Dr Henrik Melin

Dr Henrik Melin is an astronomer and a James Webb Research Fellow at the University of Leicester, UK. Growing up in Sweden, he became fascinated by the beauty and strangeness of the universe and went on to do an undergraduate and PhD degree at University College London, UK.

Passionate about the giant planets within our own solar system, he is currently studying how these planets interact with their surrounding space environment, generating magnificent displays of northern and southern lights, also known as aurora. He has also previously worked in Los Angles, where he contributed to the very successful Cassini mission to Saturn, framing the aurora of the ringed in a completely new light.

Having worked extensively with telescopes both in space and on the surface of the Earth, he recently started working with the brand new James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and the most advanced space telescope ever constructed and launched into space. This telescope offers unrivalled detail and clarity of the universe, from planets in our celestial backyard to the earliest galaxies and stars formed in our universe.