Biography
Prof. Geraint Jones is head of the Planetary Science Group at University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Following a first degree and PhD in Astronomy at UCL, he worked at Imperial College London, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, before returning to UCL-MSSL. Geraint has worked on numerous missions, including Cassini-Huygens, Solar Orbiter, the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, and the JUICE mission to Jupiter. He was the lead proposer of the ESA Comet Interceptor mission. He is enthusiastic about the communication of science, and is responsible for the scientific webcomic astrojots.com.
Snowballs in Hell: Comets near the Sun
Comets hold invaluable clues to the conditions that prevailed billions of years ago when the Solar System formed. The majority of known comets have been discovered by one instrument on the European Space Agency/NASA SOHO spacecraft. These sungrazing comets are actually tiny, and only become visible for a short time as venture very close to the Sun’s surface. We’ll explore the fascinating phenomena observed at these and other near-Sun comets, and how comet behaviour in these extreme conditions tells us more about them. We’ll also turn our attention to the next space mission targeting one of these icy bodies: Comet Interceptor, now being prepared for launch in 2029 by the European Space Agency and colleagues in Japan.