Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

NASA to fund research on advanced solar sails

Solar sails use faint pressure from sunlight to propel a spacecraft forward. A next-generation solar sail - called a diffractive solar sail - might be made of metamaterials, or smart materials.

Paul Scott Anderson

May 5, 2019

Scientists explain mysterious, celestial STEVE

STEVE is a majestic sky phenomenon, similar to well-known auroras, but not as well understood. Now, a new study provides an explanation.

Paul Scott Anderson

May 2, 2019

You saw the 1st photo of a black hole? Now see its home galaxy

The 1st-ever photo of a giant black hole made headlines earlier this month. Now see some beautiful images of M87, the great galaxy that it calls home, located some 55 million light-years from Earth.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 29, 2019

Mystery solved: Mercury has a solid heart

Here's how NASA's MESSENGER mission - which orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015 - let scientists finally solve one of Mercury's biggest mysteries, about whether its innermost core is liquid or solid.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 28, 2019

TESS discovers its 1st Earth-sized exoplanet

Launched in 2018, TESS is NASA's new space-based exoplanet hunter. Now it's found its 1st Earth-sized world orbiting a nearby star. The discovery bodes well, scientists say, for finding more similar worlds in the near future.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 26, 2019

Did an interstellar traveler hit Earth in 2014?

'Oumuamua - 1st known object to sweep past us from beyond our solar system - caused a stir when astronomers spotted it in 2017. Now a new study suggests another interstellar object might have hit the Earth in 2014.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 25, 2019

Scientists find new surprises about Titan’s lakes

Cassini data now reveal that some of Titan's lakes are surprisingly deep.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 23, 2019

Closest rocky exoplanets could support life

Intense UV radiation from red dwarf stars was thought to make potentially habitable exoplanets unable to support life. But a new study of the 4 nearest rocky worlds suggests otherwise.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 21, 2019

The strange case of Mars’ disappearing methane

In 2013, in a big success story, a Mars rover and orbiter made a near-simultaneous observation of methane in Mars' atmosphere. Now a newer mission orbiting Mars - ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter - has failed to detect methane. Why?

Paul Scott Anderson

April 17, 2019

When and how it rains on the sun

Rain takes different forms on the planets and moons of our solar system. But it also "rains" on the sun, as electrified gas drips from giant magnetic loops in the sun's outer atmosphere. Read about the sun's coronal rain.

Paul Scott Anderson

April 14, 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.