Conor Feehly

Conor Feehly

Contributing Writer

Conor Feehly is a New Zealand-based science writer. He has earned a master's in science communication from the University of Otago, Dunedin. His writing has appeared in Cosmos Magazine, Discover Magazine and ScienceAlert. His writing largely covers topics relating to neuroscience and psychology, although he also enjoys writing about a number of scientific subjects ranging from astrophysics to archaeology. 

Latest articles by Conor Feehly

two planets, one blue (farther), one tannish/green (foreground) float in space. a yellow star hangs in the black distance.

Exoplanet 'haze' makes it harder to identify water on alien worlds. Scientists may have a solution

By Conor Feehly published

Planetary scientists simulate how haze might be obstructing our view of exoplanet's atmospheres, and potentially alien water.

Exoplanets
international space station seen through a spacecraft window

As the ISS turns 25, a look back at the space laboratory's legacy

By Conor Feehly published

Over 25 years, the ISS has taught us what it means to live and work in space.

International Space Station
An aerial view of a sandy-colored area. A dark purple splotch represents the methane plume source EMIT detected.

NASA instrument on ISS identifies more than 750 greenhouse gas sources

By Conor Feehly published

NASA's EMIT instrument is turning into an important tool in combating climate change.

Earth
An image with many, many galaxies

Distant 'teenage galaxies' surprise astronomers with unexpected heavy elements

By Conor Feehly published

Significant amounts of nickel observed in galaxies only two-to-three billion years after the Big Bang.

Galaxies
41 Cassini observations were combined to create this image of Saturn's rings.

Solar eclipses seen by long-dead Cassini spacecraft shed new light on Saturn's rings

By Conor Feehly published

Data from the deceased Cassini spacecraft offers astronomers an unconventional way to measure the optical depth of Saturn's rings.

Saturn
illustration of an orangey and large star with a planet in the front. steam appears to emanate from the planet, indicating how close it is to the sun. the planet's atmosphere is sandy

James Webb Space Telescope reveals sandy surprise in distant planet

By Conor Feehly published

Fresh James Webb Space Telescope observations of exoplanet WASP-107b revealed sandy clouds high in its atmosphere.

James Webb Space Telescope
spot-lit satellite dishes on an arid landscape point skyward ere the backdrop of a starry night

SETI Institute gets $200 million to seek out evidence of alien life

By Conor Feehly published

Researchers are taking seriously the idea that our first evidence of life elsewhere in the cosmos may come in the form of alien technology.

Search for Life
This image of the Venus southern hemisphere illustrates the terminator – the transitional region between the dayside (left) and nightside of the planet (right).

Between Venus' atmospheric currents, a layer of reactive oxygen

By Conor Feehly published

Scientists found atomic oxygen buried between two dominant currents in the hellish planet's atmosphere.

Venus
Color illustration of a rocky planet on the left and a portion of a much-larger star on the right. About three-quarters of the lit side of the planet is visible; the other quarter is in shadow. The surface of the planet has gray, orange, and yellow mottling. Most of the orange and yellow is in the region that is facing the star directly. The grayer portions are toward the poles and shadowed side of the planet. The edge of the disc of the planet appears to be glowing, suggesting a thin atmosphere. The star is bright orange-yellow, with a turbulent appearance similar to the Sun.

NASA's exoplanet-hunting telescope spies 8 'super-Earths'

By Conor Feehly published

Astronomers using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have identified eight new super-Earths that orbit close to their host stars.

Exoplanets
Annotated telescope image shows a tapestry of colors in shades of blue, purple, red, yellow, and white. Overlaid on the image are three sets of labels. In the upper right corner is the name of the object, Center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and the name of the telescopes used to capture the image: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope. At the center is a label that points to the smaller, amorphous region in white that reads, Sagittarius A-star.

James Webb Space Telescope could soon solve mysteries of the Milky Way's heart

By Conor Feehly published

To understand how galaxies evolve, astronomers want to use JWST to peer into the Milky Way's core.

James Webb Space Telescope
An image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, a behemoth dubbed Sagittarius A*, revealed by the Event Horizon Telescope on May 12, 2022.

Swirling gas helps scientists nail down Milky Way's supermassive black hole mass

By Conor Feehly published

An independent mass measurement of Sagittarius A* suggests we have been right all along about how utterly massive this black hole is.

Black Holes
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