Explorations in Astrobiology: Evolution of Organic Matter from the ISM to Planetary Systems

We propose to observe the mid-IR spectroscopic signatures of biologically important organic molecules in molecular clouds, protostellar envelopes, planet forming systems, and planetary debris disks. In addition to yielding a more complete census of organic materials in the ISM, these observations will provide insight into how these molecules are physically and chemically processed into the chemical precursors of life in the circumstellar environments and planetary systems around young stars. Understanding the nature, sources, and evolution of this matter in solar systems is a major objective of the NASA Astrobiology program. NGST is uniquely suited to this observational task. It is the only planned observatory sensitive enough to sample multiple lines of sight in nearly any galactic molecular cloud or resolve the spatial distribution of pre-biotic organic matter in protostellar envelopes and planetary disks. ASWG DRM Proposal Explorations in Astrobiology: Evolution of Organic Matter from the ISM to Planetary Systems