Free Republic

It’s the end of the world as we know it — a lot sooner than we think. A team of researchers have drastically scaled back the going estimate of how long it will be until the universe ceases to exist. Previously, scientists believed it would be 10¹¹⁰⁰ years until the very last objects in the cosmos would disappear forever — that’s a 1 followed by 1,100 zeroes, in layman’s terms. But a new study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics by a trio of researchers at Radboud University in the Netherlands posits the real figure as closer...

Garcia allegedly served as a property custodian at KCNSC's New Mexico facility, giving him a top security clearance and broad access to the entire site's nuclear secrets. The source described Garcia's work as 'a very high-level, overseeing position for all the assets. Tens, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and assets, some of which are not classified, others would be classified.' The government contractor's sudden disappearance marks the tenth person with ties to America's space or nuclear secrets who has died or mysteriously vanished in recent years, putting US national security experts on edge.

A simple experiment in a child’s swimming pool allows you to visualize the angular momentum of rotating waves. Beautifully done.

It may seem surprising that researchers could study a phenomenon for which we don’t yet have any data—after all, there are no verified accounts of conversations with aliens. But there are good reasons to consider what alien languages might look like. For one... human languages have far more in common than we might think. A universal grammar underlies what turn out to be mostly surface differences. [A]ll languages use a finite number of sounds (or gestures in the case of signed languages) and phrase types (like noun phrases and verb phrases) to build a theoretically limitless number of unique communications,...

Lunar Starship (the Starship Human Landing System, or HLS, for NASA's Artemis program) is in active development but remains several years from its first crewed lunar landing. As of early April 2026, the program has made substantial progress on hardware testing and subsystem qualification, yet key challenges like in-orbit propellant transfer, long-duration flights, and an uncrewed lunar demonstration are still ahead—contributing to schedule delays. Current Status and Major Achievements SpaceX has completed 49 contractual milestones for the HLS contract with NASA (out of many total), with most achieved on or ahead of schedule. These cover: Life support and thermal control...

Near-Earth asteroid Apophis is a potentially hazardous asteroid that will safely pass close to Earth on April 13, 2029. It will come about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) from our planet’s surface — closer than the distance of many satellites in geosynchronous orbit (about 22,236 miles, or 36,000 kilometers, in altitude).

The machine is technically called PUPER, which stands for “preservation of the uterus in perfusion.” But González’s colleague Xavier Santamaria says the team has adopted a nickname for it: “We call it ‘Mother.’” He sees a future in which a machine like “Mother” will be able to fully gestate a human, all the way from embryo to newborn. It could offer a new path to parenthood for people who don’t have a uterus, for example, or who are not able to get pregnant for other reasons.

A series of fireballs — very bright meteors — were spotted across North America from March 17-23, 2026. People in Ohio reported one on March 17. The next sightings were in California on March 19, Michigan and Georgia on March 20, and Texas on March 21, where a fragment crashed through a house roof. It's happening beyond the U.S. Vancouver saw a fireball on March 3. France and Germany reported sightings on March 8 and 11. Many fireballs lasted a long time and were seen across wide areas. Some caused pressure waves and sonic booms. ... The emerging picture is...

The astronaut who prompted NASA’s first medical evacuation earlier this year said Friday that doctors still don’t know why he suddenly fell sick at the International Space Station. Four-time space flier Mike Fincke said he was eating dinner on Jan. 7 after prepping for a spacewalk the next day when it happened. He couldn’t talk and remembers no pain, but his anxious crewmates jumped into action after seeing him in distress and requested help from flight surgeons on the ground. ... Fincke, 59, a retired Air Force colonel, said the episode lasted roughly 20 minutes and he felt fine afterward....

“A string of deaths and disappearances involving individuals linked to United States defence and aerospace research has ignited intense speculation online, with some claiming a hidden connection to classified programmes. In less than a year, six scientists and researchers tied to high-level projects have either died or gone missing, raising questions but also prompting experts to urge caution over unverified claims. The cases span from mid-2025 to early 2026 and involve individuals connected to agencies such as US Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. One of the earliest cases is Monica Jacinto Reza,...

