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.
Astrochemist Ryan Fortenberry, UM associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, collaborated with Ralf Kaiser, of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, to study the creation of a simple sugar acid in space-like conditions. ...
Astrobiology
Sep 25, 2024
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