Tuesday 3rd June 2025, 7pm, Sibson Lecture Theatre 3
(above: Artist’s interpretation of the fire ball from an object entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed (artist: M. van Ginneken))
Mark Burchell (Emeritus, University of Kent)
From impacts with dust and debris in Low Earth Orbit, to collecting dust whilst flying past comets and planetary moons, hypervelocity impacts (those roughly in excess of 1 km per second) are a key process to sampling materials across the Solar System. The high speeds arise due to the relative orbital motions of the bodies involved, and the natural speed scale is in km’s per second. Such impacts are also naturally occurring events, with bodies from space impacting planetary atmospheres and surfaces providing information on the past (the craters) and the present (observations of impacts in real-time).
A guide to impacts, their outcomes, and the opportunities and risks they provide, will be given.
About the speaker
Prof Mark Burchell is an Emeritus Professor of Space Science at the University of Kent, where he previously served as Dean of Sciences. With a PhD in Physics from Imperial College London, his distinguished career spans experimental particle physics, planetary science, and astrobiology. Prof Burchell has been involved in numerous space missions, including NASA’s Stardust mission, and is a recognized expert in hypervelocity impacts and cosmic dust analysis. He has authored over 245 peer-reviewed publications and received honors such as the naming of asteroid 30548 Markburchell by the International Astronomical Union. His contributions to science have earned multiple awards from NASA and esteemed positions on international advisory and editorial boards.
The talk is free and open to all. Doors open about half an hour before the talk begins.
For directions to the lecture theatre, see here.