Cosmochemistry / Космохимия

Cosmochemistry provides critical insights into the workings of our local star and its companions throughout the galaxy, the origin and timing of our solar system’s birth, and the complex reactions inside planetesimals and planets (including our own) as they evolve. Much of the database of cosmochemistry comes from laboratory analyses of elements and isotopes in our modest collections of extraterrestrial samples. A growing part of the cosmochemistry database is gleaned from remote sensing and in situ measurements by spacecraft instruments, which provide chemical analyses and geologic context for other planets, their moons, asteroids, and comets. Because the samples analyzed by cosmochemists are typically so small  and valuable, or must be analyzed on bodies many millions of miles distant, this discipline leads in the development of new analytical technologies for use in the laboratory or flown on spacecraft missions. These technologies then spread to geochemistry and other fields where precise analyses of small samples are important <...>