explored by Dr Phil Sutton

Interstellar asteroids, comets and planets are objects located in the Milkyway galaxy that are not gravitationally bound to a star, unlike the planets of our Solar System. Recent discoveries have revealed 100s of starless rogue planets with estimates of the total number of interstellar objects out numbering stars in our Milkyway galaxy. It is thought that many of these interstellar objects are thrown out of their systems early on with interactions with other planets or stars. The gravitational capture of interstellar objects is then possible by other stars, suggesting that not all planets, comets or asteroids in a system originally formed with the star. In the last few years 2 interstellar objects, Borisov and Oumuamua, have been observed to pass into and back out of the Solar system. A third interstellar object is even thought to have impacted Earth in 2014. In this talk we discuss the idea the Solar System could already be hiding a large population of interstellar objects in the form of moons, asteroids and comets.

Tuesday July 4th 2023, 7:00pm-8.30pm

Tickets are here.

Venue: the Drill selling tea/coffee/wine/beer and food

Dr Phil Sutton

Senior lecturer in astrophysics with research interests in planets, moons and planetary rings.