FAPCOME

Context and Objectives of the FAPCOME program

Organic matter found in meteorites and by consequence in their parent bodies may have been an important source of organic matter at the surface of telluric planets, next to their own processes. The understanding of the possibility of using this exogenous matter as a starting material for a prebiotic chemistry is a central point for astrobiological researches. This exogenous matter may have not been the most important reservoir, but it is currently the only observable that is available for us. If we consider then that all planetary systems similar to our Solar system have been subjected to the same sort of physical and chemical processes, each system has a same sort of organic matter in their interplanetary bodies that the one observed in our own system. Consequently, if we can develop researches devote to understand the behavior of the exogenous organic matter in a prebiotic environment such as the primitive Earth this could give important information on the degree of habitability of a given planet.

The final objective of the FAPCOME program is to understand the chemical evolution of the organic matter from the interstellar medium until its incorporation into planetary systems (asteroids, comets, planets). It is also to determine to what extent this exogenous material could play a role in the development of a prebiotic chemistry at the surface of planets. Therefore, this program connects the astrochemical part of my researches to the one of prebiotic chemistry. The astrochemistry part aims to improve our understanding on the various processes related to the formation of organic matter as observed in comets, asteroids and meteorites, and to determine to what extent this evolution can be considered as universal. This aspect will be then linked to experimental developments simulating the primitive Earth environment, in which we will study the interest that may have this exogenous material for the development of far from equilibrium chemical systems that we consider as a necessary step for the emergence of biochemical systems. For that purpose, I plan to extend the RAHIIA project to the PEPSE project. A part of the RAHIIA project consists in studying the alteration processes that can undergo the exogenous organic matter using residue analogues in order to trace the chemical evolution of astrophysical organic matter. Here, the objective will be to submit our residues to the conditions that may have been occurred on the primitive Earth, before the emergence of biochemical systems. Using these experiments, it will be possible to obtain information on the different molecules that are formed during the alteration process in such conditions. Next to these investigations, I also would like to study the evolution of the global system, and to determine if some specific chemical networks could emerge such as autocatalytic systems far from equilibrium. This FAPCOME program is based on a strong analytical skill as well as on physical and chemical characterization of reactions.

It was presented to an ERC consolidator grant in 2018 selected as B; resubmitted in 2019 and classed as A but not funded. The project is under evaluation at the ERC Advanced 2021.