About Me
I am a PhD student at Mt Stromlo Observatory and in the
Planetary Sciences Institute of the Australian National University in Canberra.
Planetary Sciences Institute of the Australian National University in Canberra.
Contact
- michele@mso.anu.edu.au
- +61 2 6125 0236
- Mount Stromlo Observatory
Cotter Road
Weston ACT 2611
Australia
Science as it happens
Mt Stromlo Observatory
Michele Bannister
The Solar System: full of more wonderful landscapes and fascinating worlds
than we could have imagined
than we could have imagined
Hunting for dwarf planets
The small icy worlds beyond Neptune provide insights into the early history of the Solar System. The dwarf planets have been thoroughly surveyed in the Northern Hemisphere, but no extensive search has yet been completed in the South. I am using five years of observations at Siding Spring Observatory, and the new SkyMapper survey, to look for the largest and brightest of these trans-Neptunian objects.
My advisor Mike Brown discusses our work: Heading south, looking up
My advisor Mike Brown discusses our work: Heading south, looking up
The mutual events of Haumea
The orbits of the moons of this strange dwarf planet are currently lined up so that from our view here on Earth, they eclipse Haumea itself. This alignment will persist only for another year or so, then not recur for another 300 years. As part of an international collaboration, I am trying to observe these rare events: they could allow us to very accurately calculate the shape of Haumea, which spins so fast that it is warped out into the form of a rugby ball.
Isotopes on the Moon
As the solar wind bombards the surface of our Moon, it embeds fragments of the raw stuff of the Sun into particles of metal in the lunar soil. Some soil was brought back by the Apollo missions. By analysing these tiny particles with an ion microprobe, we can measure the proportions they hold of the two rare types of elemental oxygen. These proportions are different between the asteroids and the rocky planets. Will this measurement from the primordial source, the Sun, be able to change our understanding of how the planets formed?
Geophysics in Antarctica
The arid and windswept McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica are carpeted with the polygons of patterned ground, a geological formation that is also seen on the northern plains of the planet Mars. The polygons, photographed here by me in Victoria Valley, develop over thousands of years.
I have been working to understand the influence that buried masses of ice have on the development of patterned ground. By looking below the surface with geophysical methods, we can map out the buried ice and the wedges of ice that grow downward to separate out each polygon. This will help us to better understand the patterned ground of Mars.
I have been working to understand the influence that buried masses of ice have on the development of patterned ground. By looking below the surface with geophysical methods, we can map out the buried ice and the wedges of ice that grow downward to separate out each polygon. This will help us to better understand the patterned ground of Mars.
