Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

Was Mars a blue water world before Earth?

Researchers say that early Mars likely had a thick hydrogen atmosphere that allowed water to exist for millions of years, even before Earth had oceans.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 26, 2022

Secrets of Saturn’s rings revealed by the sun

A new study uses solar occultation data from NASA's Cassini mission to better understand the composition, formation and other secrets of Saturn's rings.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 25, 2022

Liquid water on Mars beneath polar ice?

Is there liquid water on Mars? A new international study supports the initial reported discovery in 2018 of water beneath Mars' south polar ice cap.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 20, 2022

Venus balloon aerobot completes 1st test flights

Engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory successfully conducted 2 test flights of a robotic Venus balloon prototype.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 17, 2022

Earth-like ocean planets plentiful for red dwarf stars?

Researchers in Japan say that Earth-like ocean planets orbiting red dwarf stars may be fairly common. Up to about 10% may have oceans similar to our own.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 14, 2022

Creating alien lava worlds in the lab

Scientists at Cornell University are creating alien lava worlds in the lab. They are replicating the surfaces of rocky exoplanets that are volcanically active.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 12, 2022

How likely is an Earth-like origin of life elsewhere?

Retired astrophysicist Daniel Whitmire says that an Earth-like origin of life (abiogenesis) is probably very likely on other rocky worlds similar to our own.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 10, 2022

A giant gamma-ray burst from the infant universe

A team of astronomers say they have discovered a new giant gamma-ray burst that originated from the infant universe when it was 880 million years old.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 6, 2022

Moon’s wandering poles revealed in new study

A new study from scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center "erased craters" to better understand the moon's wandering poles over time.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 3, 2022

The Wow! Signal: New search comes up empty

Scientists with Breakthrough Listen conducted a new search around a sun-like star for the famous Wow! Signal from 1977. Unfortunately, they heard nothing.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 2, 2022

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.