Planetary Astronomy Late-morning Seminar for 2017-04-03

Series: Planetary Astronomy Late-morning Seminar
Date: Monday 3-Apr-2017
Time: 11:15-12:15
Location: CSS 1250
Speaker: Rok Nezic (Armaugh Observatory) & Nora Eisner (UMD/University of Sheffield)
Title: Student talks

Speaker: Rok Nezic (Armaugh Observatory) Title: Post-perihelion observations of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with VLT Abstract: In parallel with the NASA/ESA Rosetta mission at the comet, an extensive ground-based observing campaign of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko was coordinated by Colin Snodgrass before, during, and after the space mission's main phase. As part of this wider campaign, the comet was observed with VLT's 8.2 metre telescope in polarimetric mode, using the FORS instrument, in January and February 2016, past comet's perihelion of August 2015. In this talk I will present the observational methods used and the preliminary analysis of those results in the broader context of cometary observations. I will also briefly discuss the future work required for improving our understanding of this comet.

Speaker: Nora Eisner (University of Maryland/University of Sheffield) Title: Observations of comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak during its 2017 close approach Abstract: Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak is in the midst of an exceptionally close approach to Earth (0.14 AU on 2017 April 1). I will discuss our recent observations of 41P using Lowell Observatory's 42in telescope and supplemented by data from Lowell Observatory's 0.8m robotic telescope and the Discovery Channel Telescope. Notably, we discovered that the apparent period, as determined from CN coma morphology, was changing steadily during our observations and was significantly different than that determined by Farnham et al. just 2 weeks earlier.

Abstract TBA

For further information contact PALS coordinator Dr. Matthew Knight at knight@astro.umd.edu or (301)-405-2629.

SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS:

Special accommodations for individuals with disabilities can be made by calling (301) 405-3001. It would be appreciated if we are notified at least one week in advance.

DIRECTIONS AND PARKING

Directions and information about parking can be found here.

This page was automatically generated on: 01-Apr-2017.