My Space Interview with Dr. Coles

Written by Caiden

I interviewed Dr. Ken Coles, an IUP professor, and asked him five questions about space. Here are the questions I asked him about space and his responses:

First I asked Dr. Coles, “What is the red spot on Jupiter?”  He shared this response with me, “Usually scientists give a short answer and call it a storm in the atmosphere of Jupiter.  We know from the rotation that it is actually an "anti-storm," or a part of the atmosphere where air is sinking, like one of our cold, clear winter air masses from Canada.  A hurricane or other storm involves air that is rising.  Whether rising or sinking, such "weather" also typically rotates whether it is on Earth or Jupiter.  The Great Red Spot (which is actually rather pale in recent years) is fascinating because it is several times larger than the entire Earth and because it has been active and visible for 250 years!  I'm not aware of a real explanation for how it works - it is one of the mysteries of the largest planet.

The next question I asked Dr. Coles was, “What is the farthest anyone has ever explored in space?”  He responded, “The farthest humans have gone is in orbit around the Moon, which was done by 9 Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972.  Of course, we have explored further using robotic spacecraft.  Voyager 1 and 2 are far beyond Neptune and Pluto and are still sending radio signals, which take many hours to reach Earth.  If studying the heavens with telescopes counts as exploration (I think it does), then humans have looked back to the very early Universe, using light that has taken over 13 billion years to reach us.”

Then I asked Dr. Coles, “Are there planets in other galaxies and if yes, have they been named yet?”  Dr. Coles replied, “We know of nearly 2000 planets orbiting other stars in our own galaxy.  Other galaxies are much too far away for us to be able to detect planets with our current instruments and technology.  We strongly suspect they are there, as stars in other galaxies are like stars in our own, so planet formation is probably as common elsewhere as in the Milky Way.”

After that I asked, “What is inside of black holes?”  Dr. Coles told me, “We can't say!  Science does not yet have a description of what Nature is doing inside of a black hole.  We can see the effects outside the black hole, which suggest a huge mass is in there creating strong gravity.  Many smart people are trying to figure it out.”

The last question I asked Dr. Coles was, “Is there any life on other planets, in other galaxies, or in the Universe other than humans on Earth?”  He replied, “Aha, that is the biggest question of all.  We don't know.  We can say the temperature, or chemicals, or supply of water is right in other places to allow life as we know it.  But no one can say with certainty whether life is common, or rare, or unique to Earth.  This question may take a very long time to resolve, but it will be an interesting search.”

I learned many things from this interview.  Some of the most interesting things I learned are that they are still trying to see what is inside of black holes, there are nearly 2,000 planets in our own galaxy, and the farthest any human traveled was in orbit around the moon.  There are many planets and I am interested in learning their names.  I want to know all there is to know about space.