Meteorites - Time Capsules of the Solar System or How to Form a Habitable Earth

About this event

Thorsten Kleine, Director, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, will present the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences 2026 Robert M. Walker Distinguished Lectures, Public Lecture.

Meteorites are rocks from space that were broken off their parent asteroids and fell onto Earth. They are time capsules that allow us to look back about 4.5 billion years ago, when the solar system formed and planet formation began. In this lecture, I will show and explain what meteorites are, how research on them helps us understand how the Earth formed and identify the key processes that made it the habitable planet we know today.

Thorsten Kleine is Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, where he leads research into the origin and evolution of the Solar System. A cosmochemist and meteorite researcher, his work uses high-precision isotope analyses of meteorites and planetary materials to investigate how planets, asteroids, and moons formed more than 4.5 billion years ago. Previously a professor at the University of Münster and a researcher at ETH Zürich, Kleine is internationally recognized for his contributions to planetary science and the study of early Solar System history. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the F. W. Clarke Medal, the Nier Prize, and the Victor Moritz Goldschmidt Award.