Mark Thompson, Author at Universe Today

October 15, 2024October 15, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Jiggles

Jupiter is well known for its Great Red Spot, a feature that was discovered by Galileo over 400 years ago! Astronomers have been tracking the size and shape of it for over a century but the most accurate measurements have come from the Hubble Space Telescope. Every time Earth and Jupiter are at their closest, Hubble takes a series of images and it’s these images that have detected that the spot jiggles from day to day. Not only does it change size but length and width too leaving astronomers baffled.

October 15, 2024October 15, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Hubble and New Horizons Look at Uranus at the Same Time

Ever since the advent of space exploration we have seen some amazing images of the planets. New technology often brings with it a new perspective and we have been reminded of this again just recently with images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and New Horizons spacecraft. The two objects simultaneously imaged Uranus from different perspectives in an attempt to predict what astronomers would see when they look at exoplanets orbiting other stars.

October 10, 2024October 10, 2024 by Mark Thompson

NASA Reveals the Mind-Boggling Scale of Hurricane Milton seen from Space

We often talk about Jupiter’s Great Red Spot quite candidly but forget that hurricanes can be devastating, destructive forces here on Earth. Hurricane Milton is a reminder of the awful effects here on Earth. It came out of nowhere, appearing in the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical storm and two days later was a category 5 hurricane. It tracked a course and hit land near Siesta Key in Florida. NASA have been tracking the storm from space, recording high sea temperatures that fuelled the storm allowing it to grow. Images have been released from the ISS showing the sheer enormity of the hurricane.

October 10, 2024October 10, 2024 by Mark Thompson

A New Way to Detect Rocky Exoplanet Atmospheres

University of Chicago astronomers have tested a simpler, and more accurate way to determine whether or not exoplanets have atmospheres, a leap in learning more about the potential habitability of far-away planets. Above, an artist’s rendering of what terrestrial exoplanet GJ 1132 b may look like.

The total number of exoplanets discovered to date totals 5,288. Among them are a host of rocky, Earth-like exoplanets but none of them seem to have atmospheres. It’s a fairly challenging observation to make but a team of researchers think they’ve come up with a new, simpler technique. It involves measuring the combined temperature of a star and the exoplanet just before the planet passes behind. If it’s lower than expected, the planet is likely to have an atmosphere regulating its temperature!

October 10, 2024October 10, 2024 by Mark Thompson

How Did Mars Become Uninhabitable?

Mars today bear signs of once having had abundant water, with features resembling valleys and deltas, and minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water. This artist’s concept shows how the Red Planet could have appeared billions of years ago. Credit: NASA/The Lunar and Planetary Institute

Mars has captured our imagination for centuries. Ever since the invention of the telescope our imagination has often drifted toward the possibility of life on Mars. Exploration of the red planet has often revealed that Mars once had plenty of water on its surface but it’s no longer there. Now NASA’s Curiosity rover has found deposits of carbon-rich minerals that could give us a much needed clue.

October 9, 2024October 9, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Good News. Comet Encke Only Threw a Handful of Giant Space Rocks in our Direction

This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the comet Encke riding along its pebbly trail of debris. Every October, Earth passes through Encke's wake, resulting in the well-known Taurid meteor shower.

As comets travel along their orbit they dump material along the way. A stream of debris known as the Taurid swarm has been keeping astronomers attention. It’s thought the debris is the remains of comet Encke which has also been fuelling the Taurid meteor shower. The swarm is believed to be composed of mostly harmless, tiny objects but there has been concern that there may be some larger, kilometre size chunks. Thankfully, new observations reveal there are of the order of 9-14 of these 1km rocks.

October 9, 2024October 9, 2024 by Mark Thompson

NASA Announces a New Class of Space Missions: Probe Explorers

NASA has sent a whole host of spacecraft across the Solar System and even beyond. They range from crewed ships to orbit and to the Moon to robotic explorers. Among them are a range of mission classes from Flagships to Discovery Class programs. Now a new category has been announced: Probe Explorers. This new category will fill the gap between Flagship and smaller missions. Among them are two proposed missions; the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite and the Probe Far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics.

October 8, 2024October 8, 2024 by Mark Thompson

TESS Finds a Triple Star System that Could Fit within Mercury’s Orbit

This artist’s concept illustrates how tightly the three stars in the system called TIC 290061484 orbit each other. If they were placed at the center of our solar system, all the stars’ orbits would be contained a space smaller than Mercury’s orbit around the Sun. The sizes of the triplet stars and the Sun are also to scale. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has been on the lookout for alien worlds since 2018. It has just hit the news again having identified an extreme triple star system where two stars orbit each other every 1.8 days. The third component circles them both in 25 days – this puts the entire system within the orbit of Mercury with a little wriggle room to spare! To visual observers, it looks like a single star but the power of TESS revealed a flicker as the stars line up and pass one another along our line of sight. Eventually, the two inner stars will merge, triggering a supernova event!

October 7, 2024October 7, 2024 by Mark Thompson

China Unveils its Lunar Spacesuit

China have a roadmap to sent astronauts to the Moon in 2030 and when they do, they are going with a very definite nod to the Chinese origins to the rocket! Their officials have unveiled the new look Chinese space suit with all the mod cons but with a design that is somewhat reminiscent of Chinese armour. There will some fabulous features like the close and long distance field of view visor, a chest control panel and a protective material to shield against the harmful lunar environment.

October 3, 2024October 3, 2024 by Mark Thompson

What Does a Trip to Mars Do to the Brain?

It’s not long before a conversation about space travel is likely to turn to the impact on the human body. Our bodies have evolved to exist on Earth with a constant force of 1G acting upon them but up in orbit, all of a sudden that force is apparently lacking. The impact of this is well known; muscle loss and reduction in bone density but there are effects of spaceflight. Cosmic radiation from the Galaxy has an impact on cognition too, an effect that has recently been studied in mice!