EastEnders’ Nicola Mitchell actress Laura Doddington has revealed emotional scenes ahead on the BBC soap next week as her character goes into labour prematurely

Emotional scenes will take their toll on one EastEnders favourite next week.

Pregnant Nicola Mitchell is left distressed as she goes into premature labour. The character initially experiences pains and tries to keep them to herself.

After a visit to the hospital she heads back to Walford, but soon after a row with Penny Branning, the character is rushed to hospital where she gives birth to a baby girl.

Sadly Nicola is not allowed to see her baby daughter due to an infection, while the baby’s father, George Knight, is on hand to support her. Actress Laura Doddington has said we will see a more vulnerable side to her character as the episodes air, with Nicola left “broken”.

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Laura said: “It takes a significant toll on her, and we see a real vulnerability in her, compared to her usually combative and protective parenting style. This week, the emotional strain and the inability to see her baby leave her broken, and the situation becomes heartbreaking for her, especially knowing that everyone else can see the baby while she cannot.”

It all begins at the start of the week, when Nicola hides the concerns about her unborn child that she’s facing. Laura explained: “She is incredibly distracted because she hasn’t felt the baby move, something that she initially keeps to herself.

“With the Knight Fusion launch being an important moment for George, she wants to support him and avoids raising his worries while trying to manage her own.” After admitting her fears she gets checked over before being allowed to leave.

Back in Walford there’s a moment where Nicola supports pregnant Penny after a run-in with Suki Panesar. Laura said: “From Nicola’s perspective, she was simply trying to speak with Penny when Suki interrupted, which infuriates her!

“Her opinion of Suki is already low given the recent issues involving Ravi and Harry. With Penny in the early stages of pregnancy, Nicola understands the anxieties that come with that experience.

“She also has a soft spot for Penny, who has supported Harry throughout his recent rehabilitation.” But soon Nicola realises Penny’s baby could be her son Harry’s, and not Vinny Panesar’s.

Laura revealed: “Nicola wants clarity as soon as possible on whether the baby is Harry’s. She’s incredibly protective over him and carries guilt about what he has been through.

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“She also feels she has fallen short as a mother, so if the baby is his, she wants to support him from the outset. Harry has hinted that he does want children and is beginning to think seriously about his future. With Harry and Gina still early in their relationship, she feels it’s important to establish the truth now rather than risk a more painful revelation later, once they have invested more in their future together.”

It’s during a confrontation about this with Penny that Nicola is overcome with pains, and eventually learns she is in labour. Laura shared: “Nicola is used to dealing with things on her own and doesn’t want to burden George with any additional worries.

“She is already dealing with loads of concerns that she wants to keep to herself, convincing herself they may not be serious. Having experienced false labour with both Harry and Barney, part of her also believes the pains could simply be another false alarm.”

Teasing what will happen for George and Nicola now that their daughter has arrived, Laura added: “I think they will make an excellent team, as they bring different energies and moral standings that complement each other. They have open and honestly conversations with each other, addressing things head on rather than avoiding them and they have learned from their previous parenting experiences.”

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Lacey Milner from Meadow Park Care Home in Bedlington has received a Long Service Award for her commitment to Barchester Healthcare.

She began working for Barchester in March 2011 and has held a variety of roles over the years.

Adele Keenan, employee services director at Barchester, said: “I’m always pleased to hear stories about the long service of Barchester staff and am delighted Lacey has achieved this milestone.

“It is dedication like this that ensures our residents are provided with the best possible care.”

Colleagues have praised her work ethic and dedication.

Julie Bond, general manager at Meadow Park, said: “We’re delighted to be celebrating 15 years of loyal service with Lacey.

“She has demonstrated her dedication and commitment to this home and its residents year after year.

“I speak for all of us here at Meadow Park when I say that I’m looking forward to many more years of working with Lacey.”

Meadow Park Care Home is part of Barchester Healthcare and provides residential and dementia care for 61 residents from respite breaks to long term stays.

