For thousands of years, most of us have taken the roundness of our planet to be a fact of life - much in the same way that we know the Earth orbits the sun, or that pizza is the greatest invention to ever grace mankind. However, not everyone is so keen to accept that our globe is, well, a globe, and instead believe in the flat Earth theory.

One of the most famous flat Earthers is "Mad" Mike Hughes, a man who has already previously attempted to launch himself into the atmosphere in order to determine the shape of the planet. His last mission, which was set to take place in November 2017, never got off the ground - literally - when his rocket failed to launch.

But that didn't put him off one bit (though perhaps it should've), as the 61-year-old Californian crash-landed in the Mojave Desert yesterday after his most recent endeavor to find the truth.

"I don’t believe in science," Hughes said when he first announced his intention to fly his rocket into the air. "I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that’s not science, that’s just a formula. There’s no difference between science and science fiction."

Unfortunately, it seems his knowledge of aerodynamics and rocket nozzles wasn't quite enough, as Hughes plummeted to the ground after reaching a height of 1,875 feet.

Thankfully, though, he'd had the good sense to equip his DIY craft with two parachutes - but his injuries still required an urgent trip to the hospital.

"Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee? I believe it is, do I know for sure? No. That’s why I want to go up in space," he said before launching himself into the sky.

Hughes was convinced that the vessel, which was constructed using scrap metal and is powered by steam, would allow him to travel for approximately one mile into the air - high enough to see the curvature of the planet (or lack thereof) - but he never made it that far.

Still, he claims that he is pleased with what he did achieve.

"Am I glad I did it? Yeah. I guess. I’ll feel it in the morning," he said. "I won’t be able to get out of bed. At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight."

Regardless of his past failures, Hughes is still absolutely convinced that the world is flat, and believes that anybody who isn't questioning it is "an idiot".

"None of us are getting out of this world alive," he once said in an interview. "I like to do extraordinary things that no one else can do, and no one in the history of mankind has designed, built and launched himself in his own rocket."

Well, he might not have succeeded in proving the world is flat, but he certainly achieved a personal goal by building and flying his own rocket. Still, perhaps "Mad" Mike should stay put on the ground for now - at least until he's made a full recovery.

 

 

A Florida man's son was nearly struck by a piece of "space junk" after it fell from the sky and ripped through the roof of their home.

There is limited space for debris on the International Space Station, meaning teams on board regularly toss their waste out into space, where it falls to Earth and usually burns up in the atmosphere.

But last month, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that an "equipment pallet" from space had reentered Earth's atmosphere.

The astronomer stated that the metal object reentered over the Gulf of Mexico, between Cancun and Cuba, and would most likely have reached Fort Myers, Florida.

Trash from the International Space Station (ISS) is launched back to Earth. Credit: Handout / Getty

McDowell wrote: "This was with the previous prediction window but a little to the northeast of the 'most likely' part of the path. A couple minutes later reentry and it would have reached Ft Myers."

Upon seeing his post, Naples homeowner Alejandro Otero commented that he was on vacation when he received a call from his son about a metal object that came crashing through his residence.

"Hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples. Tore through the roof and went [through] 2 floors. Almost [hit] my son," he revealed, sharing four images of the wreckage.

Check out their tweets below:

Pictures of the aftermath show damaged roof tiles where it struck a hole into the house, a hole in the ceiling, broken floorboards, and the debris itself which was a small, metal cylinder roughly 10cm long and 4cm wide.

Speaking to WINK News, Otero said the two-pound, man-made object made a "tremendous sound," adding: "It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard it all.

"I was shaken, I was completely in disbelief - what are the chances of something landing on my house with such force, to cause so much damage?" he continued. "Obviously I’m super grateful no one got hurt."

Otero said you can "tell by the shape of the top that it traveled in this direction through the atmosphere" due to the burn marks that melted the metal.

NASA will analyze the space object "as soon as possible to determine its origin". Credit: NASA / Getty

Otero told McDowell that he had been unable to contact NASA to discuss repairing the damage to his property, to which the astronomer replied: "NASA are not the right people to contact. I have passed [this on] to the experts at the Aerospace Corporation who study this sort of thing."

