Paul Scott Anderson
Bio
Paul is a freelance space writer and blogger who currently writes for AmericaSpace and Vocal. His own blog Planetaria is a chronicle of planetary exploration.
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Stories (29/0)
NASA's New Europa Mission Formally Named 'Europa Clipper'
It's been a long time coming, but NASA's new mission to Jupiter's moon Europa now has a formal name: Europa Clipper. The spacecraft, to be launched in the early 2020s, will conduct multiple close flybys of the moon, with the goal of determining just how habitable it actually is. With a global salty ocean just beneath its icy crust, Europa is thought to be one of the best places in the Solar System to search for possible alien life.
By Paul Scott Anderson7 years ago in Futurism
Enceladus' Ice-Covered Ocean Closer to Surface Than Previously Thought
When it comes to places in the Solar System to search for possible alien life, Saturn's moon Enceladus is now right near the top of the list. Like Jupiter's moon Europa, it has a subsurface ocean of water, and even plumes/geysers of water vapor which erupt from fissures in the icy surface near the south pole. Those plumes contain organics as discovered by the Cassini probe and there is evidence for hydrothermal activity on the ocean floor, just like on Earth. The fissures are warmed by heat from below, and now there is evidence that some of them are even warmer than expected, meaning that water could be closer to the surface than previously thought.
By Paul Scott Anderson7 years ago in Futurism
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope Continues Observations of TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System
The seven Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 generated a lot of excitement when their discovery was announced last month. This is the largest collection of Earth-sized worlds in one planetary system found so far, and some of them are well within the star's "habitable zone" where temperatures could allow liquid water to exist on their surfaces. Little else is known about the actual conditions on these planets so far, but NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has also been observing TRAPPIST-1 in recent weeks.
By Paul Scott Anderson7 years ago in Futurism
MAVEN Spacecraft Makes Evasive Maneuver to Avoid Impact With Mars' Moon Phobos
Mars is a busy place these days, with multiple rovers and orbiters exploring the planet. Out of the several spacecraft currently in orbit, NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) is a fairly recent addition, having been at Mars for just over two years now. Usually, things are pretty routine, but this week the spacecraft had to make an unplanned evasive maneuver - to avoid a collision with one of Mars' two small moons, Phobos!
By Paul Scott Anderson7 years ago in Futurism
Could the TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System Be Home to Alien Life?
The discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 generated a lot of excitement last week. Earth-sized planets have been found before, among the thousands of exoplanets discovered so far by astronomers, but this is the first time that so many have been detected in one planetary system. As of now, astronomers are limited in how much they can learn about these new worlds, but the James Webb Space Telescope, the upcoming successor to Hubble due to launch in 2018, will be able to gather more data and analyze whatever atmospheres these planets have, perhaps bringing us closer to finding another habitable world.
By Paul Scott Anderson7 years ago in Futurism