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About Torsten Henkel

I'm a research assistant at the University of Manchester studying mainly presolar grains but also comets and solar wind. I have been heavily involved in building two time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometers in our labs which is my main instrument to analyze samples.

A look into the IDLE laboratory

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Our IDLE (Interstellar Dust Laser Explorer) laboratory is home to two time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometers (TOFSIMS) which we have built ourselves. Building the instruments ourselves not only saved money but also made it possible to customize the instruments for … Continue reading

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A Star in the Lab

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There is nothing better than analyzing a sample in the lab if you want to get accurate and comprehensive results. Despite stars being lightyears away it’s possible to get a star (a tiny piece of it to be precise) into … Continue reading

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