The volatilome (sometimes termed volatolome or volatome) contains all of the volatile metabolites as well as other volatile organic and inorganic compounds that originate from an organism, super-organism, or ecosystem. The atmosphere of a living planet could be regarded as its volatilome. While all volatile metabolites in the volatilome can be thought of as a subset of the metabolome, the volatilome also contains exogenously derived compounds that do not derive from metabolic processes (e.g. environmental contaminants), therefore the volatilome can be regarded as a distinct entity from the metabolome. The volatilome is a component of the aura of molecules and microbes (the microbial cloud) that surrounds all organisms.