Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 1d

Let's go Mars LightShip!
🧪🔭 #planetsci

Department of Physics at the University of Oxford @oxfordphysics.bsky.social · 4d

Oxford’s BEBOP thermal camera has been selected for ESA's 2032 Mars mission! It'll provide critical weather data to boost the safety of future robotic and human explorers. Read the full article: Link in bio or visit https://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/news/oxford-instrument-lined-esa-mars-mission

A family picture of the Oxford Space Instrumentation laboratory’s thermal imagers. Clockwise from top is one of the development models for Comet Interceptor’s MIRMIS instrument (left half is a contribution from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and right half is from Oxford); the flight spare optical layout and calibration target for Lunar Trailblazer’s LTM (in gold); and the BEBOP demonstration model, which is based on LTM and MIRMIS, but larger.

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 4d

www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen...

Slender-Billed Curlew: The Latest Bird Extinction Explained

Learn about the now thought to be extinct slender-billed curlew and explore how understanding this birds extinction can help prevent similar losses in future

www.rspb.org.uk

Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 4d

We learned today that the slender billed curlew is confirmed extinct 😓.
In honour of all curlews, we present the Whimbrel. Closely related to the Eurasian curlew, but smaller and maybe less threatened.
These big, beautiful shorebirds roam widely and are long-lived, but disappearing from our world🪶🦉

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 8d

Wow, our observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS with ExoMars TGO turned out better than expected!
I have seen the dot observed with perseverance, and the weak signal in our spectrometer data, but the tracking and coma from CaSSIS are sure to impress!
🔬🧪 #planetsci
www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 8d

I have that Paleozoic Pal!

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 11d

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 11d

@esa.int @science.esa.int made a nice web release to promote the story. Fave line:
"For the chemists reading, the newly detected molecular fragments included aliphatic, (hetero)cyclic ester/alkenes, ethers/ethyl and, tentatively, nitrogen- and oxygen-bearing compounds."
www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

www.esa.int

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 11d

Years in the making, a new paper details organic molecules in Enceladus' plumes that were collected by Cassini when it flew through them!
This keeps the icy moons at the forefront of interest and high priority targets!! Can't wait for Juice!
🔭🧪 #planetsci
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Detection of organic compounds in freshly ejected ice grains from Enceladus’s ocean - Nature Astronomy

Fresh ice grains from Enceladus’s plume were analysed during the highest-speed fly-by of the Cassini spacecraft. Organic compounds with a range of chemical structures were discovered, suggesting comprehensive subsurface chemistry on Enceladus.

doi.org

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 17d

Red eyed dove, anyone?
🪶🦉

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 18d

As summer ends and I contemplate a cozy morning of coffee, thick wool jumpers, and catching up on some photo editing.....
Nothing like getting back into the birds of the Western Cape to remind us of sunshine!!
These are blue cranes! Rare and huge, but found in the farmland of the Overberg region. 🪶🦉

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 18d

Ethiopian beer in Oxford at Lula's
#beersky #bskybeer

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 25d

Lord Huron at the Apollo, London

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 26d

Welcome, Ctrl Alt Deleaf!
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Ctrl Alt Deleaf wins public vote to name track cleaning train

Other names on the shortlist included Leaf-Fall Weapon, Pulp Friction and The Autumn Avenger.

www.bbc.com

Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · 28d

Fun!
EPSC press office covered my poster from #EPSCDPS #EPSC2025!!
www.europlanet.org/epsc-dps2025...

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 12

Fabrizio Oliva.
This is my co-author!!!🤘🤘🤘
#EPSCDPS #EPSC2025
!!🤘Neurosphere🤘!!

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 11

Colin Wilson, our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter project scientist at @esa.int showing off Mars Express, TGO, and LightShip updates. First TGO science story was our chlorine work!! Over 11 publications and counting!!
#EPSCDPS #EPSC2025 #planetsci #Mars 🔭🧪

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 11

Bethan Gregory showing off her hard work getting reactions on dust and ice surfaces for the chemistry of chlorine and ozone into the Planetary Climate Model!!
#EPSCDPS #EPSC2025 #planetsci #Mars 🔭🧪

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 11

Daniel Mège going over the HCl detections I made in the Martian atmosphere in the non-dusty times with hypotheses about surface seeps from a dormant volcano!!! 🌋
These are strange, found 'em every year, same place!
#EPSCDPS #EPSC2025 #planetsci #Mars 🔭🧪

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 10

Frank Montmessin giving a big overview of the very long lived and very successful SPICAM instrument on Mars Express.
That's over twenty years of data!!!
#EPSCDPS #EPSC2025 #planetsci

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 8

Lead author, Constantinos Charalambous, is presenting at #EPSCDPS #EPSC2025 on Friday about impact events

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 8

Hot on the heals of the inner core paper in Nature comes another InSight paper in @science.org from a team at @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
A single plate planet preserving characteristics of its formation, highly heterogeneous Martian mantle!
🔭🧪 #planetsci
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Seismic evidence for a highly heterogeneous martian mantle

A planet’s interior is a time capsule, preserving clues to its early history. We report the discovery of kilometer-scale heterogeneities throughout Mars’ mantle, detected seismically through pronounce...

doi.org

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 5

Hi! Add me please?

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 4

www.space.com/astronomy/co...
As a follow up, article on space.com with quotations from our project scientist Colin Wilson
🧪🔭 #planetsci

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will fly by Mars 1 month from now — and Europe's Red Planet orbiters will be ready

The interstellar visitor will pass just 30 million kilometers from Mars on Oct. 3 — far closer than it comes to Earth.

www.space.com

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 4

This is significant because it shows the state of crystallization in the core and will tell us a lot about the history of Mars' magnetic field.
Here's the link to the paper:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Seismic detection of a 600-km solid inner core in Mars - Nature

An analysis of seismic data acquired by the InSight mission demonstrates that Mars has a 600-km solid inner core.

doi.org

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Kevin Olsen @drksolsen.bsky.social · Sep 4

@mhairireid.bsky.social and I put together an article for @theconversation.com about yesterday's @nature.com paper on the detection of a 600 km radius solid core in the interior of #Mars! 🧪🔭 #planetsci
Early InSight results didn't quite have the sensitivity for this!
doi.org/10.64628/AB....

Mars has a solid inner core, resolving a longstanding planetary mystery — new study

It turns out that Mars has a similar interior structure to Earth.

doi.org

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