Mark Thompson

Science broadcaster and author. Mark is known for his tireless enthusiasm for making science accessible, through numerous tv, radio, podcast and theatre appearances, and books. He was a part of the aware-nominated BBC Stargazing LIVE TV Show in the UK and his Spectacular Science theatre show has received 5 star reviews across UK theatres. In 2025 he is launching his new pocast Cosmic Commerce and is working on a new book 101 Facts You Didn't Know About Deep Space In 2018, Mark received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of East Anglia.

You can email Mark here

Recent Articles

Exoplanetary Systems are Diverse. Our Search for Life Should Be the Same

June 17, 2025

With over 5,000 exoplanets now identified, astronomers have found that our Solar System isn't the only model of planetary formation. There are super-Earths, sub-Neptunes, hot-Jupiters, and Earth-sized worlds orbiting around red dwarf stars. In a new paper, researchers propose how the search for life could adapt to these bizarre environments, expanding the definition of a habitable world. Life could exist without a surface, or using different kinds of solvents than water.
Webb Shows That Young Stars Inherit Their Water From the Cosmos

June 17, 2025

The early Solar System was filled with both hydrogen and oxygen that can chemically bond into water. But did we create all the water, or was some of it inherited from the earlier times, already present in the protostellar nebula? Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to study a newly-forming protoplanetary system called L1527 IRS, which will eventually become a star like our Sun. They found evidence that water from interstellar space is preserved when it becomes part of a new star system.
A Better Way to Turn Solar Sails

June 14, 2025

Solar sails are space's ultimate free ride, they get their propulsion from the Sun, so they don't need to carry propellant, but they come with their own challenges. A sail has a large surface area but a low mass, which creates a huge moment of inertia and makes it difficult to control, especially with reaction wheels. A team of engineers have cracked it though with "smart mirrors" that can instantly switch their reflectivity on command, transforming sunlight from an unruly force into a precision steering tool.
Webb Sees the Galaxies that Cleared Out the Cosmic Fog

June 14, 2025

The early universe was shrouded in darkness. Just hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, a thick fog of hydrogen gas choked the cosmos, blocking light from traveling far. At some point, this gas became ionized, stripped of its electrons. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have identified the culprit: low-mass starburst galaxies emitting huge amounts of ultraviolet light. In just one patch of sky. They discovered 83 of these galactic powerhouses in one part of the sky at a time when the Universe was only 800 million years old.
How Bubble Muscles Could Help Astronauts Get Their Space Legs

June 13, 2025

When astronauts finally reach Mars, they'll face a unique challenge: walking and working in gravity that's only 37% as strong as Earth's. After spending months in the weightlessness of space, their weakened muscles and bones will struggle to cope with even this reduced gravity. Now, researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a promising solution; a soft, wearable exosuit powered by inflatable "bubble muscles."
The Moon is Covered in Tiny Orange Glass Beads. Now We Know Why.

June 12, 2025

When the Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon, they discovered drifts of tiny brilliant orange glass beads glittering across the surface. Each one less than 1 mm across and formed about 3.6 billion years ago. These microscopic treasures, each smaller than a pinhead, had been hiding their secrets for billions of years. Now, cutting edge technology has finally cracked the mystery: they're perfect time capsules from the Moon's explosive volcanic past, frozen droplets of ancient lava that solidified instantly in the airless void recording the history of the Moon.
1000 Hours with the Square Kilometre Array is Our Best Hope to Finally See Cosmic Dawn.

June 12, 2025

The Hubble Deep Field revolutionised astronomy by staring at a seemingly empty patch of sky for thousands of hours, unveiling a cosmos teeming with distant galaxies. But even Hubble can't peer back far enough to witness the universe's first moment of illumination; the Cosmic Dawn, when primordial darkness gave way to starlight. Now, the Square Kilometre Array promises to shatter that barrier. In a groundbreaking simulation, researchers have modelled 1000 hours of SKA observations, creating astronomy's next great deep field, one designed to capture the universe's very first sunrise.
You're Looking at a Newly Forming Planet

June 11, 2025

Astronomers have discovered the site of a newly forming exoplanet, probably with several times the mass of Jupiter. The image was captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope, seeing the young star system 2MASS 1612 in infrared light. The disk extends about 130 astronomical units from the star, but you can see a bright ring followed by a gap at about 50 AU. It's believed there's a new planet forming in that gap, pulling in material from the disk of gas and dust around it.
Would a Planetary Sunshade Help Cool the Planet? This Mission Could Find Out

June 11, 2025

As worldwide temperatures continue to rise and conventional solutions aren't working fast enough, governments may turn to geoengineering solutions. One idea is to place a giant sunshade somewhat like an umbrella between the Earth and the Sun to block some of the sunlight that reaches our planet. A new mission proposes sending an 81 m² sail to Earth-Sun L1 to measure the effect of blocking a tiny fraction of solar energy.
The Habitability of Earth Tells Us the Likelihood of Finding Life Elsewhere

May 30, 2025

In a universe of a billion galaxies, Earth is the world known to have life. If we're a common example of what happens in the Universe, then our location can tell us something about habitability. A new study is about to flip everything we thought we knew about habitability on its head, examining the potential for life in exotic environments, such as rogue planets, water worlds, and tidally locked planets, and calculate how habitable they would be compared to Earth. As we learn more about these other worlds, if they are more habitable, it can give new predictions.
Martian Probe Rolls Over to See Subsurface Ice and Rock

