Organic Analysis of the Returned Lunar Sample

Abstract

Lunar fines have been examined for organic compounds by crushing, programmed heating, hydrofluoric acid etching, and solvent extraction. Products were examined by mass spectroscopy. A variety of small organic molecules, including methane and other hydrocarbons, accompanied the release of the rare gases when the sample was heated in a stepwise fashion to 900 degrees C under vacuum. Methane is more abundant (abundance on the order of 1 part per million) than argon in the matrix-entrapped gases liberated by hydrofluoric acid etching of lunar fines. Methane is also present in a dark portion of the gas-rich meteorite Kapoeta.