Free Republic

Europe’s ultra-powerful new WEAVE telescope, undergoing its inaugural ‘first-light’ instrument activation, recorded a collision between galaxies in a region of deep space called Stephan’s Quintet, where one of the galaxies was traveling at two million miles per hour. Designed to study the composition of stars and galaxies, the William Herschel Telescope is a 20-million Euro collaboration between France, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands, and Spain, with the latter hosting the actual facility in La Palma. The facility’s Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE) wide-field spectrograph’s Large Integral Field Unit (LIFU) is the first of the telescope’s instruments to be activated and...

“Science” never justified the prolonged closure of schools during the coronavirus pandemic, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which has concluded its two-year-long investigation into the coronavirus pandemic, said, offering its findings this week. The subcommittee concluded its investigation and provided a 520-page report detailing the massive failures committed throughout the pandemic, from mask and vaccine mandates to public health officials suppressing and dismissing narratives — such as the reality of natural immunity — that they did not like and that would not support their draconian policies. One major point of controversy throughout the pandemic was the so-called “science”...

The location the asteroid will burn over. Image Credit: PorcupenWorks/Shutterstock.com, modified by IFLScience In a matter of hours, a small asteroid will burn over the Siberian skies. This is only the 11th time that an asteroid has been predicted to hit our planet before it actually happened, but it shows that the system of planetary defense is working! At around 4:15 pm UTC today, the asteroid will burn in the atmosphere. The object is tiny, about 70 centimeters (27.6 inches) in diameter. It's not the smallest known asteroid – a previously predicted impactor holds that record for now. It's still...

An exploded view of an ice giant planet such as Uranus or Neptune. A new theory proposes that below the dense atmosphere lies a water-rich layer (blue) that has separated from a deeper layer of hot, high-pressure carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen (amber). The pressure squeezes hydrogen out of methane and ammonia molecules, creating stratified hydrocarbon layers that cannot mix with the water layer, which prevents the convection that creates a dipolar magnetic field. Credit: Quanta magazine ============================================================================= New research at UC Berkeley offers a fresh perspective on Uranus and Neptune’s interiors, indicating layered structures of water and hydrocarbons. These findings...

Just when you think humanity has the technology for a thorough probe of Uranus, abnormal winds is forcing scientists to rethink everything we thought we knew about this distant gaseous giant. New peer-reviewed research published in Nature Astronomy suggests that the atmosphere of the solar system’s seventh planet has “anomalous characteristics” caused by intense solar winds. The information analyzed by astronomers was collected during the 1986 flyby of Voyager 2, humanity’s only probe into the gaseous giant Uranus. “The data collected about Uranus was a little confusing and didn’t make sense,” said Max Gilbraith, planetarium coordinator for the University of...

A new composite material developed by KIMS researchers absorbs over 99% of electromagnetic waves from different frequencies, improving the performance of devices like smartphones and wearables. A team of scientists from the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has developed the world’s first ultra-thin film composite material capable of absorbing over 99% of electromagnetic waves from various frequency bands, including 5G/6G, WiFi, and autonomous driving radar, using a single material. This novel electromagnetic wave absorption and shielding material is less than 0.5mm thick and is characterized by its low reflectance of less than 1% and high absorbance of over 99%...

The peculiar layers could explain the ice giants' magnetic peculiarities. Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) are the ice blue giants in the outer Solar System. Image credit: Patrick Irwin/University of Oxford/NASA Uranus and Neptune were only visited once by human spacecraft when Voyager 2 passed by them almost 40 years ago. During those visits, scientists measured peculiar magnetic fields unlike those seen around other planets. A recent paper suggests that the Uranus measurements might have been messed up by the Sun, but in general, it has been difficult to explain the behavior. New research suggests that the magnetic weirdness might...

Einstein’s General Relativity holds firm as DESI data confirms its predictions on cosmic scales, while also revealing new insights into neutrino masses and galaxy clustering. Credit: SciTechDaily.com ========================================================================== Albert Einstein’s prediction about how gravity behaves has been tested on a cosmic scale. Albert Einstein’s prediction about how gravity behaves has been supported by an international team of researchers who studied how the force acts on cosmic scales. Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) researchers found that the way galaxies cluster is consistent with our standard model of gravity and the predictions from Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. A complex analysis of...

The object entered our orbit in September. Image credit: buradaki/Shutterstock.com Earlier this year, the number of moons orbiting Earth temporarily doubled, admittedly from the low starting point of "one". Taking a closer look at the new mini-moon, astronomers have learned more about its origin. On August 7, astronomers discovered a new near-Earth object, dubbed 2024 PT5. Analyzing the object, around 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter, astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, found that it was on a pleasing trajectory. For 56.6 days, the asteroid would become captured...