The UK’s latest law on sentencing came into force on March 22. Among other changes, the new law means that, in England and Wales, people who would previously have been sent to prison for short sentences will instead serve those sentences in the community.

This means they will need to attend appointments with probation, do certain rehabilitative activities and may also be restricted from doing certain things or going to certain areas. They might also be required to do a set number of hours of community service.

The new law requires courts to avoid imposing custodial sentences of less than 12 months, except in exceptional circumstances. It also extends the maximum sentence that can be suspended from two years to three. This gives judges discretion to suspend sentences for more serious offences that would previously have required immediate custody.

Possession with intent to supply class A drugs (where a guilty plea can reduce a starting-point sentence to three years); street robbery; the most serious forms of controlling and coercive behaviour; and a third conviction for domestic burglary could now all, in theory, be suspended.

At the end of 2025, there were around 3,500 people serving a prison sentence of less than 12 months in England and Wales. Around 44% of all prison sentences are shorter than 12 months. They tend to be imposed for offences such as shoplifting, common assault or breaches of restraining orders.

People given short sentences have the highest reoffending rates when compared to other sentences. Evidence from Scotland, where a similar legal approach has been in place since 2019, has found that people released from a short sentence are reconvicted nearly twice as often as those sentenced to serve a community sentence.

Short sentences mean that people lose access to families, employment and housing, but they do not allow prisons enough time to provide the support that people need prior to release. As such, they account for more than half of all recalls to prison following release, and have contributed to increases in the prison population in recent years.

People serving short sentences typically have acute and unaddressed needs, such as housing instability, substance misuse and mental health concerns. And evidence shows that people sentenced for similar offences are more likely to offend after a short prison sentence than if they had been given a community sanction.

The changes are intended to alleviate pressure on the prison estate by reducing the number of people given immediate custody. Prisons in England and Wales have been working at capacity for years.

These new powers should also prevent the need for emergency early release schemes, which have failed in the past. Both Conservative and Labour governments have introduced emergency early release schemes in recent years. Under a scheme run by the previous Conservative government from 2023-24, 42% of people released were recalled to custody. This was partly due to an inability to plan for their release, and a shortage of support services such as accommodation.

We do not yet have recall data for the scheme introduced by the Labour government in 2024, which allows people to be released 40% of the way through their sentence. But overall recall rates have remained high.

With the new law in force, we should see a relatively quick decline in the number of people sentenced to custody. A steady reduction in the prison population should follow.

It is also worth highlighting that expanding the use of community sanctions can backfire, resulting instead in unintended net-widening: more people drawn into the penal system overall, rather than just reducing the number of people in prison. This could happen if judges begin to give more suspended sentences to those who would otherwise have been given a fine or community order. They may also sentence people to longer in prison to avoid the requirement to suspend the sentence – what criminologists call up-tariffing.

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Although broadly positive, these changes are not necessarily a silver bullet for the well-documented prisons crisis. For one thing, the reforms will result in more work for the probation service, which is already under pressure. In recent inspection reports, the probation inspectorate has described the service as having “too few staff, with too little experience and training, managing too many cases”.

Introducing more people with higher risk profiles into probation narrows the margin for error considerably. The service has been planning for these changes – by reducing the extent to which people at the end of their sentences are supervised – but how well it copes with these increased numbers remains to be seen.

If probation fails to cope, we may see more people breaching their orders. When this happens, their custodial sanction is activated, and they are swiftly put in custody to serve their sentence.

The effect on crime

There is also the question of whether the act will affect crime levels, which have been decreasing in recent decades. Criminological evidence has repeatedly shown that changing the seriousness of a punishment does not deter people from offending. What is much more important is the perception of whether one is likely to be caught, and the speed with which one might be punished.

In reality, most people who are about to commit an offence – especially those for which shorter custodial sentences are imposed – are not thinking about what sentence they may or may not receive at some undetermined point in the future.

Sentencing severity is a blunt tool for dealing with crime, especially given the complex reasons behind why people offend. The impact on crime will depend on other parts of the criminal justice system. Police performance, court backlogs and the nature of high-volume offending such as shoplifting and online fraud will all have much more immediate effects on crime levels than tinkering around the edges of sentencing.

