Michele Bannister

Last updated

Michele Bannister
Michele Bannister in Hawai'i.jpg
Bannister in front of the Gemini North telescope on Hawai'i
Born1986 (age 37–38)
Alma mater
Scientific career
Institutions
Thesis Bright trans-Neptunian objects in the southern sky  (2014)
Doctoral advisor Paul J. Francis, Brian Schmidt, Michael Brown
Website www.astro.uvic.ca/~micheleb/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Michele Bannister (born 1986) is a New Zealand planetary astronomer and science communicator at the University of Canterbury, who has participated in surveying the outermost Solar System for trans-Neptunian objects. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Bannister is from Waitara, New Zealand. [2] She attended Waitara High School, where she won the Korean War Essay Competition. [3] She studied astronomy and geology at the University of Canterbury, graduating in 2007 with first class honours. [2] She spent nine weeks working in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. [2] Before starting her PhD she completed a summer school in Castel Gandolfo. [4] She earned her PhD in 2014, working on trans Neptunian objects at the Australian National University. [5] She searched for new dwarf planets at the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. [6] The telescope survived the Warrumbungles fire which destroyed twelve properties in Coonabarabran. [7] Whilst at Australian National University she played in the Flying Disc team. [8]

Research and career

In 2014 she was co-investigator on the COLours for the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS). [9] She was appointed a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria and the National Research Council (Canada) in 2013. [2] [10] Whilst at the University of Victoria she discovered a trans-Neptunian object (2015 RR245) with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] 2015 RR245 is near the Kuiper belt. [18] She played for a local Ultimate team, [19] and published poetry. [20]

In August 2016 she joined Queen's University Belfast. [21] [22] She is on the Science Team of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer. [23] She was involved with the observation of ʻOumuamua, an interstellar object from another solar system that passed through our own in 2017. [24] She studied the brightness of ʻOumuamua and presented the colour composite image. [25] [26] [27] 10463 Bannister was named after her in 2017. [28] [29] [1] In 2020 she returned to her alma mater, the University of Canterbury as a lecturer in astrophysics. [30]

Public engagement

Bannister is a popular science communicator, and has spoken at the Royal Society, The Planetary Society, SETI Institute, Irish Astronomical Society and European Astrofest. [31] [32] [33] In 2013 she was a curator on the RealScientists channel. [34] She reported on the images coming in from Pluto during the spacecraft flyby on Radio New Zealand and Nature in 2015. [35] [36]

She discussed astronomy on Canadian radio station CFAX between 2015 and 2016. [37] She appeared on the BBC Sky at Night in 2017 and 2018. [38] [39] She has written for The Conversation and The Planetary Society magazine, as well as contributing to Scientific American, Newsweek, National Geographic New Scientist, Slate and The Guardian. [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45]

Awards and honors

Asteroid 10463 Bannister, discovered by Eleanor Helin and Schelte Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in 1979, was named in her honor. [1] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 13 April 2017 ( M.P.C. 103975). [46]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuiper belt</span> Area of the Solar System beyond the planets, comprising small bodies

The Kuiper belt is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from when the Solar System formed. While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles, such as methane, ammonia, and water. The Kuiper belt is home to most of the objects that astronomers generally accept as dwarf planets: Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, may have originated in the region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planets beyond Neptune</span> Hypothetical planets further than Neptune

Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's quest for Planet X. Lowell proposed the Planet X hypothesis to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of the giant planets, particularly Uranus and Neptune, speculating that the gravity of a large unseen ninth planet could have perturbed Uranus enough to account for the irregularities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trans-Neptunian object</span> Solar system objects beyond Neptune

A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has an orbital semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minor-planet moon</span> Natural satellite of a minor planet

A minor-planet moon is an astronomical object that orbits a minor planet as its natural satellite. As of January 2022, there are 457 minor planets known or suspected to have moons. Discoveries of minor-planet moons are important because the determination of their orbits provides estimates on the mass and density of the primary, allowing insights into their physical properties that are generally not otherwise accessible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">28978 Ixion</span> Plutino

