COMPLEX ORGANIC MATERIAL COMPRISES APPROXIMATELY 4 WT. % OF CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITES AND UP TO 25 WT. % OF COMETS. SINCE SMALL BODIES RECORD CONDITIONS DURING PLANET FORMATION ORGANIC MATERIALS MAY HAVE BEEN A MAJOR COMPONENT OF PLANETARY BUILDING BLOCKS IN THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM. DURING PARTIAL DIFFERENTIATION ICY SATELLITES THEREFORE MAY HAVE INCORPORATED SIGNIFICANT MASSES OF ORGANICS IN THEIR CORES. OPEN PYROLYSIS EXPERIMENTS AT AMBIENT PRESSURE ON INSOLUBLE ORGANIC MATTER (IOM) FROM CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITES SHOW THAT THESE MATERIALS BEGIN TO DECOMPOSE TO MORE VOLATILE SPECIES AT TEMPERATURES BELOW 200 DEGREES CELSIUS. THIS IS CONSISTENT WITH PRODUCTION OF OIL AND GAS FROM TERRESTRIAL KEROGEN WHICH BEGINS AT ~100 DEGREES CELSIUS. HOWEVER PARALLEL PYROLYSIS EXPERIMENTS ON IOM AND KEROGEN DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY IN THE TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF VOLATILE PRODUCTS (E.G. OKUMURA AND MIMURA 2011). ALTHOUGH THERE IS EXTENSIVE LITERATURE ON PYROLYSIS OF KEROGEN THERE ARE CLEAR LIMITATIONS TO THE USE OF KEROGEN AS AN ANALOG FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL MATERIALS. WE PROPOSE TO STUDY THERMAL DEGRADATION OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMPLEX ORGANIC MATERIAL IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EVOLUTION OF OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM INTERIORS. OUR STUDY WILL PROVIDE THE FIRST EXPERIMENTAL DATA ON DECOMPOSITION OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL COMPLEX ORGANICS AT PRESSURES (UP TO 3 KBAR) AND TEMPERATURES (300 TO 350 DEGREES CELSIUS) RELEVANT TO THE INTERIORS OF ICY SATELLITES TO TEST THE EXTENT OF VOLATILIZATION UNDER THESE CONDITIONS. WE WILL STUDY THREE DIFFERENT SAMPLES: 1. SYNTHETIC DEXTROSE-BASED IOM WHICH IS AN ANALOG FOR PRIMITIVE IOM BEFORE ALTERATION ON CHONDRITE PARENT BODIES. 2. DEMINERALIZED IOM EXTRACTED FROM THE CM2 CHONDRITE MURCHISON WHICH HAS BEEN SELECTED BECAUSE IT IS A RELATIVELY ABUNDANT RELATIVELY ORGANIC-RICH AND WELL CHARACTERIZED METEORITE SAMPLE. 3. WHOLE ROCK MURCHISON SAMPLES. OUR FIRST TASK IS TO PERFORM ANHYDROUS CONFINED PYROLYSIS EXPERIMENTS ON SYNTHETIC AND DEMINERALIZED IOM CHARACTERIZE THE PRODUCTS AND TEST THE EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON REACTION KINETICS. IN THE SECOND TASK WE WILL COMPLETE AQUEOUS CONFINED PYROLYSIS EXPERIMENTS ON SYNTHETIC AND DEMINERALIZED IOM TO TEST THE EFFECTS OF WATER. THE THIRD TASK WILL BE ANHYDROUS CONFINED PYROLYSIS OF WHOLE ROCK MURCHISON SAMPLES TO STUDY ORGANIC-MINERAL INTERACTIONS. THE RESULTS OF THIS PROJECT WILL HAVE IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS FOR VOLATILE CYCLES AND THE INTERIOR CHEMISTRY OF TITAN ENCELADUS EUROPA PLUTO AND OTHER OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES THAT MAY HAVE WARM INTERIORS.