On April 13th, 2029 an absolutely gigantic asteroid known as “Apophis” will come very close to our planet. In fact, we are being told that Apophis will actually be ten times closer than the Moon as it zips past the Earth. The good news is that scientists are assuring us that there is zero chance that this enormous space rock will hit us. The bad news is that we cannot see Apophis right now, and if there is even the slightest change in the projected trajectory it could end up slamming into our planet. Needless to say, if Apophis actually...

The Central Neutron Detector installed in Experimental Hall B. Silvia Niccolai and her team at the Laboratory of the Physics of the two Infinities Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab), a joint research unit of CNRS in Orsay, France, Paris-Saclay University, and Paris-City University, began constructing the detector in 2011 with funding from the French National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics. Credit: Silvia Niccolai ================================================================================= Recent advancements at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility have enabled physicists to explore the internal structure of neutrons in unprecedented detail. Using a new detector, researchers have achieved a deeper understanding of how quarks and gluons...

'The most widespread source of gravitation is the inertial mass, which produces permanent gravitational fields. 'At the opposite, electromagnetic fields could be used to generate artificial, or human-made, gravitational fields, that could be switched on or off at will, depending whether their electromagnetic progenitors are present or not.' The experiment would require major resources, but if successful, it would give humans the power to control the 'last of four fundamental forces,' not within our grips. Current research, the scientist argues, observes and aims to understand gravitational fields, but makes no attempts to change them. 'Somehow, studying gravity is a contemplative...

Boeing, the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer, has admitted it is working on experimental anti-gravity projects that could overturn a century of conventional aerospace propulsion technology if the science underpinning them can be engineered into hardware. As part of the effort, which is being run out of Boeing’s Phantom Works advanced research and development facility in Seattle, the company is trying to solicit the services of a Russian scientist who claims he has developed anti-gravity devices in Russia and Finland. The approach, however, has been thwarted by Russian officialdom. The Boeing drive to develop a collaborative relationship with the scientist in...

Anti-gravity technology is a theme in many works of science fiction, and a hope for those who dream of radical engineering breakthroughs. It is also, I have learned, a topic of serious study in a segment of the scientific community. I recently interviewed Gregory Daigle, author of a newly released book Gravity 2.0: Design Strategies for a Gravity Modified World to learn more about the field... FET: What made you focus on the design aspect of modification of gravity? GD: If gravity-like fields, both attractive and repulsive, can be produced along the lines proposed by Extended Heim Theory (EHT) then...

Scientists funded by the European Space Agency believe they may have measured the gravitational equivalent of a magnetic field for the first time in a laboratory. Under certain special conditions the effect is much larger than expected from general relativity and could help physicists to make a significant step towards the long-sought-after quantum theory of gravity. Just as a moving electrical charge creates a magnetic field, so a moving mass generates a gravitomagnetic field. According to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, the effect is virtually negligible. However, Martin Tajmar, ARC Seibersdorf Research GmbH, Austria, and colleagues believe they have measured...

ROBERT Hooper's anti-gravity machine is a huge weight on his mind, and on that of his wife Pat. The part-time inventor is almost certain it can sort out the world's woes. He says the machine's free, clean and endless power could end global warming -- or it would if only someone would take him seriously and build the damn thing. "It's driving me up the bloody wall," he says.

Ramanath Cowsik, a Washington University physicist, will poke and prod at some of the most daunting problems remaining in physics: What is causing the universe to fly apart, faster and faster each year?Why is gravity so weak and so different from the other basic forces in the universe? And what is the true shape of the universe? In an era of big science -- billion-dollar space telescopes and atom smashers -- Cowsik's approach is refreshingly small. The apparatus, called a torsion balance, is cheap and based on a centuries-old idea. He says the torsion balance will cost about $100,000. When...

<p>The US military is considering testing the principle behind a type of space drive which holds the promise of reaching Mars in just three hours. The problem is, as New Scientist explains, it's entirely theoretical and many physicists admit they don't understand the science behind it.</p>

Mark Felt Hinted at Exotic Antigravity Project? Thien Vehl, jeudi, 09/06/2005 - 19:26 Fil de presse | Politique A few years ago while in San Francisco, Bob Woodward made an intriguing remark. He told the San Francisco Chronicle he wouldn’t expose Deep Throat until the man died but that when he died people would begin to research the case and one thing would lead to another. Woodward said it would all lead to a “fantastic” discovery. Now that we know that Deep Throat was W. Mark Felt, former #2 man at the FBI and the architect of J. Edgar Hoover’s...

"Don't call it antigravity research," Ron Koczor pleads. He's a physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and he's talking about a project he's been working on for almost a decade. "Call it 'gravity modification.' 'Gravity anomalies.' Anything but antigravity. That's a red flag." When people find out that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has researchers working on sci-fi stuff like antigravity—or rather, "gravity modification"—the red flags do indeed start waving. Reputable scientists like Koczor earn polite disdain from colleagues (or worse, from funders of research). But truth's truth: NASA has been studying the manipulation of...