News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly plans to halt his Twitter fight with a senior Russian space official, which was sparked by the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In a CNN report published on Tuesday (March 15), Kelly said that NASA had requested that he and other former agency astronauts stop such feuds, as they could … Read more
On 11 March 2022, at around 9:20 pm UTC, a small asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere. This is not unusual. Space rocks enter Earth’s atmosphere all the time. What makes this asteroid so amazing is that an astronomer spotted it before it made its rendezvous with atmospheric entry. It’s named 2022 EB5, and it’s only the … Read more
The space partnership between Russia and the U.S. looks shakier and shakier every day. That partnership has been fraying badly since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, spurring the United States and a number of other countries to impose new economic sanctions. Russian space officials have decried these sanctions; in response, they have stopped the … Read more
Goffin’s cockatoos have edged parrots closer to corvids in the battle of the brainiest birds, by revealing their extraordinary ability to use composite tools. Using more than one tool simultaneously played a huge role in humanity’s technological development, but it’s a skill that’s rarely been observed in other animals. Chimps are a rare example, using … Read more
Sardines scatter wildly as a smooth penguin head zooms through their tight swirling mass within blue-green waters of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s footage. One of those silver sardines becomes the penguin’s dinner on the second swoop through. Taken in the Beagle Channel off Isla Martillo, Argentina, the penguin bodycam footage helped clarify the bird’s … Read more
We can all let out a collective sigh of relief. With its primary mirror array fully unfolded, the major components of the beleaguered James Webb Space Telescope are now deployed, and it continues to calmly make its way to its destination. The deployment, completed on 8 January 2022, marks a pretty important milestone for … Read more
High above the red planet, China’s Mars orbiter Tianwen 1 has captured a series of incredible, alien images of our neighboring planet. The shots were captured by a small camera that was deployed by Tianwen 1. Released on New Year’s Day, they show Tianwen 1, looking lonely above the red planet, as well as Mars’ … Read more
The world’s most powerful space telescope on Saturday blasted off into orbit, headed to an outpost 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) from Earth, after several delays caused by technical hitches. The James Webb Space Telescope, some three decades and billions of dollars in the making, left Earth enclosed in its Ariane 5 rocket from … Read more
The much-delayed launch of the James Webb space telescope will go ahead on December 24, NASA and the company overseeing the launch confirmed on Saturday. The project, begun in 1989, was originally expected to deploy the instrument – which will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space – in the early … Read more
You’re looking at a 300-megapixel photo of our Sun. Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy used a specially modified telescope, taking over 150,000 individual photos and combining them into this magnificent image (see below). “It took about 10 hours to stack all the data, and another 3-4 hours to get it from a raw stack to the final image,” … Read more