Posts by 

Paul Scott Anderson

Dragon bones on Mars? Curiosity spies weird rocks

Did NASA's Curiosity rover find dragon bones on Mars? Nah. But these wonderfully weird spiky rocks are some of the strangest formations the rovers have seen.

Was Snowball Earth more of a slushball?

Snowball Earth might have been more of a slushball, scientists say. More temperate regions with pockets of slushy waters would have allowed life to survive.

Neptune Trojans now seen as redder

Astronomers used a trio of telescopes to measure the "redness" of the Neptune Trojans, asteroids in Neptune's orbit. Turns out they're redder than expected.

A magnetic field on a nearby Earth-sized exoplanet?

For the 1st time, astronomers have detected a possible magnetic field on a rocky exoplanet similar in size to Earth, only 12 light-years away.

Alpha Centauri planets? TOLIMAN will search

Are there any habitable planets orbiting the 2 sun-like stars of Alpha Centauri? We don't know yet, but the TOLIMAN mission will search for them.

Giant exoplanet has 2 suns and swirling sand

NASA's Webb space telescope has detected swirling, gritty clouds of silicates and numerous molecules in the atmosphere of a giant exoplanet 40 light-years away.

Volcanoes on Venus … Wow! New map here

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have compiled a new global map of the known volcanoes on Venus ... All 85,000 of them.

Innermost TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet is hot and airless

NASA's Webb space telescope has found that TRAPPIST-1 b, the innermost planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system, is airless and too hot for life.

Terminator zones and the search for life

A new study shows that exoplanet terminator zones - regions on worlds with permanent day and night sides - might be able to support life.

Europa’s icy crust rides on warm ocean currents

A new study from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Oxford University shows how ocean currents can affect how fast or slow Europa's icy crust rotates.