Fullerenes and Nanodiamonds in Aggregate Interplanetary Dust and Carbonaceous Meteorites

If fullerenes are a common carbon phase in circumstellar dust and the presolar dust of the dense molecular wherein our solar system had formed, they should be present in the most primitive samples that still contain the vestiges of the accreting dust in the solar nebula 4.56 Ga ago. Such dust would be expected to have survived in comet nuclei and in the most primitive asteroids. They would be represented by collected chondritic, aggregate, interplanetary dust particles. As yet, there is no evidence of fullerenes in these particles but C₆₀ and higher fullerenes are present in several carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Metastable fullerenes may not survive the complex natural processing of comet and asteroid debris in the parent body, during solar system sojourn and atmospheric entry and laboratory storage. The possibility of fullerene modification to nanodiamonds in primitive asteroids is discussed.