Amy L. Morrow, Stanford Universiy, Department of Chemistry, Palo Alto, USA

In order to investigate the presnce of organic materials, specifically polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), we applied two-step laser desorption laser ionization mass spectrometry (L2MS) to selected 2008 TC3 fragments. In this technique, a pulsed infrared laser is used to desorb neutral species from the surface of a sample and, after a time delay to allow plume development, PAHs are selectively ionized via (1+1) REMPI and analyzed using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. In this study, the bulk PAH composition of a large number of fragments was analyzed. In addition, the spatial distributions of PAHs were mapped for two unmodified samples. These results as well as a discussion of sources of terrestrial organic contamination will be presented.