28978 Ixion (, provisional designation 2001 KX76) is a large trans-Neptunian object and a possible dwarf planet. It is located in the Kuiper belt, a region of icy objects orbiting beyond Neptune in the outer Solar System. Ixion is classified as a plutino, a dynamical class of objects in a 2:3 orbital resonance with Neptune. It was discovered in May 2001 by astronomers of the Deep Ecliptic Survey at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and was announced in July 2001. The object is named after the Greek mythological figure Ixion, who was a king of the Lapiths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">90482 Orcus</span> Trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet

Orcus is a large trans-Neptunian object with a large moon, Vanth. It has a diameter of 870 to 960 km, the size of or somewhat smaller than the Inner Solar System dwarf planet Ceres. Orcus is generally accepted by astronomers as a dwarf planet, although there is some doubt. The surface of Orcus is relatively bright with albedo reaching 23 percent, neutral in color and rich in water ice. The ice is predominantly in crystalline form, which may be related to past cryovolcanic activity. Other compounds like methane or ammonia may also be present on its surface. Orcus was discovered by American astronomers Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David Rabinowitz on 17 February 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">90377 Sedna</span> Dwarf planet

Sedna is a dwarf planet in the outermost reaches of the inner Solar System, orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. Discovered in 2003, the planetoid's surface is one of the reddest known among Solar System bodies. Spectroscopy has revealed Sedna's surface to be mostly a mixture of the solid ices of water, methane, and nitrogen, along with widespread deposits of reddish-colored tholins, a chemical makeup similar to those of some other trans-Neptunian objects. Within range of uncertainties, it is tied with the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt as the largest planetoid not known to have a moon. Its diameter is roughly 1,000 km. Owing to its lack of known moons, the Keplerian laws of planetary motion cannot be employed for determining its mass, and the precise figure as yet remains unknown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael E. Brown</span> American astronomer (born 1965)

Michael E. Brown is an American astronomer, who has been professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2003. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), including the dwarf planet Eris, which was originally thought to be bigger than Pluto, triggering a debate on the definition of a planet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avi Loeb</span> Israeli-American theoretical physicist

Abraham "Avi" Loeb is an Israeli-American theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology. Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, where since 2007 he has been Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Center for Astrophysics. He chaired the Department of Astronomy from 2011–2020, and founded the Black Hole Initiative in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwarf planet</span> Small planetary-mass object

A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept was adopted in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Small Solar System body</span> Object in the Solar System

A small Solar System body (SSSB) is an object in the Solar System that is neither a planet, a dwarf planet, nor a natural satellite. The term was first defined in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as follows: "All other objects, except satellites, orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as 'Small Solar System Bodies' ".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interstellar object</span> Astronomical object not gravitationally bound to a star

An interstellar object is an astronomical object in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star. This term can also be applied to an object that is on an interstellar trajectory but is temporarily passing close to a star, such as certain asteroids and comets. In the latter case, the object may be called an interstellar interloper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extreme trans-Neptunian object</span> Solar system objects beyond the other known trans-Neptunian objects

An extreme trans-Neptunian object (ETNO) is a trans-Neptunian object orbiting the Sun well beyond Neptune (30 AU) in the outermost region of the Solar System. An ETNO has a large semi-major axis of at least 150–250 AU. Its orbit is much less affected by the known giant planets than all other known trans-Neptunian objects. They may, however, be influenced by gravitational interactions with a hypothetical Planet Nine, shepherding these objects into similar types of orbits. The known ETNOs exhibit a highly statistically significant asymmetry between the distributions of object pairs with small ascending and descending nodal distances that might be indicative of a response to external perturbations.

<span class="nowrap">2013 SY<sub>99</sub></span> Trans-Neptunian object

2013 SY99, also known by its OSSOS survey designation uo3L91, is a trans-Neptunian object discovered on September 29, 2013 by the Outer Solar System Origins Survey using the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory. This object orbits the Sun between 50 and 1,300 AU (7.5 and 190 billion km), and has a barycentric orbital period of nearly 20,000 years. It has the fourth largest semi-major axis for an orbit with perihelion beyond 38 AU. 2013 SY99 has one of highest perihelia of any known extreme trans-Neptunian object, behind sednoids including Sedna (76 AU), 2012 VP113 (80 AU), and Leleākūhonua (65 AU).

