With over 200 members the IAA is Northern Ireland’s premier organisation for amateur astronomers. As well as our meetings in Queen’s University, Belfast where they provide 14 top quality lectures held fortnightly from September to April, they also hold Observing Sessions where beginners can be guided through the night sky by more experienced members.

Theirquarterly magazine “Stardust” is highly regarded throughout the astronomical community and a subscription is included in our Membership, just £20/year for individuals and £25/year for a family living at the same address.

Location: Larmor Lecture Theatre, Physics building, Queens College, Belfast, See MAP

Talk by Dr Abbie Donaldson is a research associate at the University of Edinburgh working with Professor Colin Snodgrass as Science Support Officer for Comet Interceptor. She completed her PhD in 2024, during which she studied Jupiter-family comets using ground-based observing facilities.

The formation and migration history of the Solar System is encoded in remnant planetary disc material, known to us as the diverse populations of minor planets. Of these, comets are some of the most pristine and provide us with regular opportunities to study their properties up close as they approach the Sun on eccentric orbits. Comets are most well known for their spectacular displays of activity in which the central, solid nucleus becomes shrouded by a coma of dust and gas. However, during periods of inactivity we can directly probe the surface properties of their nuclei.

In this talk, she will describe the insights offered by observations of short-period comet nuclei, including how we use rotational lightcurves to extract information about their physical and surface properties, and what these tell us about their evolutionary path through the Solar System.  She will also outline the upcoming Comet Interceptor mission, a fast-class collaboration between ESA and JAXA with significant contributions from UK scientists. Expected to launch in 2029, the mission aims to perform the first ever flyby of a comet making its first approach to the inner Solar System, providing us with an up-close look at some of the least thermally processed material in the Solar System.

For more information go to https://irishastro.org