News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Oregon endured the third-largest wildfire in its recorded history last summer. The Bootleg Fire tore through the Upper Klamath Basin, an ecologically sensitive area that is home to multiple threatened and endangered species including the northern spotted owl and two fish—the koptu and c’waam (shortnose sucker and Lost River sucker)—that are culturally vital to the … Read more
Astronomers may have for the first time detected and measured the mass of an isolated stellar-mass black hole, a new study finds. Previous research suggested that when giant stars more than 20 times the mass reach the end of their lives, they usually die in catastrophic explosions known as supernovas, and their dense cores are … Read more
See the SpaceX booster? If you spot SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster in a telescope before it hits the moon, let us know! Send images and comments in to [email protected]. A SpaceX Falcon 9 booster will crash into the lunar surface in March, and you can track the rogue rocket as it nears the moon. The … Read more
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has launched a new center to fight the threat of satellite megaconstellations, which it now describes as worse than urban light pollution. The Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference will be run jointly by the U.K.-headquartered Square Kilometer Array Observatory organization and … Read more
The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet, and the toll on Greenland‘s massive ice sheet is becoming achingly clear. According to new satellite data compiled by Polar Portal, a collection of four Danish government research institutions, Greenland has lost more than 5,100 billion tons (4,700 billion metric tons) of ice in … Read more
A pair of asteroids orbiting the Sun formed less than 300 years ago, a new study has revealed. This makes them the youngest pair of asteroids ever discovered in the Solar System, by a factor of 10. The discovery could tell us more about how asteroids crumble, while raising some intriguing new questions. “It’s … Read more
Earth’s oceans were once home to an absolutely fearsome predator. We know it only from teeth and vertebrae in the fossil record, but these tell us that megalodon (Otodus megalodon) was absolutely colossal. Many of those teeth are as big as your hand. Megalodon, we can only conclude, was the largest shark ever to swim … Read more
COVID-19 has infected every part of our lives over the last two years. The ways we work, engage with our surroundings, and see family and friends have all been drastically altered during the ongoing pandemic. By far the worst have been the deaths of all the loved ones the disease has taken from us. … Read more
Archaeologists have uncovered the largest collection of ancient Egyptian ‘notepads’ found since the beginning of the 20th century. In the long-lost city of Athribis, in central Egypt, researchers have cataloged more than 18,000 inscribed pieces of pottery, some of which seem to have been written by students. The shards of inked pottery are known … Read more