Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

Rover spies rock features on Mars with odd circular shapes

NASA's Perseverance rover recently found odd circular rock features on Mars, similar to ones made by microbes on Earth in lakes. Evidence of life or geology?

Paul Scott Anderson

November 9, 2023

Best places to find ice on Mars revealed in new NASA map

NASA has released a new map of ice on Mars as part of the Subsurface Water Ice Mapping project. It shows all the known and suspected areas of underground ice.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 6, 2023

Astronomers spy new auroras for Uranus

For the 1st time, astronomers have detected infrared auroras for Uranus, the 7th planet. They say it'll help them learn about Earth's auroras.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 3, 2023

A network of life-supporting rivers for Mars?

Could there once have been a network of life-supporting rivers for Mars? A study from Penn State suggests Mars' rivers might once have been common.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 1, 2023

Surprise! Plate tectonics helped create Venus’ hellscape

Scientists have long thought that Venus never had plate tectonics. But a new study suggests it did early on, which created the atmosphere we see today.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 31, 2023

Fast radio burst traveled 8 billion light-years to Earth

Astronomers have confirmed the most distant fast radio burst ever found so far. It resides in a small group of merging galaxies 8 billion light-years away.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 27, 2023

Ancient mud lake on Mars could hold traces of life

Researchers at the Planetary Science Institute said that an ancient mud lake on Mars would be an ideal place to search for evidence of ancient microbial life.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 26, 2023

Mystery fairy circles are a global phenomenon, says AI study

Here's the 1st study to map fairy circles on a global scale, suggesting these circular patches in arid ground are more widespread than thought.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 23, 2023

Mists of tiny quartz crystals on a giant hot exoplanet

Astronomers using NASA's Webb telescope have discovered clouds of tiny quartz crystals in the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter exoplanet 1,300 light years away.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 19, 2023

Can we detect dark matter using light from pulsars?

Researchers used pulsars to confirm the existence of long-sought axiom particles, and perhaps dark matter. The results were negative, but are only a first step.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 16, 2023

Paul Scott Anderson

Paul Scott Anderson has had a passion for space exploration that began when he was a child when he watched Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. He studied English, writing, art and computer/publication design in high school and college. He later started his blog The Meridiani Journal in 2005, which was later renamed Planetaria. He also later started the blog Fermi Paradoxica, about the search for life elsewhere in the universe. While interested in all aspects of space exploration, his primary passion is planetary science and SETI. In 2011, he started writing about space on a freelance basis with Universe Today. He has also written for SpaceFlight Insider and AmericaSpace and has also been published in The Mars Quarterly. He also did some supplementary writing for the iOS app Exoplanet. He has been writing for EarthSky since 2018, and also assists with proofing and social media.