in assigning the origin of compounds detected diffusely along particle impact tracks and show that rapid heating of aerogel that has never been exposed to cometary particle capture can generate complex aromatic molecules from low-mass carbon impurities present in the aerogel.
Spencer
Maegan K
MK
Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5080, USA.
Zare
Richard N
RN
D019443:Cosmic Dust; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D019110:Meteoroids; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry
D019443:Cosmic Dust; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons