In a few key instances the chemical composition of meteorites and comets provides a fossil
record of the physical conditions present at their creation. In this
talk I will explore a new line of evidence that links the chemistry of the solar
nebula (the cloud of gas and dust that collapsed to from our solar system)
to that seen in interstellar space today. In particular, I
will discuss new work on the abundance of water vapor and ice in molecular
clouds and link this to the origin of oxygen isotopic anomalies seen
in primitive meteorites. I will show how this also implies that the Sun did not
form in isolation, but rather was formed in a cluster of stars.
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