But according to Ars Technica, a spokesperson said the company will analyze the object "as soon as possible to determine its origin. More information will be available once the analysis is complete," as cited by Metro.

In addition to this, Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi, revealed that if the object is owned by NASA, Otero or his insurance company could make a claim against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act.

However, if the "human-made space object" was launched into space by another country, then NASA may not be liable for the damage.

Featured image credit: NASA / Getty

Given the absurdity of some of the things that have happened to the world in 2018, most of us hardly bat an eyelid at the news anymore. Elon Musk is selling flamethrowers? Cool. Donald Trump is trying to forge a friendship with a notorious dictator? Standard. A bunch of people are seriously trying to convince the rest of the world that the Earth is actually flat? Yawn, tell me something I don't know.

But human poop falling from the sky? Now there's a story.

According to a number of accounts from residents of British Columbia, Canada, human faeces has been raining down from the sky on a fairly regular basis since May 9th this year.

The first person to report the strange phenomenon was Susan Allan, who told the news website Castanet that she was stopped in her car at an intersection with her son when she felt something land on her through the sunroof.

"It stunk, it was gross, it felt dirty and right away you could smell poop," she said. "I started crying (and) I’m like: ‘I'm covered in poo. It was just falling from the sky. You could feel the drops hitting you. When I looked up there was nothing above but a plane flying."

Three days later, a man from the same town discovered that his car had been pelted with a "poo-like matter".

Then, just last week, another person reported something particularly gross that happened to them while they were sitting outside on their deck in Yellowknife - more than 3000 kilometers away from the incident that Allan reported.

Linda Smith, who was outside her home with her family, described the moment that she was hit by a foul-smelling substance.

"All of a sudden — swoosh - we got wet," she said. "We looked out there to see if somebody threw something at us, but there was nothing. It just came from out of the air."

And it was gross.

"It was like somebody's septic tank burst," said Smith, who felt sick from the stench. "It was really bad."

But what is causing this disgusting thing to happen? And why does it only seem to be affecting Canada? Well, it's a good news/bad news type of situation. The good news is that it's probably not an indicator of end times, and we hopefully aren't being punished by a wrathful God who's mad at us for giving the Kardashians so much airtime. However, the bad news is that it may be old aeroplane poop.

Susan Allan actually had to go to the doctor after being hit by the falling poop, as the substance had caused conjunctivitis in both her eyes. During her medical assessment, Allan's doctor found a small burn on her eye which was caused by something called "liquid blue" - a chemical used to freeze human waste in aeroplanes and other vehicles.

Planes do not dump waste while in mid-air, though, so - if they are the cause - a faulty sewage valve is probably what's responsible. And yet, Transport Canada said the sky faeces doesn’t "meet the description of blue ice" and have stated that none of the 18 reported cases of poop rain are related to planes.

Some people have suggested that birds are responsible, but Allan doesn't believe it. "It would have taken a thousand flocks of birds to fly over all at once to cover my car as much as it was covered," she said.

At this time, then, nobody is quite sure what's causing the falling poop. My advice? Steer clear of large flocks of birds or overhead planes if possible, especially if you're in Canada.

Debris from a Chinese rocket is due to crash down to Earth sometime this weekend - but nobody knows where or when.

According to Time magazine, a portion of the Chinese Space Program's largest rocket, the so-called Long March 5B, is tumbling out of control in orbit after launching a section of the country’s new space station on April 29.

Take a look at this video on the rocket:

The 10-story-high and 23-ton spent core stage has been predicted by scientists working at the Aerospace Corporation to land anywhere between 41.5 degrees north latitude and 41.5 degrees south latitude.

As of Thursday, May 6, the non-profit organization has been estimated to re-enter our planet's atmosphere on Saturday, May 8, at around 11:43 PM Eastern time, somewhere over Sudan in Northern Africa.

