تازہ ترین

A spent SpaceX rocket stage slammed into the Moon on August 5, travelling at roughly 8,700 kilometres per hour. South Korea’s Danuri orbiter was perfectly positioned to capture the moment. The Korea Aerospace Administration released the images on August 6, beating NASA’s own Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to the first confirmed photos of the impact site. KASA had adjusted Danuri’s orbital path specifically for this event. The manoeuvre let the probe fly around 340 to 350 kilometres above the impact zone near Einstein Crater, capturing images just before and after the collision. Using its high-resolution Lunar Terrain Imager, the satellite photographed the site at an estimated resolution of five metres per pixel. A separate instrument measured changes in surface reflectivity to help gauge how much debris the impact had thrown up. KASA compared the difficulty of the shot to photographing a car crash in Busan from an aircraft flying above Seoul. The comparison highlighted just how precise the timing and positioning needed to be. The rocket stage originally launched in January 2025, carrying Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander and ispace’s RESILIENCE spacecraft toward the Moon. Both spacecraft were part of separate lunar missions at the time. Falcon 9 upper stages are typically destroyed by burning up in Earth’s atmosphere after their missions end. This particular stage, however, had used up nearly all its fuel reaching lunar orbit, leaving it drifting as space debris. Gravitational and solar forces eventually pulled the stage back down, resulting in the lunar impact. SpaceX confirmed it had coordinated with NASA on the disposal process for the spent stage. The company noted that controlled descents are not always possible for upper stages following this kind of trajectory. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman downplayed the event’s significance afterward. Isaacman pointed out that meteoroids strike the lunar surface roughly every hour. He noted that impacts of this scale happen approximately every six days, framing the incident as fairly routine rather than dramatic.

The Pentagon has released 41 new declassified documents related to unidentified flying objects. The files span an enormous timeframe, covering incidents from 1950 all the way through 2026. Among the most striking entries is a 1963 telegram from Brazil, describing a dead crewman found inside a crashed metal balloon. A follow-up cable sent just six days later, however, called the entire report fabricated. This marks the fifth batch of declassified UFO material released so far this year. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the files on Friday under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, known as PURSUE. The collection draws from multiple agencies, including the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, State Department and the Executive Office of the President. Parnell confirmed that additional releases are already being prepared for the future. Interestingly, these documents predate today’s broader UFO disclosure movement by decades. The earliest file dates back to January 1947, referencing so-called “ghost rockets” spotted over Finland and Denmark the year before, believed at the time to be Soviet rocket tests. A separate 1948 memo sent to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base confirmed that some kind of flying object had genuinely been sighted, though no explanation was ever given. More recent entries include a 2021 account from military personnel in the Gulf of Oman. They reported spotting 25 objects moving at speeds up to 1,300 miles per hour during a live-fire operation. Another document details a former service member’s account of a massive, silent, triangular object seen over Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan back in 2002. The object was reportedly around 500 feet long and blocked out the stars as it passed overhead. Two additional triangle sightings, both from Colorado Springs, were digitally rendered by the FBI based on witness testimony rather than actual photographs. One reconstruction dates to 2011, the other to 2023. Together, the newly released files offer a rare, wide-ranging look into decades of military encounters with unexplained aerial phenomena.

Wealthy families in the Gulf are increasingly preparing wills under British law to reduce the difference between the inheritance shares traditionally allocated to sons and daughters under Islamic law. According to a report in a Western publication, some experts have described the emerging trend as “Shariah Lite”, referring to families using the flexibility offered by English succession law to distribute their wealth among their children on relatively equal terms. British lawyers say families are increasingly exploring these legal arrangements to protect the financial future of their children, particularly in cases where they have only daughters or where daughters outnumber sons. Under traditional Islamic inheritance rules, the shares received by male and female heirs can differ depending on the family structure and circumstances. The growing use of foreign legal frameworks allows wealthy families with international assets to consider alternative succession arrangements within the limits of applicable laws. Experts say several factors are contributing to the trend, including changing attitudes among younger generations, increasingly complex marital arrangements and political uncertainty across parts of the Gulf region. These developments have encouraged affluent families to pay greater attention to estate planning, asset protection and succession arrangements to ensure that their wealth remains within the family and is transferred according to their wishes. Gulf states are also introducing legal systems that offer foreign residents and some families alternatives to traditional Sharia-based procedures. Abu Dhabi, for example, has established a separate civil legal framework for matters including divorce, providing an alternative route outside the traditional Sharia system. The growing interest in British wills highlights the changing approach of some wealthy Gulf families toward inheritance and succession planning, as they seek greater control over how their assets are distributed among future generations.