Department of Earth Sciences
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Interplanetary and Interstellar Dust Group
The Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing group at the Institute of Geological Sciences of Freie Universität Berlin is involved in several ESA and NASA space missions to explore the solar system and our neighbouring planets. During the formation of our solar system, most presolar dust grains were destroyed or heavily processed. A minor population of circumstellar presolar grains survived processing in the protosolar disk and can be recognized by their extremely diverse isotopic composition. In contrast, the solar system as part of our galaxy, is constantly subject to interstellar material made of dust and gas, that passes through our solar system. These contemporary interstellar dust particles (IDP) can be analyzed in situ from a spacecraft or can be captured and brought back to Earth by a sample-return mission.
