News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Liftoff of NS-19 on Dec. 11, 2021. (Image credit: Blue Origin) Blue Origin’s third crewed spaceflight brought a full complement of people into space on New Shepard for the first time, starring “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan. On Dec. 11, 2021, a 10-minute flight successfully launched and landed from Blue Origin’s facilities near Van … Read more
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has just reached its final destination—around a gravitationally special spot in space known as the second Lagrange point, or L2. The US$10-billion observatory could spend 20 or more years there, gathering unprecedented insights about the Universe as it stares into deep space. Webb, which is the most complex telescope ever … Read more
The DJI Ryze Tello is a small drone with an onboard nose-mounted camera capable of capturing 5MP photos and streaming 720p HD video. It is a lightweight and affordable quadcopter, perfect for flying indoors ideally suited to newcomers to the hobby. It’s easy to set up, just download the app from the app store, power … Read more
The Book of Boba Fett is now streaming on Disney Plus – one of the many upcoming Star Wars TV shows to get excited about – and the fans’ expectations are through the roof. While the iconic bounty hunter has played a huge role in the Star Wars mythos for decades, he’s never had a … Read more
Light pollution is a big problem, and it’s getting bigger. Recently published research led by Dr Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel at the University of Exeter, UK suggests that a global rise in artificial lighting has substantially boosted light pollution levels over the past few decades – some regions have suffered as much as a fivefold increase! … Read more
The moon-landing hoax still lives on, more than 50 years after Apollo 11 — the first crewed mission to land on the moon. Phil Plait has mixed feelings about the moon-landing hoax. Plait — known as “The Bad Astronomer” to his many thousands of readers on Syfy — told Space.com he is frustrated that he … Read more
U.K.-based Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE) has announced plans to launch a movie production studio module intended to connect to the International Space Station (ISS). The company, which is co-producing Tom Cruise’s upcoming unnamed space movie, has commissioned Houston-based Axiom Space to build an inflatable space station module that contains a production studio — including a … Read more
A rare treasure that could shed light on the evolution of black holes has been discovered in the Milky Way’s closest large galactic neighbor. In a cluster of stars in the Andromeda galaxy, aka M31, astronomers studied changes in light to identify a black hole clocking in at almost 100,000 times the mass of the … Read more
This year marks the 45th anniversary of George Lucas’ seminal space opera renowned the world over, “Star Wars: A New Hope.” As fans continue to absorb and digest the latest trilogy of “Star Wars” films produced under the Disney/Lucasfilm banner and await the next Hollywood sojourn into the galaxy far, far, away with episodes of … Read more
Christopher Intagliata: For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Christopher Intagliata. As it happens, tiger sharks have something in common with certain East Coasters. Neil Hammerschlag: During the winter when it’s cold, they snowbird down near the Bahamas and off of Florida. And then during the summer, they migrate north. Intagliata: Neil Hammerschlag is director of the Shark Research & … Read more