16:00
The Royal Society
July 1
The Royal Society
This event is part of the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition 2026.
Comets are the leftover building blocks of planets, which have remained mostly unaltered in the cold and remote environments of space, since their formation. As such, they are incredible tools in understanding how planetary systems form and evolve. Even more enticing, interstellar comets have been formed around another star and then ejected towards our solar system, where we can study in detail materials from far away.
Join Dr Cyrielle Opitom, a Belgian astronomer based at the University of Edinburgh, to learn what we know of the three interstellar objects that have been discovered so far and how these ‘space fossils’ help us understand how planets form across the galaxy.
This event will be held in Theatre 2 at the Royal Society on Wednesday 1 July 2026, 10.30am – 11am.
For all enquiries, please email us.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, D Jewitt (UCLA), M-T Hui (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory). Image Processing: J DePasquale (STScI)