News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
A piece of space debris due to crash into the Moon in early March may not be a SpaceX rocket after all. According to an update posted by astronomer Bill Gray, who wrote the Project Pluto software used to track near-Earth objects, the object on a collision course is not a discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 … Read more
Like an ancient cardigan, the Milky Way should be absolutely riddled with black holes. According to our best estimates, there should be as many as 10 million to 1 billion stellar-mass black holes out there, drifting peacefully and quietly through the galaxy. There’s just one problem when it comes to counting them: Unless they manage … Read more
Earth has officially been joined in its orbit around the Sun by a new trojan asteroid. Named 2020 XL5, this chunk of rock is only the second object of its type ever to have been conclusively identified. Its discovery suggests that perhaps Earth trojans may be more common than we knew, and offers new insights … Read more
Astronomers have discovered a mysterious, flickering object in our galaxy, the Milky Way, that belches enormous amounts of energy toward Earth three times an hour. This strangely powerful object — located about 4,000 light-years from the sun — is unlike any cosmic structure ever observed, researchers wrote in a statement. The object in question — named GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3 (but … Read more
Something extraordinarily bright in space is pulsing far slower than most similar cosmic objects, and it may be a strange type of neutron star that we have never seen before Space 26 January 2022 By Leah Crane A view of the Milky Way from the Murchison Widefield Array. The star icon shows the position of … Read more
A ring-shaped object 160,000 light years away may be the first intergalactic supernova remnant ever observed Space 26 January 2022 By Jonathan O’Callaghan The remnant of an intergalactic supernova may have been spotted between the Large Magellanic Cloud (pictured) and the Milky Way Chandra X-ray Observatory The remains of a star that exploded in intergalactic … Read more
Something in Earth’s cosmic neighborhood is emitting weird signals of a kind we’ve never seen before. Just 4,000 light-years away, something is flashing radio waves. For roughly 30 to 60 seconds, every 18.18 minutes, it pulses brightly, one of the most luminous objects in the low-frequency radio sky. It matches the profile of no known … Read more
There are a lot of unexplained objects out there in the Universe, and astronomers have just found another one – a strange, dusty object that may be causing its host star to dim by up to 75 percent. Often, when we see something block out the light of its star it’s an exoplanet or … Read more
Discovered nearly a year ago, Comet Leonard is on its final tour of Earth’s neighborhood, lighting up the night sky for viewers this holiday season. Comet Leonard — the brightest and most anticipated comet of the year — was discovered by Gregory Leonard, a senior research specialist at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary … Read more
Robotic hands often trade strength for adaptability, but a sticky coating inspired by gecko feet has given this artificial hand a delicate touch Technology 15 December 2021 By Matthew Sparkes The gecko-inspired robot hand farmHand/Standford University Mechanical hands with human-like fingers are more adaptable than the simple two-pronged clamps found on industrial robots, but they … Read more