Free Republic

Explanation: Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria....

The Kansas City Star reports that Peruvian authorities made a stunning new discovery at the site of Era de Pando in the Supe Valley. The region was home to the Caral culture, which is often considered the oldest city-building civilization in the Americas. Previous excavations at Era de Pando have unearthed four large and four small pyramid complexes, and at least 40 other buildings, including houses and temples, that date back at least 4,000 years. While working near one of the largest pyramids, archaeologists recently uncovered the ruins of a structure known as a "fire altar." The circular feature, which...

A bison was gruesomely boiled to death in a Yellowstone National Park hot spring last week — as tourists watched in horror. The buffalo met its ghastly end when it apparently stumbled into the scalding water at Midway Geyser Basin near Old Faithful, according to the park service. “There were two bison [standing] there,” said Louise Howard, who witnessed the bison’s death during her first-ever visit to Yellowstone, to CBS News. “I thought it was a great photo opportunity.” But the shutter-worthy sight quickly turned tragic when one of the bison stepped into a small part of the basin, then...

The world's oldest boomerang is older than previously thought, casting new light on the ingenuity of humans living at the time.The tool, which was found in a cave in Poland in 1985, is now thought to be 40,000 years old.Archaeologists say it was fashioned from a mammoth's tusk with an astonishing level of skill.Researchers worked out from its shape that it would have flown when thrown, but would not have come back to the thrower.It was probably used in hunting, though it might have had cultural or artistic value, perhaps being used in some kind of ritual....new, more reliable radiocarbon...

According to a statement released by The College of William & Mary, recent archaeological work revealed the foundations of the eighteenth-century Williamsburg Bray School, one of the most historic buildings on the college's early campus. In operation from 1760 to 1765, the school was one of the oldest known institutions in North America dedicated to the education of free and enslaved Black children. The discovery was originally made by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation but is currently being investigated by the W&M Center for Archaeological Research. Archaeologists uncovered a previously undocumented cellar filled with centuries of artifacts dating from the eighteenth...

Anadolu Agency reports that excavations at the site of Olympos in the current-day region of Antalya revealed new evidence that attests to the site's early Christian history. Inside a building known as Church No. 1, the team uncovered mosaic floors featuring geometric patterns, floral motifs, and Greek inscriptions, some of which bear the names of individuals who are believed to be among the church's early benefactors. "These finds confirm Olympos as one of the richest ancient cities in the Lycia region in terms of mosaic flooring," said excavation director Gökçen Kurtuluş Öztaşkın. Another inscription near the structure's entrance reads, "Only...

The Manda-Hararo rift in the Afar region of Ethiopia. Credit: DavidMPyle / CC BY-SA 4.0 =================================================================== A steady underground pulse has been discovered beneath East Africa, where researchers believe a new ocean is gradually forming. The rhythmic movement was detected in the Afar region of Ethiopia, a geological hotspot where three giant sections of the Earth’s crust—the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian plates—are slowly pulling apart. The site, known as the Afar Triple Junction, is one of few places on Earth where the process of continental breakup can be observed on land. As the plates drift in different directions, the ground...

Explanation: Big beautiful barred spiral galaxy Messier 109 is the 109th entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters. You can find it just below the Big Dipper's bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In fact, bright dipper star Phecda, Gamma Ursa Majoris, produces the glare at the upper right corner of this telescopic frame. M109's prominent central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter "theta", θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. M109 spans a very small angle in planet Earth's sky though, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But...

(Video says it all)

Screenshot of fireball via Collin Rugg on X This isn’t something you see every day! Residents in the southeastern part of the United States spotted a massive fireball streak through the skies on Thursday afternoon. The American Meteor Society reported receiving over 140 reports from residents of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina who had spotted a fireball. Residents in Georgia reported feeling an earthquake as the fireball crossed the sky. The National Weather Service assured residents in Georgia that the earthquake they felt was “the result of the sonic boom from the meteor or space junk.” WATCH:...

According to a Colombia One report, Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that British archaeologists from the University of Manchester made a slew of new discoveries in the Nile's eastern Delta. The team is working at the lost ancient city of Imet, which lies beneath the site of Tell al-Faraun, also known as Tell Nebesha, northeast of Cairo. Imet was an important residential center and a hub of trade and agriculture at the crossroads of key commercial routes. Excavations revealed tower-shaped, multilevel houses dating to the fourth century b.c. that were designed to accommodate large families or groups of...

