Next Meeting:

Wednesday January 14th at 8:00pm

Aurorae around the Solar System
Marina Galand

Aurorae around the Solar System

The spectacle of the Northern Lights is usually confined to the Scandinavian skies and other Northern regions. But over the past year, the phenomenon has been visible all over the UK as the Sun is reaching its maximum activity. The northern lights reveal not only the interaction of the Sun with the Earth's magnetic shield, but also a glance of the interaction of Solar System bodies with their space environment, including the auroral ovals at Jupiter and at its moon, Ganymede.

Marina Galand is a Professor in Planetary Science at Imperial College London. Her principal research interest is the study of atmospheres around planets, moons and comets. She has investigated the deposition of solar and auroral energy in atmospheres throughout the Solar System and beyond, using state-of-the-art models she has adapted to new environments. She has undertaken this modelling activity in close links to space missions, such as Rosetta to comet 67P. She is leading the magnetometer on probe B2 for Comet Interceptor. She has been awarded the IoP-SFP Fernand Holweck Medal (2018) and the RAS James Dungey Lectureship (2023).