Cosmochemistry is a research area focused on the chemical composition, distribution, and evolution of matter in the universe, particularly within the Solar System. It integrates radiogenic and stable isotope geochemistry, mineralogy, and astrophysics to investigate meteorites, cometary and interplanetary dust, lunar and planetary samples, and solar wind. By quantifying elemental and isotopic abundances and fractionation processes, cosmochemistry constrains models of nucleosynthesis, presolar grain formation, protoplanetary disk chemistry, and planetary differentiation. The field provides fundamental reference values for solar and chondritic compositions and elucidates the timing and conditions of early Solar System processes through chronometers such as short- and long-lived radionuclide systems.
Like a shelf in an old house, the Earth collects a lot of dust from its surroundings. This "space dust" is mostly made up of micrometeorites that survive atmospheric entry and provides researchers with a cheap and easy way ...
A Sydney Ph.D. student has recreated a tiny piece of the universe inside a bottle in her laboratory, producing cosmic dust from scratch. The results shed new light on how the chemical building blocks of life may have formed ...
Astronomy
Feb 2, 2026
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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), in collaboration with astrophysicists from the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, have identified the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever ...
Astronomy
Jan 23, 2026
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133
One of the most elegant theories about the origins of life on our planet is that it was kick-started by a delivery from outer space. This idea suggests that prebiotic molecules—the building blocks of life—were transported ...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are important carriers of organic matter throughout the universe. As organic molecules, they play a central role in interstellar chemistry and are closely related to the origin of prebiotic ...
Astronomy
Nov 25, 2025
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Dust brought back to Earth by China's Chang'e-6 mission contains rare meteorite relics that could change our understanding of sources of water and other life-essential ingredients in our solar system.
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the US space agency NASA have made an unexpected discovery that challenges one of the basic rules of chemistry and provides new knowledge about Saturn's enigmatic ...
Astrobiology
Oct 16, 2025
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205
Clues about how worlds like Earth may have formed have been found buried at the heart of a spectacular "cosmic butterfly." With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers say they have made a big leap forward ...
Astronomy
Aug 27, 2025
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Astronomers at Leiden University have detected rare isotopes of carbon and oxygen in our neighboring stars for the first time, providing a new path toward better understanding the chemical evolution of the cosmos. The results ...
Astronomy
Aug 26, 2025
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132
How did Earth, alone among the solar system's rocky planets, become the home for life? How, among all this frigid lifelessness, did our planet become warm, hospitable, and life-sustaining? The answer to these questions is ...
Astrobiology
Jul 8, 2025
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