A meteorite, complete with shock wave, light trail, and flight noises (rumbles, light a train or close airplane) struck the ground northeast of Atlanta this afternoon, 26 June 2025. Impact was visible from dash cameras in vehicles on I85 near the South Carolina border. Meteor is any solid object hitting the atmosphere but burning up before it hits the ground. A meteorite is a rocky solid that survives its flight through the atmosphere and hits the ground as a solid. Damage is unknown, some reports claim a house was struck.

Explanation: An interstellar expanse of glowing gas and obscuring dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker, the Seagull Nebula. This broadband portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 3.5-degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, in the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major). The bright head of the Seagull Nebula is cataloged as IC 2177, a compact, dusty emission and reflection nebula with embedded massive star HD 53367. The larger emission region, encompassing objects with other catalog designations, is Likely part of...

When archaeologists were called to investigate a sinkhole that opened up in the city of York, they were surprised to find traces of a medieval hospital, according to a report by The Independent. The team encountered walls hidden just beneath the city streets that they believe once belonged to the twelfth- or thirteenth-century St. Leonard's Hospital. The institution was built just after the Norman conquest and replaced the earlier St. Peter's Hospital, which was founded by the Anglo-Saxon King Aethelstan. Stretching from what is now York's Museum Gardens to the Theatre Royal, St. Leonard's was one of the largest hospitals...

Over the past several years, excavations beneath Cardiff's Trelai Park, a popular spot for sports and recreation, have unveiled thousands of years of local history. The site is close to the Iron Age Caerau hillfort as well as an extensive Roman-era villa. Last year, archaeological work in the park uncovered traces of a Bronze Age roundhouse dating back to 1500 b.c., believed to be the oldest recorded dwelling in Cardiff. BBC News reports that archaeologists from Caerau and Ely Rediscovering Heritage Project (CAER) recently discovered another Bronze Age structure, a timber circle, and burial ground containing pits with cremated human...

Euryalus Castle, high above the Sicilian city of Syracuse, was the strongest and most sophisticated fortification anywhere in the ancient Greek world. The Strongest Ancient Greek Castle | 8:35 Toldinstone Footnotes | 42.4K subscribers | 3,851 views | June 24, 2025 Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:35 Outworks 1:37 Tunnels and galleries 4:38 Keep 6:37 Outer courtyard 7:48 Walls of Dionysius

Over the past year, my husband and I have watched both film versions of 'Inherit the Wind'. I would like to read a good book about the Scopes trial, free of the dramatization and fictionalization. Can anyone suggest what they think is the best book? Thanks.

Newgrange sits in Ireland's Boyne Valley, about 30 miles north of Dublin. Built around 3200 B.C., this massive stone monument features a long passage leading to a central chamber, all covered by a circular mound of earth and stones. For over 300 years, treasure hunters and antiquarians ransacked the site, making it nearly impossible to know exactly where artifacts originally came from.This historical looting creates a major problem for the "king" theory. The skull fragment NG10 was found during proper archaeological excavations in the 1960s, but researchers can't definitively say it was originally placed in the tomb's supposedly "prestigious" right-hand...

Astronomers are making a surprising breakthrough in the study of Venus, as new simulations suggest there may be a hidden family of asteroids quietly orbiting the Sun alongside the planet. This discovery, detailed in a recent study by Valerio Carruba and his team at São Paulo State University, is like uncovering an entire continent that was previously unknown. The research, published on the preprint server arXiv, uncovers important insights about the dynamics of Venus’ orbit and could have significant implications for our understanding of the solar system. Venus has long been one of the most mysterious planets in our solar...

Exoplanet TWA 7 b (Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A.M. Lagrange, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)). In a groundbreaking first, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured its first direct image of a distant exoplanet unrecognized from past astronomical surveys. The milestone achievement was made possible with help from a special coronagraph aboard Webb’s MIRI instrument that allows Webb to capture imagery under conditions that mimic those which occur naturally during an eclipse. The discovery made in research lead by researcher Anne-Marie Lagrange with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Paris Observatory, in collaboration with Grenoble Alpes University....