Chemistry PS1 11 Organic Chemistry

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic molecules common on Earth. They are also the most abundant complex molecules observed in the ISM (interstellar medium), including fullerenes, carbon chains, and amino acids. 

Fullerenes are a third form of carbon, along with graphite and diamond. Configured in the pattern of the geodesic domes designed by Buckminster Fuller, they are nearly spherical and extremely stable. 

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Much of the brightness in this infrared view of the Horsehead nebula, in the image above, comes from PAH emissions

NASA PD

https://herschel.jpl.nasa.gov/chemicalOrigins.shtml

Carbon chains are an important component of the organic inventory in cold molecular clouds and in carbon-rich outflows from the poles of stars in the latter stages of their evolution. 

The fundamental building blocks of proteins, amino acids represent an intermediate step in the prebiotic evolution of life. A rich inventory of amino acids have been found in carbonaceous meteorites, presenting the intriguing possibility that the precursors of life on Earth could have come from space.

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Ethanol was used as a rocket fuel in some of the earliest rockets: Robert Goddard's first-ever liquid fueled rocket and the German V2 and others. See the potential of ethanol as a rocket fuel WIS