Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

Curiosity’s ‘mind-boggling’ new Mars mystery: oxygen

Scientists are still trying to figure out where Mars' methane comes from. Now there's a new mystery that might be connected: unusual fluctuations of oxygen in Mars' atmosphere, detected by the Curiosity rover.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 18, 2019

Stunning view inside a young moon crater

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned some amazing high-resolution photos of the surface of the moon, including these ones of steep cliffs and impact melt inside a young crater called Giordano Bruno.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 11, 2019

Did ancient Earth life escape our solar system?

You've heard of panspermia, the idea that life exists throughout space and was carried to Earth by comets? What if the reverse occurred, with microbes on Earth ejected into space by asteroid impacts, escaping into the solar system billions of years ago?

Paul Scott Anderson

November 10, 2019

Is Hygiea now the smallest dwarf planet?

New images from ESO's Very Large Telescope show that asteroid Hygiea is round, meaning that it may now be classified as the smallest-known dwarf planet in our solar system.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 8, 2019

NASA studies plan to send an orbiter to Pluto

Remember when New Horizons swept past Pluto in 2015? That was exciting! Who knew Pluto had a heart? Now scientists are proposing a new Pluto orbiter mission. It would gather details on Pluto's heart and the rest of its youthful surface, its hazy bluish nitrogen atmosphere, and its system of 5 known moons.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 4, 2019

Breakthrough Listen and TESS team up for SETI

Will we ever hear from an alien civilization? Will we hear from one in our lifetimes? Now 2 powerhouses in the world of astronomy have teamed up to optimize the chances of a successful search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 3, 2019

How unique is Earth?

Scientists studying white dwarf stars have found that some contain traces of rocky debris very similar in composition to rocks found on Earth. The finding suggests that worlds similar to Earth might be common in our Milky Way galaxy.

Paul Scott Anderson

November 1, 2019

An update on that ‘gel’ on the moon

China's Yutu-2 rover has sent back a new image of the unusual "gel-like" material it found last July, which seems to confirm that it's not gel at all. Instead, it now appears it's probably impact glass from a meteorite impact.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 27, 2019

How small is the smallest habitable exoplanet?

Where can we expect to find life beyond Earth? A new study has redefined the lower limit in mass for habitable exoworlds. It suggests that low-mass waterworlds might exist and might be a place to look.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 25, 2019

Did the Viking landers find life on Mars in 1976?

For a brief time in 1976, it seemed as if NASA's Viking landers had found microbes on Mars! Those results have been vigorously disputed in the years since, but the original experiment's principal investigator, Gilbert Levin, still maintains they really did detect Martian microbes.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 22, 2019

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.