Dr Martin Suttle

Professional biography

2021 - present. Lecturer in Planetary Sciences – Solar system formation and evolution. School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

2019-2021 Postdoctoral Researcher – The Geological History of Water-rich Asteroids. The Planetary Materials Group, The Natural History Museum London, UK.

2018-2019 Postdoctoral Research Associate – The Cosmochemical Study of Giant Antarctic Micrometeorites. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Italy.

2014-2018 PhD Planetary Sciences – The Parent Bodies of Fine-grained Micrometeorites: A Petrologic & Spectroscopic Perspective. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, UK.

2010-2014 MSci degree in Geology. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, UK.

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Research interests

Aqueous alteration in primitive extraterrestrial materials: I study the geochemical and isotopic properties of hydrated carbonaceous chondrites (CO, CM, CY, CI and C-ungrouped meteorites) and fine-grained micrometeorites. They are samples of water-rich asteroids and their study allows us to explore the interaction between rock and water across a range of geochemical environments. By investigating primitive hydrated bodies we seek to understand fundamental early geological processes that operated on minor bodies during the age of accretion and planet-building, approximately 4.5 billion years ago. This topic lies at the forefront of modern research interests, directly informing current and upcoming space missions (including OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusa2, DAWN, ROSETTA, Comet interceptor and DESTINY+).

Developing fossilized micrometeorites as a new atmosphere and climate proxy: Alongside colleagues at the Natural History Museum and Imperial College London we are pioneering the use of fossil micrometeorites as a new proxy to infer changes in the composition of Earth’s atmosphere over geological time. Cosmic dust grains fall to Earth continuously. During their passage through the atmosphere they are flash heated, melted and oxidized. A small fraction survive to the surface and eventually become preserved in sedimentary rocks, forming “fossil micrometeorites”. Analysis of these ancient extraterrestrial materials provides insights into the compositional diversity of the asteroid belt whilst also providing a means of indirectly inferring the composition of Earth’s upper atmosphere in the past. In particular micrometeorites could be used as a tool to reconstruct former CO₂ and O₂ levels at key periods in Earth’s history.  

The geological diversity of comets: Comets are balls of rock and ice that formed in the outer regions of the early solar system. Their primitive compositions preserve insights into the reservoirs from which matter condensed, the accretion behaviour of solids at large heliocentric distances and the origin of water and volatiles. Today, comets originate from two source regions – an inner ring extending from the orbit of Neptune out to ~1000 astronomical units (AU), referred to as the Kuiper Belt and an outer spherical zone (>10,000 AU from the Sun), referred to as the Oort Cloud. Despite decades of research we still know little about the composition and internal structure of comets nor do we know how much variation exists among comet populations. Are there different compositional types of comets and if so, what can these types tell us about the structure of the protoplanetary disk? I aim to tackle this question by combining telescopic observations of distant comets with microanalysis of rare cometary dust grains.

My long-term goal is to explore comparative planetary evolution and the formation of habitable worlds beyond the snowline. I am particularly interested in how high-water contents influence planetary evolution, leading to bodies like Ceres with evolved upwelling brines and Europa with potentially habitable subsurface oceans. I see experimental petrology as a key tool for resolving these research questions through its unique ability to generate analogues of deep interior materials (cores, mantles and crusts) from bodies that no longer exist (e.g., the CM chondrite planetesimal) and/or are missing from our meteorite record. We can then target our experimental products with the full suite of geochemical and isotopic instrumentation that we usually analyse meteorites with, allowing us to fill in crucial gaps in our understanding of the trajectory of planetary differentiation on water-rich bodies. Such an approach has the ability to quantitatively constrain the effect of elevated water contents and higher oxygen fugacity on core formation, magnetic field generation, volatile retention, the formation of hydrated silicates or hydrous melts, the generation of subsurface oceans on icy moons and to better understand exotic exoplanetary bodies that are not represented in our own Solar System but known to exist elsewhere in the galaxy.

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My research output includes 51 publications in peer-reviewed journals (20 first-authored) and >65 conference contributions as well as a range of online and print science communication articles. A full list of my journal publications can be found on Google scholar.

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PhD Supervision

PhD, primary supervisor: Faye Davies (2025-present) “Comets under the microscope: fundamental geochemistry in the outer reaches of the early Solar System”.

PhD, primary supervisor: Bianka Babrian (2023-present) “Low temperature geochemistry on water-rich asteroids explored through hydrothermal alteration experiments”.

PhD, primary supervisor: Liza Riches (2022-present) “Carbonates in ungrouped carbonaceous chondrites: tools for exploring the geology of hydrated asteroids”.

PhD, co-supervisor: Isabelle Mattia (2022-present). “The extraterrestrial dust flux through geological time”.

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Workshops and conferences:

I will be leadng the Geolgoical Society of London Planetary Science workshop on CM chondrites on 12/07/2024 (and 24/01/2025).
I was a co-convener of the Royal Astronomical Society's 2022 specialist meeting on cosmic dust research (11/02/2022).
I was theme lead for the coarse-grained subteam within the international consortium effort analysing the Winchcombe meteorite (2022-2023). 

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Teaching interests

I am module team chair for our level 2 practice science course: SXPS288: Remote experiments in physics and space. 
I am also deputy chair for our level 2 planetary science course: S283: Planetary science and the search for life
I am a module team member for S350: Evaluating contemporary science. 

I have completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) in digital and online  remote teaching.

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Impact and engagement

My research has been featured in the New Scientist, Astronomy magazine, BBC radio Kent, ASU News, Zeiss and several other online articles. I have also written science communication articles for The Conversation, Evidently Scientifical (I, II & III), Diamond Lightsource, Imperial College London and Science Trends. Today I am involved in the use of micrometeorites, collected from urban environments (e.g. rooftops, gutters, road sweepings etc.) as an engagement resource. The ability to rapidly recover and confidently identify cosmic dust from easily accessible sites opens a new avenue of planetary science to the public. Urban micrometeorites have huge potential for citizen science and educational projects as demonstrated by the work of Jon Larsen (Project Stardust), Scott Peterson, Dr Thilo Hasse and Dr Sarah Roberts. In collaboration with micrometeorite hunters we aim to develop this topic as an inspiring access tool in STEM subjects.

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External collaborations

Prof. Sara Russell – The Natural History Museum, London.
Dr Ashley King – The Natural History Museum, London.
Prof. Luigi Folco – Università di Pisa, Italy.
Dr Fabrizio Campanale – Università di Pisa, Italy.
Dr Matt Genge – Imperial College London.
Dr Jacopo Nava – Università di Padova.
Dr Jenny Feige – Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.
Prof. Maitrayee Bose – Arizona State University, USA.
Dr Matthias van Ginneken – University of Kent, UK.
Dr Craig Walton – University of Cambridge/ETH Zurich.
Dr Tobias Salge – The Natural History Museum, London.
Dr Helena Bates – The Natural History Museum, London. 
Dr Zélia Dionnet – CNES chez Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, France.
Dr Ansgar Greshake – Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany.
Dr Lutz Hecht – Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany.
Dr Thilo Hasse – Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany.
Dr Flore van Maldeghem – Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. 
Charlotte Bays – The Natural History Museum, London.
Scott Peterson – Minnesota, USA (https://micro-meteorites.com/)
Jon Larsen – Project Stardust, Norway.