Planetary science underlies much of the research at the Geophysical Laboratory. We study the structure and composition of matter over a wide range of temperatures and pressures appropriate to planetary materials. Our goal is to understand the physical and chemical structures of planets to depths as far as our laboratory pressure capability can take us. We study the transformation of surface, mantle and core materials in dynamic processes that create structural and geochemical change during the evolution of planets.
We also study extraterrestrial materials that may have come from planets or planetary building blocks early in the solar system, such as meteorites and comets, in order to deduce the nature of the original material that made up the solar system and the evolution of this material, physically and chemically, during and after the formation of the solar system. We apply unique laboratory instrumentation and an array of expertise from mineral physics to geochemistry to organic chemistry to microbiology in this work. A particular focus is on insoluble organics in these samples and on what these materials can tell us about the evolution of organic chemistry in the solar system. The Laboratory is active in analyzing samples returned from space such as from the recent Stardust mission that returned samples of Comet Wild2.
Finally we work on finding measurements and instrumental techniques for identifying evidence of fossil life in geological materials. This evidence could consist of a particular distribution of minerals, elements or isotopes in a rock sample, or perhaps even morphologic evidence of fossil microbes and their chemical remains. We conduct field expeditions in Mars analog sites on earth to test these techniques and instruments, and staff members participate on flight instrument investigations to other planets to search for organic material and signs of past or current life. We have a fundamental interest in the evolution of complex chemistry on young planets and the how the transition takes place from chemistry to biology early in planetary history.