Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

New NASA consortium to study how life began

How did life originate on Earth and, possibly, other worlds in space? A new NASA consortium has the goal of probing one of nature's most perplexing mysteries.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 26, 2019

Weird hexagonal dune field seen on Mars

Mars has sand dunes, as Earth does. But now, NASA's Odyssey orbiter has revealed something odd: a large dune field shaped roughly like a hexagon. The finding is expected to provide more clues as to how dunes form in Martian winds.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 22, 2019

A solar flare 10 billion times more powerful than sun’s

Our sun's solar flares are an incredible natural phenomenon, but now astronomers have observed a flare on a young star that almost defies belief. It's 10 billion times more powerful than any seen on our sun!

Paul Scott Anderson

February 19, 2019

Volcanic activity under Mars’s surface?

Mars has long been thought to be a geologically dead world. Could there still be volcanic activity beneath its surface? A subsurface lake at Mars' south pole suggests that possibility.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 17, 2019

New Hubble images show storms on Uranus and Neptune

Uranus and Neptune - the ice giants of the solar system - are distant worlds last visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the late 1980s. But the Hubble Space Telescope is still keeping an eye on them and their dynamic atmospheres.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 13, 2019

See China’s Chang’e 4 on moon’s far side

China's Chang'e 4 lander has produced fantastic, 1st-time surface views of the far side of the moon. Now a NASA orbiter has caught images of the landing site.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 13, 2019

A tale of 2 colliding exoplanets

Astronomers have new evidence for a collision between 2 nearly Earth-sized planets in the distant solar system Kepler-107.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 10, 2019

Much of Earth’s surface ocean will shift in color by end of 21st century

A new MIT study shows how changing colors of Earth's oceans can be used to monitor climate change in the relatively near future.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 7, 2019

A plan to create artificial meteors

Everyone loves a good meteor shower, but what about an artificial one? A Japanese company plans to create one and has just launched hundreds of pellets to space. They'll ultimately rain down again in colorful displays.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 5, 2019

Is this ancient moon rock from Earth?

An intriguing ancient rock found on the moon and brought back by the Apollo 14 mission may actually have originated from Earth, a new study says.

Paul Scott Anderson

February 3, 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.