TL;DR
This paper reviews the current knowledge on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in comets, highlighting their detection through various observational and laboratory methods, and emphasizing their significance as a link between interstellar medium and cometary material.
Contribution
It compiles and synthesizes observational and laboratory evidence of PAHs in comets, including the first definitive detection in cometary nuclei.
Findings
PAHs are detected in comets through infrared and ultraviolet spectra.
Laboratory analysis of cometary samples confirms the presence of PAHs.
Stardust mission provided unambiguous evidence of PAHs in cometary nuclei.
Abstract
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules, ubiquitously seen in the interstellar medium (ISM) of our own and external galaxies, might have been incorporated into comets if they are formed from relatively unprocessed interstellar matter. The detection of PAHs in comets would be an important link between the ISM and comets. This review compiles our current knowledge on cometary PAHs, based on ground-based and space-borne observations of infrared vibrational and ultraviolet fluorescence spectra of comets, and laboratory analysis of interplanetary dust particles possibly of cometary origin and cometary samples returned to Earth by the Stardust spacecraft. The latter provided the most unambiguous evidence for the presence of PAHs in cometary nuclei.
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