This research conducted three projects about the bio-essential elements — hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P) — in extraterrestrial samples.

Since the Moon was once a part of proto-Earth and its rocks have experienced very little geological activity, the Moon is able to reflect the genesis of Earth. Learning about the history of the Moon therefore improves our understanding of Earth's history. While the crust of the Earth only covers around 30% at most of the planet historically, the crust completely covers the Moon (Hess, 1989). This difference led to the issue of the source of water (oceans), because it seemed unlikely that Earth produced its own water. This research would study several lunar mare (darker lowlands on the Moon's surface) basalt samples (including some exposed to the atmosphere for decades and some new ones) and contrasting analyses about their hydrogen history, inferring the source of the water. To check the water content and mineral petrography, the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope, Hitachi SU5000) & EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy) and Cameca ims 1270 Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry & SCAPS (Stacked CMOS Active Pixel Sensor) ion imager would be utilized. This research would begin digging into the validity of water distribution in lunar glass, but more accurate data would be required for further investigation into this problem.

Chondrules are mm-scale size sphere-shaped grains in chondrites, which experienced melting and re-crystalizing. They preserve evidence of the heat activities and processes of nebula in the early Solar System (Krot et al., 2014). The "Flyby Model" proposed by W. Herbst and J. P. Greenwood (Herbst and Greenwood, 2019) could not provide the required heating time for the oxygen isotope exchange obtained by Di Rocco and Pack's experiment (Di Rocco and Pack, 2015), so we tried a different experimental set up to explore the possibility that oxygen isotope were inherited from chondrule precursors. The materials, including rock powders and 18O-rich water, were mixed based on calculated percentages, then frozen, heated and cooled. With the help of SEM analysis, EDS, SCAPS, etc., we compared the δ18O in dry and wet samples with San Carlos olivine as a standard. Our work implied that the inherited oxygen were able to oxidize olivine within our synthetic chondrules.

Asteroid Ryugu was formed by the re-accumulation of ejecta materials in a collision of a hydrated parent body. Its uniform dehydration pattern showed a widespread aqueous alteration before its formation (Neumann et al., 2021). Its carbon and water contents provided implications for life on Earth. An unknown dehydrated Mg-phosphate (possible formula: Mg(PO3OH)or(1~2)H2O) was found in Ryugu's returned sample (Ma et al., 2022), but its origin and history remain a mystery. The purpose of this research was to synthesize magnesium phosphate minerals and alter them to better understand the hydration history of Ryugu during early Solar System history. The unknown Mg-Phosphate was inferred to be struvite (MgNH4PO4or6H2O) or newberyite (Mg(PO3OH)or3H2O). Reagents were used to grow Mg-phosphate crystals (verified by X-Ray Powder Diffraction by MSE Supplies and Brown University); oven/water batch and acidic solution of pH=2.99 were applied to crystals to simulate dehydration process. Our results showed that the heat would cause struvite to dehydrate and transform to amorphous form, indicating heat as a possible explanation for the dehydration on Ryugu. The exact times and temperatures need further experimentation.