Meteors: A delivery mechanism of organic matter to the early Earth

All potential exogenous pre-biotic matter arrived to Earth by ways of our a tmosphere, where much material was ablated during a luminous phase called " meteors" in rarefied flows of high (up to 270) Mach number. The recent Leon id showers offered a first glimpse into the clusive physical conditions of the ablation process and atmospheric chemistry associated with high-speed m eteors. Molecular emissions were detected that trace a meteor's brilliant l ight to a 4,300 K warm wake rather than to the meteor's head. A new theoret ical approach using the direct simulation by Monte Carlo technique identifi ed the source-region and demonstrated that the ablation process is critical in the heating of the meteor's wake. In the head of the meteor, organic ca rbon appears to survive flash heating and rapid cooling. The temperatures i n the wake of the meteor are just right for dissociation of CO and the form ation of more complex organic compounds. The resulting materials could acco unt for the bulk of pre-biotic organic carbon on the early Earth at the tim e of the origin of life.