Michele Bannister

Michele Bannister (born 1986) is a New Zealand planetary astronomer and science communicator at the University of Canterbury, who has participated in surveying the outermost Solar System for trans-Neptunian objects.[1]

Michele Bannister
Born1986 (age 33–34)
Alma materAustralian National University
University of Canterbury
Scientific career
InstitutionsQueen's University Belfast
University of Victoria
Australian National University
Thesis[hdl.handle.net/1885/139460 Bright trans-Neptunian objects in the southern sky] (2014)
Doctoral advisorPaul J. Francis, Brian Schmidt, Michael Brown
Websitewww.astro.uvic.ca/~micheleb/

Early life and education

Bannister is from Waitara, New Zealand.[2] She attended Waitara High School, where she won the Korean War Essay Competition.[3] She studied astronomy and geology at the University of Canterbury, graduating in 2007 with first class honours.[2] She spent nine weeks working in the McMurdo Dry Valleys.[2] Before starting her PhD she completed a summer school in Castel Gandolfo.[4] She earned her PhD in 2014, working on trans Neptunian objects at the Australian National University.[5][6] She searched for new dwarf planets at the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope.[5] The telescope survived the Warrumbungles fire which destroyed twelve properties in Coonabarabran.[7] Whilst at Australian National University she played in the Flying Disc team.[8]

Research and career

In 2014 she was co-investigator on the COLours for the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS).[9] She was appointed a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria and the National Research Council (Canada) in 2013.[2][10] Whilst at the University of Victoria she discovered a new dwarf planet (RR245) with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] RR245 is near the Kuiper belt.[19] She played for a local Ultimate team,[20] and published poetry.[21]

In August 2016 she joined Queen's University Belfast.[22][23] She is on the Science Team of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer.[24] She was involved with the observation of ʻOumuamua, an interstellar object from another solar system that passed through our own in 2017.[25] She studied the brightness of ʻOumuamua and presented the colour composite image.[26][27][28] 10463 Bannister was named after her in 2017.[29][30][1]. In 2020 she returned to her alma marta, the University of Canterbury as a lecturer in astrophysics[31].

Public engagement

Bannister is a popular science communicator, and has spoken at the Royal Society, The Planetary Society, SETI Institute, Irish Astronomical Society and European Astrofest.[32][33][34] In 2013 she was a curator on the RealScientists channel.[35] She reported on the images coming in from Pluto during the spacecraft flyby on Radio New Zealand and Nature in 2015.[36][37]

She discussed astronomy on Canadian radio station CFAX between 2015 and 2016.[38] She appeared on the BBC Sky at Night in 2017 and 2018.[39][40] She has written for The Conversation and The Planetary Society magazine, as well as contributing to Scientific American, Newsweek, National Geographic New Scientist, Slate and The Guardian.[41][42][43][44][45][46]

Awards and honors

Asteroid 10463 Bannister, discovered by Eleanor Helin and Schelte Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in 1979, was named in her honor.[1] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 13 April 2017 (M.P.C. 103975).[47]

