Planetary Science Seminars

Seminars

The MSSL Planetary Science Group holds regular external speaker seminars in conjunction with other MSSL Solar System research groups:

Upcoming seminars:

Date	Speaker	Title
11 June 2025	Carly Howett, University of Oxford	TBA

Past Seminars

Date	Speaker	Title
22 January 2025	Théo Vrignaud, Institute of Astrophysics in Paris (IAP)	Exocomets in the Beta Pictoris system
27 November 2024	Conor Nixon, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center	Investigating Saturn’s Moon Titan from spacecraft and space telescopes
31 October 2024	Prof. Lewis Dartnell, University of Westminster	Astrobiology and Outreach
29 October 2020	Dr. Cyrielle Opitom, University of Edinburgh	Investigating the Composition of (Interstellar) Comets using Ground-Based Optical Observations
12 February 2020	Dr. Dominic Papineau, Department of Earth Sciences, UCL	The Oldest Fossils on Earth
23 January 2020	Dr. Peter Kollman, APL, USA	Giant Planet Radiation Belts
25 May 2018	Dr. Jamie Jasinski, JPL, USA	Mercury's magnetosphere: recent results from MESSENGER
23 May 2018	Dr. Robert Bursten, University of Bath	Planets, Plasmoids, Leaky Taps, Springs and Chaos
18 January 2017	Dr. Matthew Knight, Maryland University, USA	Insights from 20 Years of SOHO Comets
5 December 2016	Dr. Nick Achilleos, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCL	The Relation Between Energetic Particles and Magnetospheric Structure and Thermospheric Dynamics at Saturn
13 October 2016	Dr. Beatriz Sanchez-Cano, Leicester University	Martian ionospheric response to solar wind variability during the solar cycle
13 June 2016	Dr Christian Mavris, Natural History Museum	Acid and rust: Understanding alteration processes on Mars
17 May 2016	Dr Japheth Yates, ESA	ULF Waves at Saturn
10 February 2016	Dr Matt Taylor, ESA ESTEC	Results from the Rosetta Mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
20 November 2015	Dr. Colin Snodgrass, Open University	Comet science through telescopes
28 April 2015	Dr. Norbert Krupp, Max Planck Institude of Solar System Research, Germany	Visualizing the Invisible and Other Wonders of Saturn's Magnetosphere - 10 years of Cassini results
18 March 2015	Dr. Heli Hietala, Imperial College London	Unravelling the solar wind drivers of the storm-time radiation belt response
24 Feb 2015	Nathan Pilkington, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCL	How does Plasma Shape Saturn's Magnetosphere?
18 February 2015	Dr. Robert Fear, University of Southampton	Observational tests of flux transfer event structure
29 January 2015	Dr. Mick Denton, Lancaster University	A new empirical model of ion and electron fluxes at geosynchronous orbit
9 October 2014	David Miles, University of Alberta	Next- Generation Fluxgate Magnetometry at the University of Alberta
7 October 2014	Dr. Hanna Dahlgren, Royal Institute of Technology KTH/ University of Southampton	Energy and flux characteristics of dynamic fine scale aurora
1 September 2014	Dr. Jonny Nichols, University of Leicester	Jupiter and Saturn's UV aurora
20 August 2014	Prof. Ian Mann, University of Alberta	The Impacts of Ultra Low Frequency Waves on the Dynamics of the Earth’s Van Allen Belts
14 August 2014	Dr. Andrew Walsh, ESAC, Spain	Automatic Georeferencing of Astronaut Auroral Photography: Providing A New Dataset for Space Physics
9 May 2014	Prof. Tom Cravens, Kansas University, USA	The plasma environment of comets, Mars and Titan - Prospects for Rosetta and Maven
6 June 2014	Dr. Lorenzo Mattein, Imperial College London	Kinetic Processes in the Solar Wind
12 May 2014	Prof. Michael Balikhin, University of Sheffield	System Approach to Solar-Terrestrial Physics: Advance in Physical Understanding and Space Weather Forcast
7 April 2014	John Coxon, University of Leicester	The Birkeland current system and its place in the expanding/contracting polar cap paradigm
18 March 2014	Dr. Catriona Jackman, University of Southampton	Dynamics of the magnetotails of Jupiter and Saturn from magnetic field and plasma flow measurements
10 October 2013	Dr. David Knudsen, University of Calgary	Thermal Ion Imaging and its Role on Swarm and the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe Satellites
7 August 2012	Dr. Marissa Vogt, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester	The Structure and Dynamics of Jupiter's Magnetosphere
3 July 2012	Dr. Karen Aplin, Department of Physics, University of Oxford	Electrical processes in planetary atmospheres
19 June 2012	Dr. Sarah Badman Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA	Cassini VIMS insights into solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at Saturn
3 April 2012	Dr. Lewis Dartnell, Space and Climate Physics, UCL	Cosmic rays and the search for life beyond Earth
20 March 2012	Prof. Jan-Peter Muller, Space and Climate Physics, UCL	3D imaging and web-GIS for PanCam
13 March 2012	Dr. Licia Ray, Department of Physics, Imperial College	Limitations to the transfer of angular momentum in Saturn's middle magnetosphere
28 February 2012	Dr. Caitríona Jackman Physics and Astronomy, UCL	Comparative planetary magnetotails
31 January 2012	Dr. Nick Achilleos, Physics and Astronomy, UCL	Further Exploration of the Saturn System: Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling and Plasmasheet Structure
17 January 2012	Dr. Yasir Soobiah Swedish Institute for Space Physics, Uppsala	Classification of plasma acceleration signatures above the Martian crustal magnetic fields

Resources:

Comet Trails:

Introduction to Planetary Science:
What is Planetary Science?
Seminar Series

Group Contact:
Dr Louisa Preston
l.preston@ucl.ac.uk