By 1958 he joined the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany as an assistant.
His contributions to astronomy included the study of gas isotopes in meteorites and lunar materials.
At Brookhaven National Laboratory, Zahringer worked with Oliver Schaeffer's cosmochemistry group applying mass spectrometry techniques to the study of rare gases in meteorites.
These studies were largely related to determining the exposure ages of meteorites to cosmic rays in space.
From this period until his death, Zahringer collaborated with Schaeffer who had moved on to found the Earth and Space Sciences Department at Stony Brook University.