Book your FREE RAS February Public Lecture ticket
Join Glasgow University planetary science PhD student Áine O’Brien days before the one-year anniversary of the UK’s first meteorite fall in 30 years to look back on how the Winchcombe meteorite was found, what it was like being part of the search team scouring the Cotswolds for fragments in lockdown, and her experiences studying the stone in the lab in the months since. Áine will talk about the team’s excitement every time they found very convincing ‘meteorwrongs’ that turned out to be sheep poo in the Gloucestershire countryside, and the incredible moment Mira Ihasz found the biggest intact fragment in a farmer’s field, which is now on display to the public in the Natural History Museum. This lecture will involve a short talk on this space rock followed by a conversation with Dr Sheila Kanani, the RAS Education Outreach and Diversity officer, finishing with a Q&A session with the attendees.
Áine is a final year planetary science PhD student at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on the detection of organic molecules in martian meteorites, carbonaceous chondrites, and Mars analogues, and the development of techniques in preparation for Mars Sample Return. During her PhD she also worked for the RAS as Diversity Officer, while Dr Sheila Kanani was on maternity leave in 2021. Áine also helped to established the RAS’ Early Career Network, which she is now the Vice-Chair of. Prior to her PhD, she was a physics and astronomy teacher in Suffolk. In her spare time, Áine likes to make the most of the Scottish hills and her friends’ pets.
Book your FREE RAS February Public Lecture ticket
Registration closes at 10am on the day of the lecture. Links to the lecture will be sent out on the day, once at 11am and again 10 minutes before the talk.