Publisher's Synopsis
The 16 papers in this volume are concerned with the study of some of the most primitive bodies of the solar system, including comets, dark asteroids, carbonaceous chondrites and the primeval Earth. Major questions address their organic composition and the role that some of these bodies may have had on the processes of chemical evolution which presumably led to the emergence of life on Earth. The recent discovery of organic molecules in interstellar space, Halley's comet, and other primitive solar system bodies, coupled with the new measurements of deuterium/hydrogen isotope ratios in the amino acids of carbonaceous chondrites is increasing our understanding of the cosmic and prebiotic mechanisms of organic synthesis in the solar system and of the origin of life on Earth.
