Guest Speaker: Professor Jonti Horner At The 2025 Queensland Astrofest
The Queensland Astrofest Committee is pleased to announce that Professor Jonti Horner will be the guest speaker for the Astrofest. Professor Horner will be speaking on “A Comet’s Tale” (Details below). The talk will take place on Saturday May 31st at 12:00pm just before the Astrofeast. The talk is open for all the Astrofest attendees and those who have purchased a day pass.
A Comet's Tale
There are few things more spectacular than a Great Comet. Whilst many comets continually grace our skies, the majority remain far too faint to see with the naked eye. On average, a truly spectacular comet (a 'Great Comet') will come along every decade, or so. But comets are like busses - you can wait thirty years, and then two come along at once!
In the last few months, our skies have been graced by two comets that might well be considered to be the Great Comets of 2024 and 2025. Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) put on a fantastic show in late September and through October last year, whilst C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was spectacular in January this year, despite appearing to fall apart as humanity watched on.
But what ARE comets? Where do they come from? And how do they work? To learn the answers to these questions (and many more!), join UniSQ's Jonti Horner to hear the story of "A Comet's Tale".
Jonti first became interested in astronomy at the age of five, after seeing the BBC TV programme ‘The Sky at Night’, and soon became an enthusiastic amateur astronomer. He joined his local astronomical society in the UK, WYAS (the West Yorkshire Astronomical Society) at the age of eight, and is currently honoured to serve as the society’s honorary president. To pursue his dream of turning his hobby into a career, Jonti studied a Masters’ degree in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Durham, before moving to the University of Oxford to undertake his doctoral studies. Once his PhD was complete, Jonti worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Bern and the UK’s Open University before moving to Australia in 2010 to work at UNSW. In 2014, he moved to Toowoomba, to join the University of Southern Queensland, where he is now Professor of Astrophysics. His research ranges from the study of our own Solar system to the search for planets orbiting other stars, as well as trying to understand the different factors that could come together to make one planet more or less suitable as a target in the search for life beyond Earth.
Jonti has a regular weekly slot on ABC Radio Queensland's Evenings show, talking about the latest in Space news, and has appeared in Australian documentaries and on a variety of international podcasts. He writes regular articles for The Conversation (
https://theconversation.com/profiles...-3355/articles). In 2023, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) chose to name an asteroid after him: (32520) Jontihorner - a small and unusually reflective object moving near the middle of the Asteroid belt.
General Information
The Queensland Astrofest is scheduled to take place from Friday May 23rd to Sunday 1st June, 2025.
Details and updates to Queensland Astrofest will appear on Astrofest’s website, Facebook page and in “Ice In Space”.
If you have any questions, you can contact the Registrar on the email address below.
Contact Email:
registrar@qldastrofest.org.au
Website:
www.qldastrofest.org.au
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/QLDAstrofest
Please support our Sponsors and Organising Clubs
Software Bisque
https://www.bisque.com/
https://www.facebook.com/softwarebisque/
Astronomical Association of Queensland (AAQ)
https://www.aaq.org.au/
https://www.facebook.com/A.A.Q.astroclub
Brisbane Astronomical Society (BAS)
https://bas.asn.au/
https://www.facebook.com/BrisbaneAstronomicalSociety/
Comet Atlas image (C) Jonti Horner