Organic chemistry: From the interstellar medium to the Solar System

A wide variety of organic compounds are observed in different environments in the interstellar medium. The processes by which these materials may have formed and been modified are reviewed, and evidence is presented that demonstrates that a measurable fraction of this material survived incorporation, substantially unaltered, into our Solar System during its formation. The nature of this material is of direct interest to issues associated with the origin of life, both because it represents a large fraction of the Solar System inventory of the biogenically-important elements, and because many of the compounds in this inventory have biogenic implications. Several specific examples of such molecules are briefly discussed.