Researchers in the University's Isotope Cosmochemistry and Geochemistry group use specially developed technology to scrutinise tiny samples of material gathered from Space.

They painstakingly identify the gases and other elements contained within meteorites or dust particles gathered from Space. And ultimately they hope that information will help them to work out how and when different parts of our galaxy were formed.

Now their ground-breaking research has been given a Pounds 3.5million boost from the Science and Technology Funding Council (STFC).

And Dr Ian Lyon, who is a Reader in Isotope Geochemistry, says the funding reflects the success of their ongoing research and the quality of the instruments that they have already developed.

Among the instruments they have developed are the Laser Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometers and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometers.

The Laser Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometer is 100 times more sensitive than any other instrument across the globe. And it is used for the analysis of the noble gas xenon, which is very rare on Earth and is particularly important when found within meteorites and other samples.

"Noble gases like Krypton and Xenon are extremely useful," said Dr Lyon. "They are very rare on Earth, but there are various processes in Space that can create or destroy isotopes of these two noble gases.

"We can measure these changes to work out histories and source materials of the stuff that became the Earth and planets, and eventually, us.

"Ultimately we hope to discover the chronology of the early Solar System and to build up a time line of when particular materials were produced, long before the Solar System was formed.

"We have learned how to find and isolate grains that condensed from material ejected from stars long before the Sun was formed. This is real stardust and we can analyse it in the laboratory.

"It's because we do unique things that the Science and Technology Facilities Council have funded us."

The cosmochemistry research team - which is based in the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences - is made up of physicists, chemists and geologists.

Current research themes include The Prehistory of the Solar System, The Formation and Early Evolution of the Solar System, the Stardust and Genesis missions and Early History and Evolution of the Moon and Mars.

And among the items currently being analysed are meteorites, inter-stellar grains and other materials brought back from NASA Space missions, including the Genesis Mission and the Stardust Mission, that returned material from the comet Wild 2.

The investigators working on this project are Dr Ian Lyon, Professor Chris Ballentine, Dr Henner Busemann, Dr Ray Burgess, Dr Jamie Gilmour, Dr Maria Schonbächler and Professor Grenville Turner.

The Pounds 3.5million grant from the STFC will be used to continue the development of instruments and to fund six post-doctorate members of staff over five years.

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