Research
Where did we come from?
My research aims to help build our understanding of the earliest history of our Solar System.
How did the planets form? Why do we see them in their current positions?
In the last fifteen years, our story of how our Solar System came to be in its present state
has altered dramatically - and this is largely due to knowing more about some of
the smallest worlds in our planetary system.
The littlest protoplanets
The formation of the planets left a population of remnant worlds orbiting on the outer edges
of the Solar System, in the vast spaces beyond Neptune. These small objects, no larger than
the state of Western Australia, have remained near-undisturbed on their orbits.
They offer a snapshot of the earliest times, and their existence places limits on the
potential migrations of the giant planets.
Hunting across the skies
The first search for these distant worlds was made by a young astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, in 1930.
His survey discovered Pluto; but it was not until the early 1990s that new surveys with
digital cameras discovered more such worlds, and began to show us the abundance
and diversity of Pluto's kin.
PhD: mining for new dwarf planets
Our surveys at Siding Spring Observatory aimed to complete this emerging picture.
The Uppsala telescope observes every night as part of an ongoing program to detect
swift-moving near-Earth asteroids. For my PhD, I reprocessed five years of their observations
to look for the much slower motion of large, bright trans-Neptunian objects.
I worked with
Brian Schmidt and
Paul Francis at RSAA and
with
Mike Brown at Caltech;
here Mike
discusses our work.