Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

How WFIRST will use warped spacetime to find exoplanets

NASA's WFIRST mission - an infrared space observatory planned for launch around 2025 - will use the fact that the gravity of distant objects warps spacetime, bending and focusing light, thereby revealing new worlds.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 19, 2020

First-ever measure of brown dwarf wind speed

Using data from both Spitzer and ground-based telescopes, scientists have been able to measure the speed of winds on a brown dwarf for the first time ever.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 15, 2020

Will SETI 2.0 lead to a discovery of intelligent aliens?

2020 has been an exciting year so far for SETI - the search for extraterrestrial life - in terms of new technological developments and strategies.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 14, 2020

Ripples on Pluto hint at subsurface ocean

A new study of unusual ripples on Pluto's far side add to the evidence for a subsurface ocean on this distant and cold dwarf planet.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 13, 2020

Was Mercury once habitable?

As unlikely as it may sound, Mercury may have once been able to support subsurface microscopic life, according to a new study from the Planetary Science Institute.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 5, 2020

Astronomers announce 100 new minor planets beyond Neptune

They're called trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs. Astronomers analyzed data from the Dark Energy Survey - which just completed 6 years of observations - to find over 100 new little worlds in the cold outer reaches of our solar system.

Paul Scott Anderson

March 29, 2020

Will we soon see potentially habitable exoplanets more clearly?

Because stars are so much brighter than their planets, we've barely begun to glimpse distant exoplanets, or planets orbiting distant stars. Now a new technology promises to provide better imaging of these potentially habitable exoworlds.

Paul Scott Anderson

March 27, 2020

See Curiosity’s epic new selfie from Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has taken a beautiful new selfie.

Paul Scott Anderson

March 26, 2020

Meet the giant exoplanet where it rains iron

The temperatures on the day side of giant exoplanet WASP-76b are scorching, high enough for metals to be vaporized. But the night side is cooler, and winds carry an iron "rain" from the day side to the night side.

Paul Scott Anderson

March 21, 2020

What’s cool about Curiosity’s discovery of organic molecules on Mars

The Curiosity rover has found organic molecules called thiophenes, which, on Earth, are associated with biological systems. Are they evidence for once-living microbes on Mars?

Paul Scott Anderson

March 19, 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.