Editing Advanced Composition Explorer (section)

=== Origin of the elements and subsequent evolutionary processing ===
Isotopic "anomalies" in [[meteorites]] indicate that the [[Solar System]] was not homogeneous when formed. Similarly, the [[Galaxy]] is neither uniform in space nor constant in time due to continuous stellar [[nucleosynthesis]].

ACE measurements have been used to:
* Search for differences between the isotopic composition of solar and meteoritic material;
* Determine the contributions of solar wind and solar energetic particles to lunar and meteoritic material, and to [[Atmosphere|planetary atmosphere]]s and [[magnetosphere]]s;
* Determine the dominant nucleosynthetic processes that contribute to cosmic ray source material;
* Determine whether cosmic rays are a sample of freshly synthesized material (e.g., from [[Supernova]]) or of the contemporary interstellar medium;
* Search for isotopic patterns in solar and galactic material as a test of galactic evolution models.