The carbon budget in the outer solar nebula

by: Simonelli, D. P.; Pollack, J. B.; Mckay, C. P.; Reynolds, R. T.;
Summers, A. L.

ABSTRACT

The compositional contrast between the giant-planet satellites and the
significantly rockier Pluto Charon system is indicative of different
formation mechanisms cosmic abundance calculations, in conjunction with
an assumption of the Pluto Charon system's direct formation from solar
nebula condensates, strongly suggest that most of the carbon in the outer
solar nebula was in CO form, in keeping with both the inheritance from
the dense molecular clouds in the interstellar medium, and or the Lewis
and Prinn (1980) kinetic-inhibition model of solar nebula chemistry.
Laboratory studies of carbonaceous chondrites and Comet Halley flyby
studies suggest that condensed organic material, rather than elemental
carbon, is the most likely candidate for the small percentage of the
carbon-bearing solid in the outer solar nebula.

Icarus (ISSN 0019-1035), vol. 82, Nov. 1989, p. 1-35.