May 29, 2025

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is equipped with a powerful tool called SHARAD (Shallow Radar), designed to peer beneath the Martian surface and uncover hidden layers of ice, rock, and geological secrets. To accommodate it, engineers mounted SHARAD on the side of the spacecraft, requiring the orbiter to roll 28° during operation to boost signal quality. But computer models hinted at something else: if the orbiter rolled more than 120°, the radar performance could dramatically improve. Scientists put this daring idea to the test—and it paid off. The extreme roll manoeuvre worked, unlocking an even clearer view of Mars's buried past.
The Search is on for Betel-Buddy

May 29, 2025

Betelgeuse is dying—but not quietly. This colossal red supergiant, already famous for its brightness fluctuations, has now revealed a strange long-term rhythm: a secondary pulse every 2,100 days. One tantalising theory suggests a hidden companion—possibly a second star orbiting Betelgeuse at roughly the distance between Saturn and the Sun, circling every six years. Astronomers recently pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at the giant in search of this elusive "Betel-Buddy" but failed to find it constraining its size and orbit.
China's Tianwen-2 is Off to Collect an Asteroid Sample

May 29, 2025

China's Tianwen-2 mission blasted off on Wednesday, embarking on an epic 8-year journey that will help to unlock the secrets of an asteroid and a comet before delivering the precious cargo back to Earth. The spacecraft will first hunt down Kamoʻoalewa (asteroid 2016 HO3) which it will study for a year, extracting samples from its surface. After returning the sample to Earth, Tianwen-2 will head back out into the Solar System taking another 7 years to intercept the main belt comet 311P/Pan-STARRS. It will undertake a flyby study of this object that has never been studied before.
Space Power Satellites at the Moon Could Keep a Base Warm

May 29, 2025

Lunar exploration is gaining momentum, but one of the biggest challenges remains the Moon's long, cold night, which lasts about two weeks. To address this, a team of researchers has proposed deploying a constellation of solar power satellites in lunar orbit. These satellites would beam energy wirelessly to a base on the Moon, providing a continuous supply of 1,600 kW of power, day or night. Their proposal includes launching 300 satellites by 2035, supporting long term plans for establishing permanent lunar bases.
One Star Once Orbited Inside the Other in this Bizarre Binary System.

May 27, 2025

Astronomers have spotted a pulsar in a binary system, taking about 3.6 hours for the stars to orbit one another. Their orbit is so close that, from our vantage point, the pulsar's radio signals vanish for roughly one-sixth of each cycle—blocked by the companion's interference. Researchers think that the more massive star died first, exploding as a supernova and collapsing into a neutron star, passing within the atmosphere of the other. It took about 1,000 years to blow away the envelope of material.
Perseverance Photobombed by a Passing Dust Devil

May 27, 2025

On May 10th, while striking a selfie to mark its 1,500th day on Mars, NASA's Perseverance Rover got an unexpected guest star—a towering dust devil swirling in the distance photobombed the shot. The rover was on Witch Hazel Hill, an area on the rim of Jezero Crater that it has been exploring for the last 5 months. The dust devil on the other hand was sneaking into the background from a distance of 5 km away. The selfie image was made up of 59 separate photos taken by the rover using its WATSON camera.
Astronomers Identified the Lost Star of 1408…Or Have They?

May 27, 2025

Over the past 90 years, astronomers have successfully matched several Chinese historical records of "guest stars" with known supernovae. However, identifying historical novae (smaller stellar explosions) has proven to be far more challenging, with many proposed candidates later turning out to be comets or meteors instead. One particularly debated case involves a guest star recorded in 1408 CE by Chinese astronomers. A team of astronomers now think they may have finally been able to identify the event, a rare nova that could potentially solve this centuries old astronomical mystery.
Mapping the Center of the Milky Way in 3D

May 22, 2025

The Solar System is a whopping 26,000 light-years from the heart of the Milky Way, where a mysterious and dense region—shrouded in thick gas and dust—holds one of the Galaxy's most active zones: the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). A team of scientists have unleashed a cutting-edge 3D model of this region, mapping out everything from massive molecular clouds to young stars in the making. Armed with powerful radio telescopes and infrared observatories, they've pieced together a detailed map, offering a rare glimpse into the heart of our Galaxy's chaotic core.
The Location of a Galaxy's Gas Plays a Role in Star Formation

May 22, 2025

Galaxies are stellar factories generating stars at different speeds—some working at a breakneck pace while others trickling along! We have known for a long time that the availability of raw materials makes a difference to stellar formation, but according to a new paper which surveyed 1,000 galaxies the location of the matter plays a role too. Those with a high stellar formation rate seem to have a high volume of gas reserves in the heart of their densest star clusters with the highest concentration of stars.
Lunar Landing Pads Will Need to be Tough

May 21, 2025

As humanity heads back to the Moon, a silent danger lurks: exhaust plumes from multiple spacecraft will blast lunar dust into orbit, creating a potentially deadly obstacle course for future missions. The solution will be to build landing pads on the lunar surface out of the lunar regolith. Researchers simulated landing pads just like these and their tests showed they could handle the heat and force of the propellant exhaust from a landing spacecraft. The techniques they found will minimise erosion over multiple landings.