<span class="nowrap">(523794) 2015 RR<sub>245</sub></span>

(523794) 2015 RR245, provisional designation 2015 RR245, is a large trans-Neptunian object of the Kuiper belt in the outermost regions of the Solar System. It was discovered on 9 September 2015, by the Outer Solar System Origins Survey at Mauna Kea Observatories on the Big island of Hawaii, in the United States. The object is in a rare 2:9 resonance with Neptune and measures approximately 600 kilometers in diameter. 2015 RR245 was suspected to have a satellite according to a study announced by Noyelles et al. in a European Planetary Science Congress meeting in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megan Schwamb</span> American planetary scientist

Megan E. Schwamb is an American astronomer and planetary scientist, and lecturer at Queen's University, Belfast. Schwamb has discovered and co-discovered several trans-Neptunian objects, and is involved with Citizen science projects such as Planet Four and Planet Hunters.

The Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS) is an astronomical survey and observing program aimed at discovering and tracking trans-Neptunian objects located in the outermost regions of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. OSSOS is designed in way that observational biases can be characterized, allowing the numbers and orbits of detected objects to be compared using a survey simulator to the populations predicted in dynamical simulations of the emplacement of trans-Neptunian objects. Conducted at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope at Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, the survey has discovered 39 numbered objects as of 2018, with potentially hundreds more to follow. The survey's first numbered discovery was the object (496315) 2013 GP136 in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ʻOumuamua</span> Interstellar object discovered in 2017

ʻOumuamua is the first interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System. Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017, approximately 40 days after it passed its closest point to the Sun on 9 September. When it was first observed, it was about 33 million km from Earth and already heading away from the Sun.

(505448) 2013 SA100, provisional designation 2013 SA100 and also known as o3l79, is a trans-Neptunian object from the classical Kuiper belt in the outermost region of the Solar System. It was discovered on 5 August 2013, by astronomer with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey at the Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii, in the United States. The classical Kuiper belt object belongs to the hot population and is a weak dwarf planet candidate, approximately 260 kilometers (160 miles) in diameter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2I/Borisov</span> Interstellar comet passing through the Solar System, discovered in 2019

