Planet Formation Lab @ WWU

The Planet Formation Lab at Western Washington University,  is dedicated to the study of the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets.

We are interested in planet formation and the chemistry of raw materials from which planets form. Our driving questions are: How did we get here? How did Earth and other terrestrial planets of our Solar System form? How different are planets of our Solar System and exoplanets? Is Earth unique? Is our Solar System unique? 

To address these questions, we use various techniques, including laboratory experiments, numerical modeling and data science. By performing experiments at high pressure and temperature and numerical modeling, we replicate the differentiation of planets into core, mantle and crust. We also use machine learning algorithms to evaluate the classification of meteorites and their components, and to improve models of planetary differentiation .