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Kebukawa Lab
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The lab traces the origins of the building blocks of life through organic matter in meteorites and asteroids.
AboutAbout the lab
How did the building blocks of life form in space?
The Kebukawa Lab studies where organic matter in space originates and how it has changed.
It combines analysis of meteorite and asteroid samples with experiments that simulate space environments.
It focuses in particular on how the organic matter that served as raw material for life was formed.
Key terms
- Organic matter
- Compounds containing carbon. Many of the substances that make up living things, such as amino acids and sugars, are organic matter.
- Amino acid
- A molecule that serves as a building block of proteins. Amino acids have also been found in some meteorites.
- Synchrotron radiation
- Extremely intense light emitted when electrons are bent at nearly the speed of light. It makes it possible to examine very fine details of materials.
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to understand how organic matter in asteroids and meteorites formed and changed, and to gain new insights into the origin of life on the early Earth. It approaches this through both experiments that simulate space environments and analysis of extraterrestrial samples.
*Illustrative imageOrganic Matter Formation in Space and the Origin of Life
In experiments simulating the water environments created by melting ice inside asteroids, the lab has shown that amino acids and sugars can form from simple molecules. It also studies the formation of the sugar that is a component of DNA.
*Illustrative imageNitrogen in Meteoritic Organic Matter
At synchrotron radiation facilities such as SPring-8, the lab analyzes in fine detail the nitrogen-bearing organic matter in meteorite and asteroid samples. It is also involved in analyzing the Ryugu samples returned by Hayabusa2 and the Bennu samples.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Kebukawa Lab consist of faculty, part-time faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and doctoral and master's students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorYoko KebukawaPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Carbonaceous chondrite (Murchison Meteorite) ( )” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Organic Matter Formation in Space and the Origin of Life: “Bennu mosaic OSIRIS-REx” NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona / Public domain (cropped)
- Nitrogen in Meteoritic Organic Matter: “SPring- img pano” Artorius / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (羽場研究室): “Eucrite (Vestan gabbro) (Tirhert Meteorite)” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (横山研究室): “Asteroid Ryugu (ann19006a)” JAXA, University of Tokyo & collaborators / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (石川研究室): “Lherzolite mantle xenolith in basalt (Afton Basalt Flow Upper Pleistocene, 15-20 ka; Kilbourne Hole Crater, Aden-Afton Basalt Field, Potrillo Volcanic Field, southwestern New Mexico, USA) ( )” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (上野雄一郎研究室): “Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay - Western Australia - 27 Aug. 2014” Bryn Pinzgauer / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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