News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
China’s test flight of a long-range hypersonic glide vehicle late last year was described in the media as close to a “Sputnik moment” in the race to develop new ultrafast maneuvering weapons. But even as senior U.S. military officials publicly fretted about missiles that are, for the moment at least, effectively invincible, the Pentagon was … Read more
Axiom Space wants to take the off-Earth economy to new heights. The Houston-based company, which was founded in 2016, aims to build and operate its own space station in low Earth orbit (LEO) in the coming years. And Axiom has inked deals with SpaceX to fly multiple tourist missions to the International Space Station (ISS), … Read more
(Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Tan (Chalmers University of Technology); Processing; Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)) Prawn nebula The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning view of the Prawn Nebula floating through deep space. The Prawn Nebula, formally known as IC 4628, is an emission nebula located 6,000 light-years from Earth, in … Read more
The human body did not evolve to handle life in space, and it shows in our very blood. Since our species first started to spend extended periods of time beyond our planet, researchers have noticed a curious and consistent loss of red blood cells among astronauts. The phenomenon is called ‘space anemia’, and until … Read more
Beyond the Solar System, out there in the wider galaxy, a very strange subset of exoplanets exists. Called hot Jupiters, these are majorly clingy – hugging so close to their host stars, they’re not just intensely hot, but also likely warped by gravitational forces. Now, for the first time, astronomers have actually detected the … Read more
Satellites orbiting Earth captured a powerful undersea volcanic eruption from space on Thursday (Jan. 13). In the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga, which is made up of over 170 islands, the (mostly) underwater volcano on the island Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai erupted, sending plumes up to 12 miles (20 kilometers) into the air, the Tonga Geological … Read more
The new head of the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has an ambitious agenda to put human spaceflight back on track, according to media reports. Shri. Somanath assumed the helm of the agency on Friday (Jan. 14) as ISRO works to help the Gaganyaan human spaceflight program recover from setbacks in part induced by the … Read more
Astrophysics is a branch of space science that applies the laws of physics and chemistry to seek to understand the universe and our place in it. The field explores topics such as the birth, life and death of stars, planets, galaxies, nebulae and other objects in the universe. It has two sibling sciences, astronomy and … Read more
Laika was the first living creature to orbit Earth. On Nov. 3, 1957, the Soviet Union lofted a dog named Laika aboard the satellite Sputnik 2. However, Laika was not the first animal in space. That distinction goes to some fruit flies that the United States launched on a suborbital mission in February 1947. Despite … Read more
SpaceX has some nice before-and-after photos to mark the 10th launch of one of its Falcon 9 rockets, thanks to a satisfied customer. A Falcon 9 successfully delivered 105 satellites to orbit Thursday (Jan. 13), including 44 “SuperDove” cubesats for Planet, a San Francisco-based company that operates the world’s biggest constellation of Earth-observing satellites. The … Read more