Posts by

Paul Scott Anderson

Origami-inspired habitats for the moon and Mars

An innovative plan by the EuroMoonMars project uses Japanese origami - the art of folding paper into interesting shapes - to design and develop habitats for future human space explorers.

Paul Scott Anderson

October 1, 2018

NASA back in the search for alien technosignatures

After some prompting by Congress, NASA is again getting involved in SETI. Last week, it held a Technosignatures Workshop in Houston, exploring new ways scientists could seek intelligent aliens.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 30, 2018

Mercury’s strange chemistry revealed

Mercury is an odd little world, but new research is revealing its mysteries. Plus, the upcoming BepiColombo mission - a joint mission between Europe and Japan - will help scientists understand the planet's origin and evolution.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 28, 2018

Pink lagoon provides clues to possible Mars life

This candy-pink lagoon in Spain is providing valuable clues about how extremophile microorganisms might exist on Mars despite the planet's harsh conditions.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 28, 2018

Ross 128 b and the search for Earth-like exoplanets

Only 11 light-years away, Ross 128 b is the 2nd-closest-known rocky exoplanet. Here's a recent study scrutinizing Ross 128 b, as it relates to the fascinating search for distant Earth-like worlds.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 24, 2018

What’s the recipe for a habitable exoplanet?

What combination of ingredients produce a planet that can support life? NASA has just awarded $7.7 million to Rice University for a new 5-year research program, in hopes of answering that question.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 24, 2018

A new way to launch rockets without fuel?

Conventional rockets - with their onboard fuel - are expensive and dangerous. A new "quantized inertia" concept might make rocket launches cheaper and safer. The concept has just received $1.3 million in new funding.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 21, 2018

Here’s what closed Sunspot Solar Observatory

Federal court documents this week revealed an FBI investigation of a janitor suspected of using Sunspot Solar Observatory's internet connection to send and receive child pornography.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 20, 2018

Report calls for direct images of Earth-like exoplanets

A congressionally-mandated report recommends that NASA lead efforts to directly image possibly Earth-like exoplanets, using upcoming technologies. A major goal is finding habitable - maybe even inhabited - worlds.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 16, 2018

What is the Hypatia Catalog?

The Hypatia Catalog uses "big data" - extremely large data sets - hopefully to reveal patterns, trends, and associations that might lead to finding distant worlds harboring life.

Paul Scott Anderson

September 11, 2018

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.