Jake Clark

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Unlike Earth’s atmosphere, Jupiter’s ‘sky’ hosts magnificent shades of orange, white, brown and blue. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt

Curious Kids: is the sky blue on other planets?

Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland

Atmospheres can be all different colours, depending on what’s in them.
An artist’s impression of Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. It is the first planet that NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed to orbit in a star’s habitable zone - the region around a star where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Curious Kids: why has nobody found any life outside of Earth?

Josh Calcino, The University of Queensland and Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland

Life could exist in another solar system in a different part our galaxy. Or in another galaxy far away. We don’t have the perfect technology yet to study such far away places but we’re still trying.
Comet 46P/Wirtanen captured on November 15 this year using the remote iTelescope (Siding Springs Observatory, Australia). Flickr/Victor R Ruiz

We have a Christmas comet: how to spot 2018’s interplanetary bauble

Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland

The comet 46P/Wirtanen is just 1.2km in size but it should be visible in the night sky this Saturday as it makes a close approach to Earth this year. And don’t forget the Geminids meteor shower.
The South Pole Telescope and BICEP telescopes (pictured above) may discover clues that could teach us if there was something else ‘before’ the Big Bang. Dr. Keith Vanderlinde/NSF

Curious Kids: What existed before the Big Bang? Did something have to be there to go boom?

Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland, and Josh Calcino, The University of Queensland

Long ago in the distant past, our entire Universe was microscopic – just like an atom – and obeyed completely different rules of cause and effect.
An artist’s impression of the surface of the planet orbiting Barnard’s Star. ESO - M. Kornmesser

A super‑Earth found in our stellar back yard

Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland and Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland

The new planet is believed to be orbiting Barnard’s Star, a red dwarf that’s not visible to the naked eye but one of the closest stars to our Solar System.
The Sun is a star – but it’s not the only one. NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory

Curious Kids: Is there anything hotter than the Sun?

Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland and Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland

There are lots of places where it’s much, much hotter than the Sun. And the amazing thing is that this heat also makes new atoms - tiny particles that have made their way long ago from stars to us.
Pluto’s ghoulish cousin, 2015 TG387, lurks in the distant reaches of our own Solar System. Illustration by Roberto Molar Candanosa and Scott Sheppard, courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science.

A Goblin could guide us to a mystery planet thought to exist in the Solar system

Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland and Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland

Whether you call it Planet X or Planet Nine, talk of another planet lurking in our Solar system won’t go away. So what does the discovery of a new object – nicknamed “The Goblin” – add to the debate?
An artist’s impression of the exoplanet in close orbit to a star. ESA, NASA, G. Tinetti (University College London, UK & ESA) and M. Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)

We’ve found an exo‑planet with an extraordinarily eccentric orbit

Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland; Rob Wittenmyer, University of Southern Queensland, and Stephen Kane, University of California, Riverside

A solitary planet in an eccentric orbit around an ancient star may help astronomers understand exactly how such planetary systems are formed.
Lasers being shone from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. These lasers help remove the twinkles in the night sky and help astronomers see stars clearer on Earth than ever before. F. Kamphues/ESO

Curious Kids: Why do stars twinkle?

Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland; Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland, and Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland

How exactly do the stars twinkle in the night sky? As it turns out, the answer is full of hot air… and cold air.

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