Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

A famous Mars meteorite, now with nitrogen

For the first time, nitrogen-containing organic molecules have been discovered in a Martian meteorite. The famous meteorite - Allan Hills 84001 - was picked up in Antarctica in 1984. The discovery provides more clues about habitable conditions on early Mars.

Paul Scott Anderson

May 15, 2020

This brown dwarf might look a lot like Jupiter

The cloud bands on brown dwarf Luhman 16A were found via instruments known as polarimeters. An astronomer said they're like "... an astronomer's polarized sunglasses. But instead of trying to block out that glare, we're trying to measure it."

Paul Scott Anderson

May 13, 2020

Lunar Flashlight to seek ice on the moon

Future astronauts on the moon will need to have water, and now NASA has designed a new CubeSat spacecraft to search for ice in lunar craters using laser beams.

Paul Scott Anderson

May 8, 2020

The mysterious yellow skies of WASP-79b

Scientists studying the huge, hot exoplanet WASP-79b have found that, surprisingly, the planet has yellow skies instead of blue. But why it does is still a mystery.

Paul Scott Anderson

May 7, 2020

Will Dragonfly find dust devils on Titan?

Earth and Mars both are known to have swirling dust devils moving along their surfaces. Saturn's large moon Titan might have them, too, according to a new study. If so, NASA's planned Dragonfly mission will be able to find them.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 30, 2020

Are these 19 eccentric asteroids from other star systems?

In the first discovery of its kind, researchers in France have found 19 asteroids in our solar system - between the planets Jupiter and Neptune - that they say are likely of interstellar origin.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 28, 2020

Are giant magnetic bubbles depleting Uranus’ atmosphere?

Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, looking at old data from Voyager 2, have found evidence that plasmoids are slowly causing Uranus' atmosphere to leak into space.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 28, 2020

A beloved exoplanet turns to dust

Fomalhaut b was thought to be one of the few exoplanets photographed so far, but new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show it's really an expanding dust cloud.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 24, 2020

Update on 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet

The first known interstellar comet - 21/Borisov - probably came here from a red dwarf star, according to a new study of data from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 23, 2020

Two (potentially) exciting new exoplanet discoveries

Scientists just announced 2 new exciting updates about exoplanets. One is a potentially habitable world similar in size and temperature to Earth. The other is a possible new planet - possibly with rings - orbiting the closest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 21, 2020

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.