But due to the fact that the core booster is currently traveling at a speed of around 18,000 miles per hour, this estimate is expected to be subject to change.

This is because even a small shift in conditions caused by fluctuations in solar energy could alter the re-entry point drastically.

Most of the debris is expected to be incinerated upon re-entry, which significantly reduces the chances of it landing on a human being or doing any major damage.

Yet The New York Times reports that when China made the first Long March 5B launch, the booster from that rocket also inadvertently made re-entry, with debris raining down on an unfortunate village in the Ivory Coast.

However, a number of scientific experts have criticized the Chinese Space Program for allowing the spent stage to enter the Earth's orbit in the first place.

Per the NY Times, Dr. Jonathan McDowell, a scientist at the Cambridge Center for Astrophysics, stated that the mishap was, in his opinion, "negligent" and "irresponsible."

In an additional interview with Time, Dr. McDowell went on to state: "China is an outlier in the way countries have been disposing of rocket parts for 30 years. They just decided: 'Hey, the Earth is big. This probably won't affect anyone.'

"The fact that [China] let the core stage go into orbit reflects a lack of caring. They really do have to get with the 21st century."

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/ITAR-TASS News Agency

A family in New Jersey had a near-miss after a huge chunk of ice fell from the sky and smashed a hole through their home, just meters from where they were sitting.The Gomez family was sitting at a table in their backyard at around 9:30PM on Wednesday when the terrifying incident occurred, less than 12 feet from where they were.They reported hearing the noise of the chunk of ice - believed to have fallen from a plane - falling through the sky before hearing an almighty crash when it smashed through the roof of their home in Paterson, NJ.Security footage from the backyard saw the family leap from their seats when the impact occurred.Sabrina Gomez told News 12 New Jersey: "Out of nowhere, you just hear a hollow sound coming down, and honestly, we didn’t think anything of it, and then you just hear a big [doosh]!"Paul Gomez added: "It was big stones…I guess it was a big square. When it came down it smashed everything."According to the outlet, the Gomez family's home is directly under several flight paths, which is why it's believed the ice could have fallen from a plane.Sabrina added: "When we look up, it’s basically like a plane flying by."After hearing the impact, the family rushed to the front of their home where they filmed pieces of ice that had been scattered across their driveway.They found large chunks of ice outside their home. Credit: I Like That One/Getty Images Sabrina explained: "Honestly, it was a little terrifying, but thank God it didn’t hit anybody, and it hit the floor. It hit the roof thank God."Thankfully, nobody was harmed when the large block of ice fell from the sky, but the damage it caused to their home is so severe that they may need an entirely new roof.The family has filed a claim with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to investigate whether the ice did indeed fall from s passing aircraft.It's not the first time such an incident has occurred as a home in Massachusetts was also struck by a chunk of ice weighing between 15 and 20 pounds last year.As reported by the Associated Press, Jeff Ilg and his wife, Amelia Rainville, were sitting in their home in Shirley when the block of ice came crashing through their roof in August 2023.Jeff said at the time: "We heard an explosion, basically. The loudest pop, bang I’ve ever heard."The ice is believed to have fallen from a passing plane. Credit: Asep Bagja Priandana / 500px/Getty Images He ran upstairs to check on their children, who'd managed to sleep through the crash, before running outside to find a huge block of ice on his rear doorstep as well as debris scattered around the backyard and roof.He then discovered a hole in the roof and headed up to the attic where he found another chunk of the ice.Jeff explained: "Sure enough, it was in there, and it was big,” revealing that the impact was up to 2 feet on the outside of their property.According to the FAA, airplanes can ice up due to supercooled water, an unstable liquid that freezes when it hits an aircraft in the sky.It explained: "This can happen when an aircraft flies near the top of a cold air mass beneath a layer of warm air, such as during freezing rain ahead of a warm front in winter."As the aircraft flies through the warm, moist air that’s been sucked up into the cold, it hits the supercooled water in liquid form, which then freezes on the leading edges of the plane.”Featured image credit: I Like That One/Getty Images