Interstellar Matter in Meteorites and Interplanetary Dust

Meteorites and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are primitive solar system materials which contain preserved nebular condensates, circumstellar dust grains and partially preserved molecular cloud matter. The circumstellar dust grains found in meteorites are direct samples of a variety of stars, and provide detailed constraints on models of stellar nucleosynthesis. Hydrogen and nitrogen isotopic anomalies in organic matter in meteorites and IDPs are thought to originate from chemical processes in a presolar molecular cloud. This material is better preserved, but less well characterized among IDPs.