2I/Borisov, originally designated C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), is the first observed rogue comet and the second observed interstellar interloper after ʻOumuamua. It was discovered by the Crimean amateur astronomer and telescope maker Gennadiy Borisov on 29 August 2019 UTC.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "10463 Bannister (1979 MB9)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Introducing Michele Bannister". astrotweeps. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  3. ↑ "PM announces winners of Korean War essay comp | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  4. ↑ "Royal Society of New Zealand, Canterbury Branch". canterbury.rsnzbranch.org.nz. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  5. ↑ Bannister, Michele T.; Kavelaars, J. J.; Petit, Jean-Marc; Gladman, Brett J.; Gwyn, Stephen D. J.; Ying-Tung Chen; Volk, Kathryn; Alexandersen, Mike; Benecchi, Susan D. (2016). "The Outer Solar System Origins Survey. I. Design and First-quarter Discoveries". The Astronomical Journal. 152 (3): 70. arXiv: 1511.02895 . Bibcode:2016AJ....152...70B. doi: 10.3847/0004-6256/152/3/70 . hdl:10150/621497. ISSN   1538-3881. S2CID   54548905.
  6. ↑ "PhD Theses | Gemini Observatory: Exploring The Universe, Sharing Its Wonders". www.gemini.edu. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  7. ↑ "Oz astronomical observatory survives firestorm • The Register". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  8. ↑ "ANU Hat - Australian Flying Disc Association". Australian Flying Disc Association. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  9. ↑ "OSSOS/MOP". GitHub. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  10. ↑ "People - Herzberg Astrophysics". Herzberg Astrophysics. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  11. ↑ "Former Taranaki astronomer helps find new planet". Stuff. 14 July 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  12. ↑ "New Dwarf Planet Discovered At The Edge Of The Solar System". IFLScience. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  13. ↑ "New Dwarf Planet". cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  14. ↑ Griffiths, James. "New dwarf planet discovered beyond Pluto". CNN. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "Dwarf planet spotted at solar system's outer fringe" . Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  16. ↑ "Astronomers discover dwarf planet beyond Neptune". ABC News. 12 July 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  17. ↑ Chang, Kenneth (13 July 2016). "Astronomers Discover New Likely Dwarf Planet, the Latest of Many". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  18. ↑ "New dwarf planet discovered in Kuiper Belt | BBC Sky at Night Magazine". www.skyatnightmagazine.com. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  19. ↑ "Summer Hat League - Victoria Ultimate Players Society". Victoria Ultimate Players Society. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  20. ↑ "Michele Bannister". Strange Horizons. 31 October 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2018. Michele Bannister has an uncommon fondness for distant worlds both small and icy. She lives in Australia, where she is working towards her doctorate in astronomy. Her poetry has appeared in Strange Horizons, Ideomancer, Stone Telling and other venues, in the Here, We Cross anthology (Stone Bird Press, 2012), and is forthcoming in Inkscrawl and Goblin Fruit.
  21. ↑ "Dr. Michele Bannister - Queen's University Belfast Research Portal - Research Directory & Institutional Repository for QUB". pure.qub.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 4 August 2018. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  22. ↑ "QUB Astrophysics Research Centre - Solar system studies". star.pst.qub.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  23. ↑ "MSE Science Team Membership". mse.cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  24. ↑ "'Weird' interstellar asteroid yields no alien signals, resembles worlds beyond Neptune | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  25. ↑ "Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Has Grayish-Red Organic-Rich Surface Layer, Astronomers Say | Astronomy | Sci-News.com". Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  26. ↑ Scott, Sarah (12 February 2018). "Queen's boffin discovers violent past of first alien visitor". belfastlive. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  27. ↑ "TV crew in Belfast to get to the bottom of out-of-this-world mystery" . Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  28. ↑ "First arrival from afar: the interstellar planetesimal 'Oumuamua". European AstroFest 2018. Archived from the original on 4 August 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  29. ↑ "Asteroids named after Queen's astronomers". 26 January 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  30. ↑ "Michele Bannister". The University of Canterbury.
  31. ↑ "European AstroFest 2018". European AstroFest 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  32. ↑ Dan Foreman-Mackey (23 March 2016), PyAstro day 3 , retrieved 4 August 2018
  33. ↑ SETI Institute (18 March 2016), Exploring the outer Solar System: now in vivid colour - Michele Bannister (SETI Talks) , retrieved 4 August 2018
  34. ↑ "2013-03-17: Michele Bannister, Planetary Astronomer (@AstroKiwi) | RealScientists". realscientists.wordpress.com. 24 March 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  35. ↑ "Pluto mission". Radio New Zealand. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  36. ↑ "First look at Pluto: Live coverage of the historic fly-by". Nature. 10 July 2015. doi: 10.1038/nature.2015.17905 . ISSN   1476-4687. S2CID   211729621.
  37. ↑ July 5 6am , retrieved 4 August 2018
  38. ↑ "QUB Astrophysics Research Centre - News and press releases". star.pst.qub.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  39. ↑ "TV crew in Belfast to get to the bottom of out-of-this-world mystery" . Retrieved 6 August 2018.
  40. ↑ "Michele Bannister". The Conversation. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  41. ↑ "Michele Bannister – Astronomy Now". astronomynow.com. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  42. ↑ Davis, Nicola (12 August 2017). "Perseid meteor shower: everything you need to know to see it". the Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  43. ↑ "Beyond Pluto: New Horizons probe aims for another unseen world". New Scientist. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  44. ↑ Francis, Matthew R. (20 November 2014). "What's Next for Space Exploration?". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  45. ↑ Billings, Lee. "Looking for Planet Nine, Astronomers Gaze into the Abyss". Scientific American. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  46. ↑ "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.