Organics in the Interstellar Medium

Walt Duley

Department of Physics and Astronomy

University of Waterloo

I shall review some of the observational data that suggests that organic
molecules and carbonaceous particles are important components of
interstellar matter. These data provide specific information on the
composition of interstellar organics and challenge us to reproduce these
materials in the laboratory. Some recent experiments designed to
generate materials that reproduce the spectral properties of
interstellar organic matter will be discussed in the context of
available observational data