News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
The supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy periodically “burps” a “mini-jet” out into space. The Milky Way‘s supermassive black hole, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), is over 4 million times more massive than our sun. Its strong gravitational pull draws nearby stars and gas clouds into its accretion disk. … Read more
Two wildfires ignited in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies last weekend, pushing residents out of their homes and stretching the state’s fire season past its traditional endpoint. The Miner’s Candle Fire was first reported on Sunday near Idaho Springs, a city 30 miles west of Denver, and scorched roughly 20 acres. The West Ranch … Read more
The latest images from the Juno mission at Jupiter include views of giant storms and vortexes on the gas giant world in amazing detail. A new batch of images recently arrived at Earth from JunoCam, the visible light camera onboard the Juno spacecraft. The camera has provided stunning views of Jupiter since the spacecraft’s arrival in 2016. … Read more
In 1981, as a young scientist, I applied for my dream job as a geologist with the British Antarctic Survey. As a child, I had adored snow and ice. Winter was my favorite season (and still is). My most cherished book was Wilson A. Bentley’s atlas of snowflake photographs, and I avidly read the accounts … Read more
Space can be a wondrous place, and we’ve got the pictures to prove it! Take a look at our favorite pictures from space here, and if you’re wondering what happened today in space history don’t miss our On This Day in Space video show here! Space station crew poses for family portrait with Japanese space … Read more
Maternal body odour signals to babies that they can safely build relationships with other adults, a trait that may have evolved so that mothers can share the load of child rearing Humans 10 December 2021 By Alice Klein A mother and daughter fizkes/Shutterstock Babies are more socially receptive to unfamiliar women when they can smell … Read more
Scientists have just proven that the freezing temperature of water can be even lower than what we thought was possible. Taking tiny droplets of water, up to just 150 nanometers in size, a team of engineers at the University of Houston has pushed the critical temperature threshold to -44 degrees Celsius (-47.2 degrees Fahrenheit) – … Read more
On Nov. 10, 2013, Europe’s GOCE satellite fell to Earth. GOCE is short for Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer. Its mission was to map Earth’s gravitational field. GOCE did this for four years. Then it ran out of fuel. Controllers weren’t sure where GOCE would fall back to Earth or linger in … Read more
By Chris Stokel-Walker A table tennis-playing robot can keep up a rally against humans, but like many amateur players, it struggles when attempting fancier shots. Yapeng Gao, Jonas Tebbe and Andreas Zell at the University of Tübingen in Germany began by designing a computer simulation in which a virtual robot arm equipped with a table tennis racket … Read more
Investors have pulled out of a project to drill the Cambo oil field in the North Sea. Does this mark the end of new oil and gas extraction in the region? Environment | Analysis 10 December 2021 By Adam Vaughan Greenpeace Norway activists in kayaks campaigning to stop drilling in the Cambo oil field www.espenmills.no … Read more