NASA Might Be Able to Reboost the Hubble Space Telescope After All... | 10:37> Ellie in Space | 222K subscribers | 34,141 views | March 25, 2026 [link to the report from Ars Technica]

The possible arrival time for the incoming solar storms is still evolving, and depends on which of the multiple CMEs strike Earth and what effect they have. According to NOAA's latest forecast, the first impacts could begin as early as 11 p.m. EDT March 18 (0300 GMT March 19), with moderate (G2) geomagnetic storm conditions most likely between 2:00 a.m. and 8 a.m. EDT (0600-1200 GMT). However, other models, including those cited by the U.K. Met Office, suggest the main CME could arrive later on March 19 or even early March 20, prolonging auroral activity through the weekend. Because multiple...

A meteor nearly 6ft in diameter weighing roughly 7 tons broke apart above Ohio and was seen across 10 states. NASA: Massive 'boom' heard from Ohio to Kentucky caused by exploding meteor | 1:56 ABC News | 19.5M subscribers | 137,427 views | March 17, 2026

Artificial intelligence seeks to emulate the faculties of the human mind through computational systems, a synthetic recreation of our brains’ capabilities to perceive, learn, and reason. Now, a company claims to have taken a totally different tack by simulating the 125,000 neurons and 50 million synaptic connections of an adult fruit fly’s brain — and then letting it roam inside a Matrix-like virtual environment. In a video shared by Eon Systems cofounder Alex Weissner-Gross, the crudely animated insect can be seen stretching its legs inside a simulated sandbox, rubbing its front feet together and using its labellum to drink from...

Scientists have recently discovered the underlying hidden magnetic order in the pseudogap phase of a quantum material. The peculiar phase exists immediately above the superconducting transition. The research team employed an ultracold-atom simulator. They were able to detect a hidden antiferromagnetic order even when the material lacked electrons. This is referred to as doping. This is a crucial phase in designing a novel superconductor at a higher temperature. The findings offer fresh insights into a long-standing problem related to superconductivity.Ultracold atoms reveal hidden magnetismAccording to the reports, to explore the nature of the pseudogap, the researchers employed a cold-atom simulator...

The federal government holds shocking evidence of UFOs which proves we are not alone — including satellite imagery of out-of-this world craft that look like nothing “we have built,” an expert with knowledge of the documents told The Post. The government’s trove of UFO docs is massive and includes stunning photos and videos, according to Christopher Mellon, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense intelligence during the Clinton and Bush administrations. Publicly disclosing the information would take UFO discourse “to another level,” he added. While the announcement spurred federal agencies, including the White House and the Pentagon, to scramble, there...

A 600-kilogram NASA satellite will enter Earth’s atmosphere tomorrow. The Van Allen Probe A research satellite, weighing approximately 600 kilograms and launched in 2011, is scheduled to enter Earth’s atmosphere on March 11. The Space Force’s estimated reentry time is just that — an estimate. It will be updated in the coming hours, as more and better data come in.”

A meteorite has crashed through the roof of a house in the city of Koblenz in the west of Germany after a spectacular fireball lit up the night sky above western Europe on Sunday evening, March 8.More than 2,800 sightings of the fireball have been reported to the International Meteor Organization (IMO), with dozens of video recordings having been uploaded on social media. Witnesses reported hearing multiple explosions as the space rock disintegrated in the atmosphere, showering fragments across the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.According to available reports, multiple fragments of the meteorite have already been found in Koblenz's Güls...

The traditional understanding is that the center of our galaxy is dominated by a supermassive black hole...Instead of a black hole, there could be...a colossal clump of dark matter, the substance thought to account for 85 percent of all mass in the cosmos.

The year was 1490. The location, Qingyang, China. It was a spring evening in this central Chinese city when something strange began to occur in the sky above. For one, there was a recently discovered comet that was coming into view: Comet C-1490 Y1. But this comet pales in comparison to the really strange event that was about to occur. The Meteor Shower That Killed 10,000 People | 19:18 Swegle Studios | 459K subscribers | 709,238 views | July 8, 2025