Stability of organic molecules against shocks in the young Solar nebula

TL;DR

This paper investigates how organic molecules like methane and amino acids form and survive during shock events in the early Solar System, shedding light on the origins of organic material and potential pathways for life's building blocks.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of chemical formation and destruction timescales of organic molecules during shock events in the young Solar nebula, linking chemistry with astrophysical processes.

Findings

Organic molecules can form and survive during shock events.

Shock waves influence the stability and chemical composition of organic molecules.

Chemical timescales are comparable to shock timescales in the early Solar System.

Abstract

One of the fundamental astrobiology questions is how life has formed in our Solar System. In this context the formation and stability of abiotic organic molecules such as CH4, formic acid and amino acids, is important for understanding how organic material has formed and survived shocks and energetic particle impact from winds in the early Solar System. Shock waves have been suggested as a plausible scenario to create chondrules, small meteoritic components that have been completely molten by energetic events such as shocks and high velocity particle impacts. We study here the formation and destruction of certain gas-phase molecules such as methane and water during such shock events and compare the chemical timescales with the timescales for shocks arising from gravitational instabilities in a protosolar nebula.