Michele Bannister, Astrophysicist, at Queen’s University Belfast, giving a talk entitled "Interstellar worlds", on the Cosmos Stage at New Scientist Live 2019
The first minor planet from beyond our solar system was discovered in October 2017. `Oumuamua has been travelling between the stars for many millions of years before its brief visit to us. Observations show this visiting planetesimal has many curious properties, with kinship to the tiny worlds in our own system. In this talk, Michele will describe how `Oumuamua and its trillion trillion cousins, wandering the galaxy, are part of an overarching cycle of planetesimal formation and scattering over billions of years, may even seed the formation of planets themselves. Michele Bannister is an expert in the discovery and characterisation of minor planets in the solar system. She has been involved in the discovery of more than 800 minor planets that orbit beyond Neptune. Originally from New Zealand, Bannister has worked at institutes in Australia, the US, and Canada. She was honoured in 2017 by the International Astronomical Union with asteroid (10463) Bannister. n 2014 she was co-investigator on the Colours for the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS). She was appointed a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria and the National Research Council (Canada) in 2013 Whilst at the University of Victoria she discovered a new dwarf planet (RR245) with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. RR245 is near the Kuiper played for a local Ultimate team,[20] and published poetry. In August 2016 she joined Queen's University is on the Science Team of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer. She was involved with the observation of ʻOumuamua, an interstellar object from another solar system that passed through our own in 2017. She studied the brightness of ʻOumuamua and presented the colour composite image. 10463 Bannister was named after her in 2017.
Size: 4799px × 3398px
Location: ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock,
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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