Works
  • Godfrey, Myfanwy J., Michele T. Bannister, D. Nobes, and Ronald S. Sletten. "3D time-lapse imaging of polygonal patterned ground in the McMurdo dry valleys of Antarctica." (2008).
  • Fitzsimmons, Alan, Colin Snodgrass, Ben Rozitis, Bin Yang, Méabh Hyland, Tom Seccull, Michele T. Bannister, Wesley C. Fraser, Robert Jedicke, and Pedro Lacerda. "Spectroscopy and thermal modelling of the first interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 ʻOumuamua." Nature Astronomy 2, no. 2 (2018): 133.
  • Bannister, Michele T., Megan E. Schwamb, Wesley C. Fraser, Michael Marsset, Alan Fitzsimmons, Susan D. Benecchi, Pedro Lacerda et al. "Col-OSSOS: colors of the interstellar planetesimal 1I/Oumuamua." arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.06214 (2017).
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References
  1. "10463 Bannister (1979 MB9)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  2. "Introducing Michele Bannister". astrotweeps. 2016-04-25. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  3. "PM announces winners of Korean War essay comp | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  4. "Royal Society of New Zealand, Canterbury Branch". canterbury.rsnzbranch.org.nz. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  5. "Astronomer Warns 'Buckle Your Seatbelts' 'New Development Foreshadowed Within Our Solar System' | Disclose.tv". Disclose.tv. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  6. Bannister, Michele T.; Kavelaars, J. J.; Petit, Jean-Marc; Gladman, Brett J.; Gwyn, Stephen D. J.; Ying-Tung Chen; Volk, Kathryn; Alexandersen, Mike; Benecchi, Susan D. (2016). "The Outer Solar System Origins Survey. I. Design and First-quarter Discoveries". The Astronomical Journal. 152 (3): 70. arXiv:1511.02895. Bibcode:2016AJ....152...70B. doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/3/70. hdl:10150/621497. ISSN 1538-3881.
  7. "Oz astronomical observatory survives firestorm • The Register". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  8. "ANU Hat - Australian Flying Disc Association". Australian Flying Disc Association. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  9. "OSSOS/MOP". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  10. "People - Herzberg Astrophysics". Herzberg Astrophysics. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  11. "Former Taranaki astronomer helps find new planet". Stuff. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  12. "New Dwarf Planet Discovered At The Edge Of The Solar System". IFLScience. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  13. "New Dwarf Planet". cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  14. Griffiths, James. "New dwarf planet discovered beyond Pluto". CNN. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  15. "Dwarf planet spotted at solar system's outer fringe". Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  16. "Mysterious 'ice planet' spotted on the edge of our solar system". New York Post. 2016-07-13. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  17. "Astronomers discover dwarf planet beyond Neptune". ABC News. 2016-07-12. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  18. "Astronomers Discover New Likely Dwarf Planet, the Latest of Many". Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  19. "New dwarf planet discovered in Kuiper Belt | BBC Sky at Night Magazine". www.skyatnightmagazine.com. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  20. "Summer Hat League - Victoria Ultimate Players Society". Victoria Ultimate Players Society. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  21. "Michele Bannister". Strange Horizons. 2012-10-31. Retrieved 7 August 2018. Michele Bannister has an uncommon fondness for distant worlds both small and icy. She lives in Australia, where she is working towards her doctorate in astronomy. Her poetry has appeared in Strange Horizons, Ideomancer, Stone Telling and other venues, in the Here, We Cross anthology (Stone Bird Press, 2012), and is forthcoming in Inkscrawl and Goblin Fruit.
  22. "Dr. Michele Bannister - Queen's University Belfast Research Portal - Research Directory & Institutional Repository for QUB". pure.qub.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2018-08-04. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
  23. "QUB Astrophysics Research Centre - Solar system studies". star.pst.qub.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  24. "MSE Science Team Membership". mse.cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  25. "'Weird' interstellar asteroid yields no alien signals, resembles worlds beyond Neptune | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  26. "Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Has Grayish-Red Organic-Rich Surface Layer, Astronomers Say | Astronomy | Sci-News.com". Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  27. Scott, Sarah (2018-02-12). "Queen's boffin discovers violent past of first alien visitor". belfastlive. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  28. "TV crew in Belfast to get to the bottom of out-of-this-world mystery". Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  29. "First arrival from afar: the interstellar planetesimal 'Oumuamua". European AstroFest 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-08-04. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  30. "Asteroids named after Queen's astronomers". 2016-01-26. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  31. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/science/contact-us/people/michele-bannister.html
  32. "European AstroFest 2018". European AstroFest 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  33. Dan Foreman-Mackey (2016-03-23), PyAstro day 3, retrieved 2018-08-04
  34. SETI Institute (2016-03-18), Exploring the outer Solar System: now in vivid colour - Michele Bannister (SETI Talks), retrieved 2018-08-04
  35. "2013-03-17: Michele Bannister, Planetary Astronomer (@AstroKiwi) | RealScientists". realscientists.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  36. "Pluto mission". Radio New Zealand. 2015-07-17. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  37. "First look at Pluto: Live coverage of the historic fly-by". Nature. 2015-07-10. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17905. ISSN 1476-4687.
  38. July 5 6am, retrieved 2018-08-04
  39. "QUB Astrophysics Research Centre - News and press releases". star.pst.qub.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  40. "TV crew in Belfast to get to the bottom of out-of-this-world mystery". Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  41. "Michele Bannister". The Conversation. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  42. "Michele Bannister – Astronomy Now". astronomynow.com. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  43. Davis, Nicola (2017-08-12). "Perseid meteor shower: everything you need to know to see it". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  44. "Beyond Pluto: New Horizons probe aims for another unseen world". New Scientist. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  45. Francis, Matthew R. (2014-11-20). "What's Next for Space Exploration?". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  46. Billings, Lee. "Looking for Planet Nine, Astronomers Gaze into the Abyss". Scientific American. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  47. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
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