February 21, 2013 – 2:00 pm
Searching for the Solar System’s Chemical Recipe « Berkeley Lab News Center - The ratio of isotopes in elements like oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen were once thought to be much the same everywhere, determined only by their different masses. Then isotope ratios in meteorites, interplanetary dust and gas, and the sun itself were found to differ from those on Earth. Planetary researchers now use Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source to study these "mass-independent" effects and their origins in the chemical processes of the early solar system.(10.1073/pnas.1213150110)
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October 30, 2011 – 12:00 am
Complex organic matter may have been found beyond the Solar System - Scientists in Hong Kong believe they have found traces of organic compounds deep in interstellar space that have similar structures to coal and oil. The findings - which are based on infrared spectroscopic data - suggest that these organic compounds exist throughout the universe, and may have seeded life on Earth.
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