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Recently, we have been involved in a couple of studies of tiny glass droplets recovered from soil samples returned from the Moon in December 2020 by the China National Space Agency Chang’e-5 mission. These melt droplets are impact glass beads, … Continue reading
Luna 24 was the third Soviet attempt to return samples from Mare Crisium, on the Eastern lunar nearside. It landed on the 18th August 1976 just 2.5 km away from the Luna 23 spacecraft, which got there in November 1974 … Continue reading
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Most of us in the group study meteorites, and you can get a bit obsessed with these cool space rocks! It’s easy to get lost in meteorite classifications, so I’ll try to keep things simple in the following. First, we … Continue reading
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Exciting times in Manchester! A few months ago we were awarded a grant by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council to equip ourselves with a new piece of kit. The system comprises an excimer laser (LA) hooked up to … Continue reading
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With a total mass of ~650 grams, the meteorites Graves Nunataks (GRA) 06128 and 06129 are two large paired stones found by the US ANSMET team during the 2006 season in the Graves Nunataks area of the Transantarctic Mountains. The … Continue reading
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Today’s blog is written by PhD student Nian Wang, who is visiting our group for 6 months from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) in Beijing. Nian’s work deals with the geological evolution … Continue reading
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The origin of organic matter found in water- and carbon-rich meteorites, known as carbonaceous chondrites, which formed during the birth of the Solar System around 4.55 billion years ago, may provide important clues to understanding how life originated here on … Continue reading
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Chlorine belongs to a group of elements known as the halogens, which are important tracers to investigate questions related to planet formation processes or habitability, for example (more on that in this previous blog entry on halogens in chondrite meteorites). … Continue reading
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Carbonaceous microstructures resembling micro-organisms have been reported from numerous Archean formations (the Archean period ranges between 2.5 and 4.0 billion years ago). However, unequivocally identifying microfossils and their associated metabolism is not trivial in ancient rocks, notably because billions of … Continue reading
Earth & Solar System 