LPSC 2012

Well we made it!!! After hours of delayed flights, missed connections, fully booked alternatives, planes turned back due to faulty toilets, no sleep and extremely bad treatment at the hands of US Airways we got to Houston! 5 of us … Continue reading →

Xenon in Zircons: Unravelling Their History

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A short time ago I wrote about some of our work analysing the xenon in zircons from the Jack Hills region of Australia, the oldest known material on Earth. If you think trying to unravel xenon contributions from 2 sources … Continue reading →

The oldest thing on Earth

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Jack Hills, Western Australia – a hot, dry and barren place where very little lives. But it is here that the oldest known materials on Earth have survived from shortly after the formation of the Earth until the present day. … Continue reading →

Why do we keep going on about xenon?

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Those of you who have been following this blog may have noticed that there are quite a number of posts about xenon. We even have a special mass spectrometer which can only measure xenon. But why? Why are we so … Continue reading →

How small is small?

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Our RELAX instrument measures the ratios of different xenon isotopes. We can analyse samples so small that they contain fewer than a thousand atoms of xenon. The graphic below gives you an idea of how small an amount of material … Continue reading →

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 →

Xenon in the intriguing meteorite Graves Nunatak 60129

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Antarctica, 2006; the Graves Nunataks ice-field: a meteorite is  found that is different to any found before. Graves Nunataks 06129 is an ancient achondritic meteorite that originated in the upper crust of an asteroid. Its composition is dominated (>75%) by … Continue reading →

RELAXing in the lab

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RELAX is an instrument used to measure xenon isotope ratios. Contrary to popular believe, this does not mean we sit around the lab with our feet up all day! RELAX stands for Refrigerator Enhanced Laser Analyser for Xenon. It is … Continue reading →