Blogging from LPSC – Hayabusa Day

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Hayabusa was a Japanese mission to return material from an asteroid, Itokawa.  Its long story was a series of major problems, mainly overcome,  but until the sample collector was opened, it wasn’t known whether Hayabusa returned any sample at all.  … Continue reading →

Blogging from LPSC and the Decadal Survey

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Who would have thought there were so many planetary scientists in the world?  I don’t know how many are here in total, but I estimated that there were about 1100 in the room to hear about NASA’s priorities for future … Continue reading →

Interplanetary CSI

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What are Isotope Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry? -  Interplanetary Crime Scene Investigation Since we are starting a blog about isotope geochemistry and cosmochemistry, we should talk a little about what these exotic subjects are.  We and others research groups like us … Continue reading →

Stardust-NExT meets Comet Temple 1.

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Stardust-NExT is the reborn Stardust spacecraft that flew past Comet Wild II in 2004 and returned cometary grains to Earth in 2007.  After it successfully achieved its primary mission it was sent to observe Comet Temple 1 that had an … Continue reading →

About Us

This blog reflects the research interests of the Isotope Cosmochemistry and Geochemistry Group at the University of Manchester.  In our laboratories we study samples from comets, interstellar dust, interplanetary dust, Mars, the moon and asteroids to understand how the Earth … Continue reading →