About

Professor Edward Young's research is focused on understanding the origins of the solar system and our place within it. His laboratory studies the solar system by comparing findings with star and planet formation processes currently occurring in the Galaxy. The research targets include planets and their atmospheres, the Moon, asteroids, and the interstellar medium. The scope of the research encompasses the solar protoplanetary disk, ancient minerals found in meteorites, isotope chemistry of the interstellar medium, rocky bodies of the inner solar system, and the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere. Professor Young's primary observations involve the chemistry of rocks and gases, the interstellar medium, and polluted white dwarf stars. His research employs tools such as isotope ratio mass spectrometry, reconstructions of the origins of solar-system nuclides, and spectroscopic determinations of isotope ratios in the interstellar medium. The laboratory utilizes a variety of advanced instruments and methods, including some of the largest telescopes in the world, vacuum-line experiments, novel mass spectrometers, and both laboratory-based and computational studies to advance the understanding of cosmochemistry and planetary science.

Research topics

• Geology
• Physics
• Astrobiology
• Earth science
• Chemistry
• Paleontology
• Geochemistry
• Environmental science
• Mineralogy
• Astronomy
• Thermodynamics
• Geophysics

Selected publications

• Nonenergy Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS): Assessing Durability of Nongaseous Carbon Products Across Terrestrial Storage Fates

  Chemical Reviews · 2026-04-10

  articleOpen access

  Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage, or BiCRS, pathways use plants or algae that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it underground or in long-lived products. While some BiCRS approaches generate an energy product, all BiCRS approaches generate a carbon product. A new subset of BiCRS approaches focus on the storage of these raw or converted carbon products for generation of carbon credits. However, the durability of these approaches is highly variable as carbon products vary widely in their "form" and the conditions of their "fate." We organize our thinking about carbon products and their durability around these two primary axes. The durability of carbon product "forms" is mediated by chemical recalcitrance and ranges substantially across agricultural residues, municipal solid waste, woody biomass, and nongaseous products of thermochemical conversion (e.g., biochars and bio-oils). Meanwhile, terrestrial storage "fates" vary in the mechanism employed to stall decay, including surface storage, dry storage, shallow anoxic storage, and deep or geologic anoxic storage (or injection). Each mechanism has different implications for suitability with different feedstock forms as well as long-term risks. We present a framework for assessing durability of solid or liquid raw and conversion carbon products under terrestrial storage fates, highlighting knowns, unknowns, and research priorities moving forward.

  PublisherDOI

• Redefining interiors and envelopes: hydrogen-silicate miscibility and its consequences for the structure and evolution of sub-Neptunes

  ArXiv.org · 2025-09-16

  preprintOpen access

  We present the first evolving interior structure model for sub-Neptunes that accounts for the miscibility between silicate magma and hydrogen. Silicate and hydrogen are miscible above $\sim 4000$K at pressures relevant to sub-Neptune interiors. Using the H$_2$-MgSiO$_3$ phase diagram, we self-consistently couple physics and chemistry to determine the radial extent of the fully miscible interior. Above this region lies the envelope, where hydrogen and silicates are immiscible and exist in both gaseous and melt phases. The binodal surface, representing a phase transition, provides a physically/chemically informed boundary between a planet's "interior" and "envelope". We find that young sub-Neptunes can store several tens of per cent of their hydrogen mass within their interiors. As the planet cools, its radius and the binodal surface contract, and the temperature at the binodal drops from $\sim 4000$K to $\sim 3000$K. Since the planet's interior stores hydrogen, its density is lower than that of pure-silicate. Gravitational contraction and thermal evolution lead to hydrogen exsolving from the interior into the envelope. This process slows planetary contraction compared to models without miscibility, potentially producing observable signatures in young sub-Neptune populations. At early times ($\sim 10$-$100$Myr), the high temperature at the binodal surface results in more silicate vapour in the envelope, increasing its mean molecular weight and enabling convection inhibition. After $\sim$Gyr of evolution, most hydrogen has exsolved, and the radii of miscible and immiscible models converge. However, the internal distribution of hydrogen and silicates remains distinct, with some hydrogen retained in the interior.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Triple-oxygen isotopic evidence of prolonged direct bioleaching of pyrite with O2

