Displays by AOP employees and college students through the 2026 ACM assembly
AOP college students and employees gave good accounts of themselves on the fifteenth Asteroids Comets Meteors (ACM) conference that occurred between the sixth and tenth of July within the historic metropolis of Poznań in Poland. Held as soon as each three years, the ACM is the biggest worldwide assembly for scientists researching the “little guys” of the photo voltaic system: asteroids, comets and mud. This 12 months the assembly attracted 600+ contributors from 48 international locations, with particular treats together with Kleť Observatory’s “Asteroid Automotive” and a mannequin of asteroid Bennu displayed in entrance of the registration desk.
Asteroid Automotive on the 2026 ACM (entrance view)
Asteroid Automotive at ACM (aspect view)
Mannequin of asteroid Bennu on the 2026 ACM
The 4 AOP shows mirrored the breadth and depth of frontline photo voltaic system analysis at Armagh. Emily Frank confirmed how polarized daylight reflecting off asteroids can be utilized as a instrument to know their composition and in the end assist humanity defend in opposition to objects on a collision course with Earth. Workers astronomer Tolis Christou used orbital dynamics fashions to hyperlink a bunch of meteors (“taking pictures stars”) noticed by beginner {and professional} astronomers to the continued disintegration of a comet nucleus in house over 1000’s of years. Likewise, Andrew Marshall-Lee used superior synthetic intelligence algorithms to show again the clock on the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, reconstructing the billion-yr previous document of titanic collisions between hundred-km asteroids. Scientists decide up the fragments of these collisions once they arrive on Earth as meteorites (eg the 1969 Bovedy fall). Final however not least, Rok Nežič shared his perception on the long run alternatives and challenges in efficient science communication, borne out of the distinctive observe document of public training & outreach co-existing with scientific analysis at AOP.
