Sachiko Amari’s research interests revolve around the formation and the early history of the solar system and beyond.
The bulk of Amari's work has been concentrated on presolar grains, which are defined as stardust formed in stellar outflow/ejecta, and were incorporated into primitive meteorites. These presolar grains retain the information of their parent stars. By studying isotopic ratios of presolar grains, we can learn nucleosynthesis in stars, mixing in stellar ejecta, and the Galactic chemical evolution (=temporal variation of abundances of elements and isotopes in the Galaxy). She uses secondary ion mass spectrometry to study these grains.
Another topic which Amari started investigating is the origin of volatiles, especially noble gases, in the solar system. Noble gases in meteorites are concentrated in a very small portion of meteorites. She is trying to identify the material and the trapping mechanisms of noble gases, which will give us insight into the processes that occurred in the early solar system.