  Earth and Planetary Science Letters · 2025-09-30 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  • Unequivocal evidence of O2 directly oxidizing pyrite sulfur. • The proportion of air-O2 oxygen in pyrite-derived sulfate is ca. 90 % at maximum. • Microbial pyrite oxidation can be ca. 10x faster than abiotic pyrite oxidation, even during initial stage leaching. • The Rio Tinto area in SW Spain hosts a unique environment where high flow of very low pH water maintains oxidative conditions dominated by O2 with solutions containing >50 % Fe2+. Sulfate is often touted as containing atmospheric oxygen whose isotopic signature can constrain redox, environmental conditions, and biological activity. Yet, the amount and isotopic fractionation associated with air-O 2 incorporation during sulfate formation is still debated, making its verification difficult. In this study, we identify a distinct, microbially dominated environment with the potential to preserve maximum signals of air-O 2 in sulfate. We report triple-oxygen isotope data for sulfate produced from pyrite oxidation in microbial and abiotic experiments, and from natural dissolved sulfate from the Rio Tinto, Spain, an acid mine drainage site. The oxygen isotope systematics of sulfate in these environments define a unique kinetic isotope effect associated with initial stage pyrite oxidation by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans that preserves >80 % oxygen from air-O 2 in sulfate. Unlike experiments, which evolve toward water-oxygen dominated sulfate on short time scales, Rio Tinto, Spain hosts a microbe rich environment with distinct geochemistry that maintains high O 2 -oxygen in sulfate. Therefore, in addition to containing isotopic records from water and air, sulfates can also contain a biosignature that is promising for understanding conditions on Mars and early Earth. One Sentence Summary: Sulfate can contain > 80 % dissolved O 2 -oxygen and triple-oxygen isotopes show kinetic effects associated with initial stage leaching by microbes.

  PublisherDOI

• Global inventory of doubly substituted isotopologues of methane (Δ ¹³ CH ₃ D and Δ ¹² CH ₂ D ₂ )

  Earth system science data · 2025-12-08

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract. Measurements of methane (CH4) molecules containing two rare isotopes (13CH3D and 12CH2D2), also termed doubly substituted or “clumped” isotopologues, have the potential to provide two additional isotopic dimensions to help investigate the mechanisms underlying global atmospheric trends in CH4. In this work, we summarise the current state of research on doubly substituted CH4 isotopologues, with an emphasis on compiling results of all relevant work. The database comprises 1475 records compiled from the literature published until April 2025 (https://doi.org/10.5285/51ae627da5fb41b8a767ee6c653f83e6, Defratyka et al., 2025). For field samples, 40 % of records were sourced from natural gas reservoirs, while microbial terrestrial (e.g., agriculture, lake, wetland) samples account only for 12.5 %. Lakes samples contribute 75 % to collected microbial terrestrial samples. There is limited or no representation of samples coming from significant microbial CH4 sources to the atmosphere, like wetlands, agricultural practices and landfills. To date, laboratory experiments were mostly focused on microbial (28 % of samples from laboratory experiments) and pyrogenic (15 %) methanogenesis or anaerobic (16 %), and aerobic (8 %) CH4 oxidation, with only single study of photochemical oxidation via OH and Cl, which constitutes 5 % of the laboratory experiments entries. The distinct ranges of Δ13CH3D and Δ12CH2D2 values measured in these studies suggests their potential to improve our understanding of atmospheric CH4. This work provides an overview of the major gaps in measurements and identifies where further studies should be focussed to enable the highest impact on understanding global CH4.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An Equation of State for Supercritical H ₂ -Silicate Mixtures in Sub-Neptunes

  2025-01-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• The Clumped Isotope Signatures of Multiple Methanogenic Metabolisms

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2025-07-03 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, an important energy source, and an important part of the global carbon cycle. The relative abundances of doubly substituted (“clumped”) methane isotopologues (13CH3D and 12CH2D2) offer important information on the sources and sinks of methane. However, the clumped isotope signatures of microbially produced methane from different methanogenic pathways lack a systematic investigation. In this study, we provide a data set encompassing isotopic signatures of hydrogenotrophic, methylotrophic, acetoclastic, and methoxydotrophic methanogenesis. We find that a statistical “combinatorial effect” generates significant differences in 12CH2D2 compositions between hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis and the other pathways, while variations in the fractionation factors of clumped isotopologues result in differences in 13CH3D compositions between the methylotrophic, acetoclastic, and methoxydotrophic pathways. The energy yield of methanogenesis and the energy conservation approaches implemented by different microbial strains may also influence the isotope values of methane. Further analysis suggests that previously observed isotopic signatures of methane in freshwater environments are potentially due to mixing between hydrogenotrophic and other methanogenesis pathways. This study provides new experimental constraints on the isotope signatures of different microbial methanogenic pathways and evidence of the mechanisms responsible for the observed differences. This enables a better understanding of the sources and sinks of methane in the environment.

