Newly discovered ways to study meteorites may provide new understanding of the solar system

IBM researchers Leo Gross and Katharina Kaiser, in collaboration with scientists at NASA and universities in Spain, France and Japan, used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to obtain the first ever atomic-resolution images of molecules of extraterrestrial origin. This research lays the groundwork for future discoveries of yet unknown molecules which could explain the mysteries around the formation of the solar system and the origin of life. The researchers used samples of the famous Murchison meteorite, provided by NASA, to image …

solar study