October 20, 2022
Postdoctoral researcher Timo Hopp (now at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research) and Louis Block Professor Nicolas Dauphas analyzed iron isotopes from samples returned by the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft from asteroid Ryugu. They found that asteroid Ryugu formed in a reservoir that was different from the source regions of other carbonaceous asteroids. The distinct isotopic composition of Ryugu may reflect its formation at great distances from the Sun, ultimately owing its presence in the inner Solar System to excitation by Uranus and Neptune. "We are probably sampling some of the material that was in the outer disk when the sun was born," said Dauphas. The results have been published in Science Advances , and are summarized in a UChicago News article.
September 29, 2022
The origin of life on Earth stands as one of the great mysteries of science. Various answers have been proposed, all of which remain unverified. To find out if we are alone in the galaxy, we will need to better understand what geochemical conditions nurtured the first life forms. What water, chemistry and temperature cycles fostered the chemical reactions that allowed life to emerge on our planet? Because life arose in the largely unknown surface conditions of Earth’s early history, answering these and other questions remains a challenge.
“Right now we are getting truly unprecedented amounts of data coming in: Missions like Hayabusa and OSIRIS-REx are bringing us pieces of asteroids, which helps us understand the conditions that form planets, and NASA’s new JWST telescope is taking astounding data on the solar system and the planets around us,” said Prof. Ciesla. “I think we’re going to make huge progress on this question.”
September 24, 2022
UChicago Geophysical Sciences Department alumnus Nicole Xike Nie has been appointed to MIT's faculty. Nie, who is currently a postdoc at the Carnegie Institution for Science, received her PhD in isotope geo/cosmochemistry from the University of Chicago in 2019, working in Louis Block Professor Nicolas Dauphas' Origins Lab. Nie will start her appointment as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in 2023.