On Friday 30th September the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Lincoln hosted our first ever PGR symposium event. We invited alumni who are currently PGR students at other institutions to give a short (10-15 minute) presentation about their research projects alongside some of our own PhD students. 

The seventh speaker was George Bell, who is studying for a PhD at the University of Lincoln with our very own Phil Sutton. George’s research is on the gravitational braking of captured moons around ringed planets.

In his talk, George started by discussing the properties of planetary rings and how they may be formed. He then proceeded to talk about how the interactions between rings and captured bodies can vertically displace ring material. George then summarised the main aim of his PhD project: what can we can learn about past unobserved impacts by observing ring structures?

Saturn isn’t the only ringed planet in our solar system!