​Professor Sanders will present the evidence in meteorites for the origin of the solar system. Meteorites are fragments of rock from space.  Some are pieces of once-molten metal or of basalt but most are a kind of cosmic sandstone and are known as chondrites.  They turn out to be bits of baby planets called planetesimals that formed from 4567 until about 4562 million years ago out of a huge disk of gas and dust that orbited the infant Sun. Most planetesimals merged together to make the planets, but a few survive battered and broken in the asteroid belt and supply us with meteorites.

The talk will address questions arising from this story. What was the dust in the disk made from and where did it come from? How do we know the age of the Solar System? Why did some planetesimals melt while others did not?  The talk will also report on developments over the past few years showing how the story inferred from meteorites can be reconciled with new high-resolution images of young stars with disks. There will be a chance to handle meteorites – i.e. touch pieces of asteroids.

INTRODUCING METAMORPHISM  Professor Ian Sanders

Ian Sanders has recently published a book on Metamorphism which was written with amateur geologists in mind.   Copies will be available at cost price (€15.00) after the talk.  For further information please refer to the following link:

www.tcd.ie/Geology/news/2018/sanders-book.php