Fermor Meeting 2014: Comparative Planetology
A great deal of new data on the terrestrial planets and moons has been produced recently from numerous planetary orbiters, together with rovers. This meeting brought together scientists studying aspects of planetary science on terrestrial planets in the inner solar system.
Presentations fell under three broad themes:
- Planetary Crusts and Interiors
- Planetary Surfaces
- Surface Processes (including volcanism, tectonic activity, sedimentation, and impact cratering), and Planetary Climates and Atmospheres.
Links between the three themes were investigated, to develop ideas of exchange between the interior, exterior and atmosphere of planetary-scale bodies.
Topics for discussion
- Internal structures
- Volcanism
- Tectonics
- Sedimentation
- Cratering
- Analogues
- Samples
- Rovers
- Remote sensing
Invited Speakers
- Dr Ellen Stofan (NASA Chief Scientist) - Venus-Earth-Mars-Titan: Comparing Surfaces, Comparing Climates
- Dr David Catling (University of Washington, Seattle USA) - Atmospheric evolution on Rocky Planets
- Dr Mary Bourke (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) - Blows and flows on Martian dunes
- Professor Sanjeev Gupta (Imperial, London, UK) - Recent explorations of the Curiosity rover
- Dr Nick Tosca (St Andrews, UK) - Alien surfaces: interpreting the mineralogical record of early Earth and Mars
- Dr David W Mittlefehldt (JSC Houston) - Dawn at Vesta
Convenors
- Professor Hilary Downes FGS (Imperial, Birkbeck)
- Professor Ian Crawford FRAS (Birkbeck)
- Dr Peter Grindrod FGS, FRAS (Birkbeck)