  PublisherDOI

• Chemical, isotopic (O, He, U), and petrological characteristics of a slowly cooled enriched gabbroic shergottite, Northwest Africa 13134

  Meteoritics and Planetary Science · 2025-04-10 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Northwest Africa 13134 is a coarse‐grained gabbro with an oxygen isotopic composition consistent with a Martian origin and is classified as an enriched shergottite based on its bulk trace element abundances and bulk La/Yb ratio of 1.53. The meteorite is composed of a framework of large pyroxene rods up to 6 mm in longest dimension (64% by area) with interstitial maskelynite (formerly plagioclase; 28% by area). Minor phases include merrillite and apatite, Fe‐Ti oxides, and Fe‐sulfides; trace phases such as baddeleyite, tranquillityite, fayalitic olivine, silica, and a felspathic phase are observed in evolved mesostasis pockets and partially crystallized magmatic inclusions in minerals. Individual pyroxene rods display a distinctive patchy Ca zoning pattern of juxtaposed low‐Ca (pigeonite) and high‐Ca (augite) patches with a common crystallographic orientation indicating epitaxial growth. Low‐Ca pigeonite is the volumetrically dominant pyroxene phase (~70% of exposed pyroxene) and was the primary liquidus phase, followed closely by augite. Plagioclase crystallized along with the other minor phases from the residual melt between cumulus pyroxene rods. Pyroxenes display ubiquitous exsolution lamellae with typical widths and spacings of 1–2 μm. Sulfide grains are characterized by flame‐shaped lamellar intergrowths of hexagonal pyrrhotite (Fe 0.90 S) and slightly metal‐deficient pyrrhotite (Fe 0.98 S), along with minor pentlandite and chalcopyrite. The pyroxene and sulfide microtextures suggest that the gabbro experienced slow and protracted subsolidus cooling. Ilmenite‐oxide pairs imply an oxygen fugacity of ~1 log unit below the fayalite–magnetite–quartz buffer at a closure T ≈ 875°C. Collectively, the texture and bulk composition suggest that Northwest Africa 13134 represents a slowly cooled and coarsely crystalline portion of a solidified magma body similar to the source of the enriched basaltic shergottites. Magnetite occurs locally as veins crosscutting pyrrhotite grains and in oxide–phosphate symplectites observed at merrillite–apatite phase boundaries. The presence of magnetite in the sample suggests that at various stages of cooling, the gabbro interacted with relatively oxidized fluids, which could be of deuteric or exogeneous origin. A cosmic‐ray exposure age of 2.8–4.0 Ma was calculated based on 3 He measured in pyroxene grain separates and overlaps with other shergottites. Finally, we present the first bulk uranium isotope measurement of a Martian meteorite: δ 238 U = −0.22 ± 0.10‰ and δ 234 U sec = +9.57 ± 0.35‰. These values indicate slight excesses in heavy U but overlap with the distribution of U isotope compositions of the Earth and other solar system materials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Do White Dwarfs Sample Water-Rich Planetary Material?

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2025-08-27

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Polluted white dwarfs offer a unique way to directly probe the compositions of exoplanetary bodies. We examine the water content of accreted material using the oxygen abundances of 51 highly polluted white dwarfs. Within this sample, we present new abundances for three H-dominated atmosphere white dwarfs that showed promise for accreting water-rich material. Throughout, we explore the impact of the observed phase and lifetime of accretion disks on the inferred elemental abundances of the parent bodies that pollute each white dwarf. Our results indicate that white dwarfs sample a range of dry to water-rich material, with median uncertainties in water mass fractions of $\approx$15\%. Amongst the He-dominated white dwarfs, 35/39 water abundances are consistent with corresponding H abundances. While for any individual white dwarf it may be ambiguous as to whether or not water is present in the accreted parent body, when considered as a population the prevalence of water-rich bodies is statistically robust. The population as a whole has a median water mass fraction of $\approx$25\%, and enforcing chondritic parent body compositions, we find that 31/51 WDs are likely to have non-zero water concentrations. This conclusion is different from a similar previous analysis of white dwarf pollution and we discuss reasons why this might be the case. Pollution in H-dominated white dwarfs continues to be more water-poor than in their He-dominated cousins, although the sample size of H-dominated white dwarfs remains small and the two samples still suffer a disjunction in the range of host star temperatures being probed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The value of returning a sample of the Martian atmosphere

