Explainer: What is the Great Attractor and its pull on the Milky Way?
Around four decades ago, astronomers became aware that our galaxy, the Milky Way, was moving through space at a much faster rate than expected.
Around four decades ago, astronomers became aware that our galaxy, the Milky Way, was moving through space at a much faster rate than expected.
Astronomy
May 31, 2016
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Looking up at the moon in the night sky, you would never imagine that it is slowly moving away from Earth. But we know otherwise. In 1969, NASA's Apollo missions installed reflective panels on the moon. These have shown that ...
Astronomy
Oct 10, 2022
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The Y chromosome may be a symbol of masculinity, but it is becoming increasingly clear that it is anything but strong and enduring. Although it carries the "master switch" gene, SRY, that determines whether an embryo will ...
Evolution
Jul 13, 2020
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627
A team of scientists in Hungary recently published a paper that hints at the existence of a previously unknown subatomic particle. The team first reported finding traces of the particle in 2016, and they now report more traces ...
General Physics
Dec 10, 2019
6
7365
Feeding wild birds in backyards was already known to be extremely popular in many parts of the northern hemisphere and in Australia, despite being strongly discouraged. But the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns led to a dramatic ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 6, 2023
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228
It's a century-old debate: what is the meaning of the wave function, the central object of quantum mechanics? Is Schrödinger's cat really dead and alive?
Quantum Physics
Feb 12, 2015
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China launched Tianhe-1, the first and main module of a permanent orbiting space station called Tiangong (Heavenly Palace 天 宫), on April 29. Two additional science modules (Wentian and Mengtian) will follow in 2022 in ...
Space Exploration
May 14, 2021
4
193
Around the world, rainforests are becoming savanna or farmland, savanna is drying out and turning into desert, and icy tundra is thawing. Indeed, scientific studies have now recorded "regime shifts" like these in more than ...
Environment
Jun 25, 2023
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We are biodiversity researchers—an ecologist, a mathematician and a taxonomist—who were locked down together during the COVID pandemic. Being restricted to the house, it didn't take long before we began to wonder how ...
Ecology
Dec 10, 2023
7
208
As the film Ghostbusters showed, true believers in the supernatural rarely prosper in the scientific establishment. Throughout history, scientists who entertained theories on ghosts, magic and the afterlife were discredited ...
Social Sciences
Nov 1, 2019
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