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.
Many people imagine the space between the stars as an empty, cold infinity. In reality, it is teeming with extraordinary molecules: More than 300 different types have already been discovered. For her Ph.D. thesis, chemist ...
Astronomy
Jun 2, 2025
0
45
Prebiotic molecules central to life's earliest metabolic processes—chemical reactions in cells that change food into energy—may have been born in deep space long before Earth existed, according to new research from the University ...
Astrobiology
Apr 22, 2025
0
118
There is a large diversity in the chemical composition of astronomical objects such as planets, comets, circumstellar envelopes, or galactic gas clouds. One great challenge in astrochemistry is to understand in detail how ...
Astrobiology
Apr 16, 2025
0
31
A team of researchers at the University of Oxford have uncovered crucial evidence for the origin of water on Earth. Using a rare type of meteorite, known as an enstatite chondrite, which has a composition analogous to that ...
Astrobiology
Apr 15, 2025
1
215
The chemical element sulfur is essential for all lifeforms and is a building block of proteins and amino acids. By studying sulfur-based molecules in space, scientists are working to understand the chemical processes that ...
Astrobiology
Mar 20, 2025
0
49
Understanding where Earth's essential elements came from—and why some are missing—has long puzzled scientists. Now, a new study reveals a surprising twist in the story of our planet's formation.
Astrobiology
Feb 5, 2025
2
308
A physicist, a chemist and a mathematician walk into a bar. It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but in my case, it was the start of an idea that could reshape how scientists think about the history of the moon.
Planetary Sciences
Dec 21, 2024
0
80
A team of international scientists has unveiled groundbreaking research on the origins of lunar water, offering insights that could reshape our understanding of the Earth-moon system and the broader solar system. Published ...
Space Exploration
Dec 19, 2024
0
89
Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results suggest that without 'unmelted' asteroids, there may not have been enough ...
Astrobiology
Oct 11, 2024
0
227
Over six missions to the moon, from 1969 to 1972, Apollo astronauts collected more than 800 pounds of lunar rock and soil. Chemical and isotopic analysis of that material showed that it was similar to the rock and soil on ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 27, 2024
2
472