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-01-06 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The elemental and isotopic abundances of major species in the Martian atmosphere have been determined, but analyses often lack sufficient precision, and those of minor and trace species are frequently not well known. Many important questions about the evolution and current state of Mars require the kind of knowledge that can be gained from analysis of a returned sample of the Martian atmosphere. Key target species include the noble gases, nitrogen, and various species containing carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, such as methane. More detailed analyses will no doubt provide measurements of other species that will allow insights of their own. These volatiles can constrain the origin of the Martian atmosphere, exchange of volatiles between the surface and interior, polar processes, and (in the case of methane) the possibility of extant biology on Mars.

  PublisherDOI

• Noble Gas Isotopes and Nitrogen Isotopologues Reveal Deep Sources and Subsurface Fractionation in Yellowstone Gases

  ACS Earth and Space Chemistry · 2025-03-24 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Nitrogen plays a critical role in maintaining Earth’s hospitable surface environment over geological time. Despite our atmosphere being dominated by nitrogen, our understanding of how nitrogen was delivered to Earth and how subsequent planetary processes modified Earth’s nitrogen budget through time is currently lacking. Here, we report measurements of isotopologues of N2 (Δ30), along with ultrahigh precision measurements of Ar, Kr, and Xe isotopes, of hydrothermal gas samples from Yellowstone National Park. We show that δ15N variations are correlated with nonradiogenic Ar, Kr, and Xe isotope ratios, indicating that groundwater-derived nitrogen and noble gases in hydrothermal samples are fractionated by the same process as they diffuse through a rising column of magmatic CO2. Notably, a similar correlation exists regardless of the degree of atmospheric contamination, suggesting that the δ15N of the Yellowstone mantle source is similar to the atmosphere (i.e., ∼0‰). Two component mixing models between Δ30 and noble gases demonstrate that N2/36Ar (5.3 ± 0.7 × 105) and 36Ar/130Xe (1611 ± 212) in the Yellowstone mantle source are lower and greater than the MORB mantle source, respectively, suggesting that contrary to previous findings, the plume mantle source has not been more efficiently overprinted by the addition of N2- and Xe-rich recycled material. Conversely, we suggest that the similarity in δ15N and N2/36Ar between the Yellowstone mantle source and chondritic meteorites indicates that nitrogen and noble gases in the deep mantle reflect the composition of the material that initially formed Earth.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Applying O2/Ar, DELTA17O and 222Rn methodologies to constrain organic carbon productivity in the upper ocean of the ETSP

  NSF · $99k · 2010–2012

• Experimental Investigation of Non-Traditional Stable Isotope Fractionation in Geological Materials

  NSF · $332k · 2007–2011

• Experimental Calibration of Inter-mineral Magnesium and Iron Isotope Fractionation at High Temperatures

  NSF · $341k · 2016–2022

• Construction of a gas-handling system for measurement of bond ordering in methane gas

  NSF · $31k · 2015–2016

• Developement of Tandem, Double-focusing, Electron Impact, Gas Source Mass Spectrometer for Measurement of Isotopologues in Geochemistry

  NSF · $500k · 2011–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Marc Chaussidon

  Université Paris Cité

  119 shared

• J. Aléon

  Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie

  118 shared

• Ming‐Chang Liu

  86 shared

• K. D. McKeegan

  85 shared

• Laurette Piani

  Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques

  84 shared

• I. E. Kohl

  Thermo Fisher Scientific (Germany)

  82 shared

• K. Ziegler

  81 shared

• L. R. Nittler

  Carnegie Institution for Science

  81 shared

Education

• Postdoctoral Fellow, Geophysical Laboratory

  Carnegie Institution of Washington

  1993

• PhD

  University of Southern California

  1990

Awards & honors

• AGU Fellow 2021