Press Coverage

The following lists are separated into press releases from agencies that I have been involved in, and news stories that I’ve been asked to comment on.

Press Releases

  • NASA Press Conference on Juno’s exploration of the deep atmosphere of Jupiter, coinciding with the simultaneous release of papers in Science, JGR:Planets, and GRL. A one-hour press conference was held on NASA TV on October 28th 2021, and was accompanied by a JPL press release, a Leicester press-release, and my own article for the Conversation (republished by Ars Technica).
  • Leicester press release on successful Cycle-1 proposals for the James Webb Space Telescope, including my Jupiter and Saturn target-of-opportunity observations (May 2021).
  • NASA press release from NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center about my teams JWST MIRI observations of the Ice Giants (February 2020).
  • Berkeley press release on our combined microwave and infrared observations of Jupiter’s storms (August 2019).
  • Press release on the discovery of thermal emission from Uranus’ rings in the thermal-infrared and radio (Jun 21st 2019). Picked up by space.com, Metro and Gizmodo.
  • NASA Press Release (June 19th 2019) on my team’s proposed use of the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate Saturn’s seasonal atmosphere.
  • Press Release on Jupiter’s Equatorial Disturbances (Dec 19th 2018): Press-released work from my postdoc, Arrate Antunano, by the University of Leicester:
  • ESA Press Release (September 4th, 2018): Press release on our Nature Communications article, discovering that Saturn’s famous hexagon may tower above the clouds.
  • NASA Press Release (June 25th 2018): Press release on my team’s plans to use the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal new insights into Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.
  • Europlanet Press Release (May 10th, 2018): Press release on our organisation of the “New Views of Jupiter” workshop, bringing together professional astronomers, amateur astronomers, and NASA’s Juno team at the Royal Astronomical Society in London. Press release is available here and videos of the meeting attendees are available here.
  • Leicester Press Release: Spectroscopic identification of hydrogen sulphide with Gemini, providing the rotten eggs smell in Uranus’ atmosphere, press release here, picked up by Astronomy Now, the Sun, Washington Post, BBC, and even featured in the Missing Words round on Have I Got News for You.
  • ESA Press Release (December 13th, 2017): Press release on our Nature Astronomy article, discovering that giant storms in Saturn’s atmosphere can disrupt its equatorial heartbeat. The press release is available here.
  • Leicester press release on the end of the Cassini mission, including BBC coverage of the live events to celebrate the end of the mission (September 2017).
  • Leicester press release on our Subaru observations of Jupiter’s thermal emission in support of Juno’s exploration of the Great Red Spot.
  • NASA press release on our SOFIA observations of Jupiter, reporting on observations only previously possible from Voyager.

Press Interviews (Print and Web Stories)

  • January 2024: Press coverage of a MNRAS paper on the colours of the Ice Giants, Uranus and Neptune, featured by the Royal Astronomical Society, NPR, New York Times, and many others.
  • New York Times interview with Kate LaRue on her story on JWST observations.
  • New York Times, interviewed by Katrina Miller about the August 2023 impact on Jupiter (September 15th 2023).
  • New Scientist interview by Alex Wilkins on Stunning JWST image sees Saturn show off its glowing rings (June 30th 2023).
  • Scientific American interview by Shannon Hall, on NASA’s Uranus Mission Is Running Out of Time.
  • Chemistry World interview with Anthony King about prospects for future missions to Uranus.
  • US Decadal Survey 2022, and the announcement of the top priority for Uranus, was covered in print and media from across the world, including interviews for Die Zeit, the BBC, Nature, and Forbes. I also managed to do some live breakfast interviews in Australia, on Radio Melbourne and ABC Radio National; a livestream with a Youtuber and some digital content for BBC Arabic.
  • New Scientist: Interviewed by Becca Caddy for a profile piece in the January 2022 issues, talking about our motivations for future missions to the Ice Giants.
  • Physics World (2021): Interviewed by Will Gater on the September-2021 Jupiter impact event.
  • Astronomy Magazine (2021): Conversation about why the four giant planets all appear so different in terms of colour.
  • Quanta magazine interview (2021) with Robin Andrews on auroral heating of Jupiter and Saturn’s upper atmosphere.
  • Nature news article on our Royal Society meeting on Ice Giant exploration, January 2020. The story was also picked up by the Daily Mail.
  • Popular Science interview on the theory of mushball precipitation on Jupiter (August 2020).
  • All-about Space Magazine on the Ice Giants (2019).
  • New Scientist interview on the evolution of the Great Red Spot (November 2019).
  • Venus-Jupiter Conjunction (Jan 2019): Telephone interview with Jack Guy of CNN regarding the Venus-Jupiter conjunction in January 2019, reported here.
  • Mercury Magazine (October 2018): Interviewed for a piece in the Canadian Mercury Magazine all about our latest research on Saturn’s hexagon.
  • Gizmodo Interview on Uranus science (July 3rd 2018): Asked to comment on new research about the cataclysm that pushed Uranus over onto its side, with the full article available here.
  • Interview with Nature News about JWST Delays (June 28th 2018): Available here.
  • Independent: Discussion with Andrew Griffin about why recent detections of Europa plumes are exciting for future missions like JUICE and Clipper, published May 21st in the Independent.
  • BBC Interview on the latest results from Juno, including the discovery of the deep winds below the clouds.
  • Mental Floss (July 12th 2017): Interview with David Brown about the new images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot: “Here’s the Closest View of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot That Humans Have Ever Seen”.
  • New Scientist (May 3rd 2017): Interviewed by New Scientist on the first Juno observations, as presented at the EGU in Vienna.
  • Sutton Trust and the Sun (February 12th 2017): Interviewed by the Sun newspaper about the 20th anniversary of the Sutton Trust scheme.
  • National Space Centre article, From Space Crew to Space Industry
  • Barwell Meteorite: Interviewed by a BBC researcher for personal reflections on the Barwell meteorite (the UK’s largest meteorite fall, 1965). Published in the BBC magazine.
  • Astronomy Now Magazine (November 2015): Interviewed for a piece by Paul Sutherland on “Winter Wonderlands”, looking at how the planets in our solar system change as a function of season
  • BBC Future Magazine: A telephone interview for an online article about missions to Uranus.
  • National Geographic Interview: New Results on Jupiter, August 2009.
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Leigh Fletcher
Professor of Planetary Science