Michael Weisberg, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at Kingsborough Community College and Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The Graduate Center, has for many years been studying the evolution of the solar system. His work consists of a type of space exploration on earth: He is a Cosmochemist who studies materials (meteorites) that are parts of planetary bodies -- including asteroids, the moon and mars -- which have broken off and have landed on earth. Many of the meteorites that he studies have been found in Antarctica and Australia. He is particularly interested in certain types of meteorites called chondrites, which are among the oldest and most primitive materials available for laboratory study. Having remained unchanged for over 4.55 billion years, they are a record of the beginning of our Earth and the solar system. Dr. Weisberg's petrologic-geochemical studies of these materials help us to understand the conditions and processes that were active in the early solar system. His findings on olivine aggregates and the processes they have gone through have provided a window into a past time when the first gasses in the early protoplanetary disk were transformed into the first solids, thereby creating our solar system.
One goal of his research is to distinguish between the characteristics of the materials formed in the solar nebula and those formed from parent body (asteroid) processes, such as impact or hydrothermal alteration. Dr. Weisberg also classifies meteorites. He recently discovered a brand new type of chondrite which is 70% metal, and may represent primitive material from the innermost regions of our solar system. While pursuing this research at the American Museum of Natural History, where he holds the title of Research Associate, Professor Weisberg is able to utilize sophisticated research equipment such as the electron microprobe and scanning electron microscope. His research program is funded by NASA.