December 2024 Lecture – Joseph Murtagh (QUB) – Exploring our Solar System: Past, Present, and Future

For our last lecture of 2024 we have yet another new speaker to the society. Joseph Murtagh from QUB will be giving us a lecture entitled: “Exploring our Solar System: Past, Present, and Future.” This lecture will take place on Monday 2nd December at 8pm sharp. This will be held in our usual venue of Ballyclare High School Lecture Theatre.

About Joseph: I am a current 3rd year PhD student at Queen’s University Belfast, where I work with Dr Meg Schwamb on understanding the small Solar System bodies through both observational studies with ground-based telescopes, and by creating models and simulations to compare. I completed my undergraduate master’s study at Queen’s University Belfast in 2022 in ground-based observations of comets and their brightening as they move nearer to the Sun.

About the talk: Our Solar System is a rich and dynamical playground of rocky planets, ice giants, and lots of chaotic and interesting smaller asteroids. From Sun-grazing Apollo-asteroids, to dusty snowball short-period comets like Halley, to the earliest fossil records of the Solar System beyond Neptune in dwarf planets, there is a treasure trove of information out there that can tell us about where we came from and how we came to exist. In this talk I want to give a guided history tour of how exactly we as Astronomers know how a Solar System is created, from the earliest dusty disk around the Sun, to planet formation, to what is currently out there now. I’ll then talk a bit about my research at QUB into how we get this understanding from both ground and space-based telescopes, as well as creating theoretical models of the Solar System. Finally, I’ll give everyone a sneak peek into the next revolutionary telescope, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, that is going to change how we think of the story of our Solar System.

I’m sure you’ll agree this is a big talk to finish off what has been a great year for the NIAAS. We’re really looking forward to meeting Joseph and hearing about his research. I’m sure you will all join me in making him feel really welcome to the NIAAS and remember since this is our Christmas meeting we’ll have some mince pies out after the talk!