Monica Grady: 1969 and All That

Monica Grady is Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University, where she studies the origin and evolution of the Solar System through measurement of meteorites. She is a science advisor to one of the Instrument teams associated with the Philae comet lander. Before joining the Open University, she worked in the Department of Mineralogy at the Natural History Museum in London. She is a regular contributor to TV and other media, and was awarded the CBE in 2012 for services to space sciences.

Talk: 1969 and All That

Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong took one small step on the Moon. It is also the anniversary of the fall of two important meteorites (Allende and Murchison), the first observation of Mars’ ice-caps, the discovery of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko and recovery of the first cache of Antarctic meteorites. In her talk, Monica will explain her connection with each of these events, and how they have changed our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Solar System.