Short sentences achieve very little beyond disrupting peoples’ lives and relationships and making it more difficult to find housing and employment, both of which are strongly correlated with re-offending rates. If probation copes with the additional workload, if recall rates do not skyrocket, and judges and magistrates stick to the ask, then the reforms could result in a more sustainable prison system that causes less harm than it currently does – that should be better for everyone.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators are discussing a proposal to end the Homeland Security budget stalemate by funding much of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration airport workers going without pay, but excluding ICE’s enforcement and removal operations that have been core to the dispute.

The potential breakthrough came after a group of Republican senators headed to the White House late Monday to meet with President Donald Trump. Senators said they expected the negotiators to work through the night hammering out the details and present written proposals for both parties to discuss Tuesday at their weekly caucus lunches.

“All I can say is that the discussions have been very positive and productive, and hopefully headed in the right direction,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters late in the evening: “Both sides are working in a serious way.”

The sudden shift in the monthlong standoff comes as U.S. airports are jammed with long lines after routine Homeland Security funding was halted, leaving TSA understaffed during the spring travel season. Democrats are refusing to fund Homeland Security without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the deaths of two U.S. citizens during ICE protests in Minneapolis.

Trump took the extraordinary step over the weekend of ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to provide airport security, drawing alarm from some lawmakers that it could escalate tensions.

The contours of the deal under consideration would fund most of Homeland Security, but exclude funding for one main part of ICE — the enforcement and removal operations that are core to Trump’s deportation agenda.

Under the package being floated, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as Customs and Border Protection, but with new guardrails to position officers from those divisions in their traditional roles, rather than as they have been used more recently in immigration roundups in cities. It would also include a number of changes in immigration operations that Democrats have demanded, including mandating that officers wear body cameras and identification.

Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump’s big tax breaks bill, and immigration officers are still receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown, senators said the new restraints would also be imposed on operations that rely on that funding source, as well.

“I’m going to be working through the night,” said Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, a chief negotiator who returned from the White House meeting hopeful they had a solution to “land this plane.”

“We’re going to be working diligently,” she said.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who was not part of the group at the White House, said his understanding was that there was a “sense of urgency” coming from the talks.

Coons described various choices before the senators at this point — from no money at all for ICE but also no restraints on the agency operations, to fully funding ICE but with more of the restraints Democrats have demanded, to a middle option of funding most of DHS excluding ICE’s enforcement and removal operations. That middle option is what he and other senators understood was broadly on the table after the White House talks.

“First step is to get the proposal in writing,” said Sen. Angus King, the Independent from Maine. “I want to see exactly what that means.”

Senators late Monday also confirmed Markwayne Mullin as Homeland Security secretary. He takes over for Kristi Noem, who led the department’s immigration enforcement operations that erupted with the public outcry and the funding standoff.

Mullin provides a potentially new face for the immigration operation. During his confirmation hearing last week, Mullin touched on another key demand Democrats want — ensuring a judge has signed off on warrants that immigration officers use to search people’s homes, rather than simply relying on administrative warrants issued by the department.

“This is significant,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said about the progress toward changes. “Noem is gone. That’s a big deal.”

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said he was hopeful senators could work things out. “Look, there’s a lot of different variables in the equations,” he said. “I’m hopeful we’ll get there.”

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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

Israeli settlers have injured at least 10 Palestinians, as well as smashing cars and setting fires, as they rampaged through villages in the West Bank.

The violence on Sunday night came after the funeral of Yehuda Sherman, an 18-year-old Israeli settler, who was killed in a collision with a Palestinian vehicle in the area.

Among those wounded in the unrest was a 45-year-old man shot in the foot and a woman suffering from smoke inhalation, according to The Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

Videos from the scene showed cars and homes were set ablaze as army flares lit up the sky above the village of Deir al-Hatab.

A day earlier, simultaneous attacks were reported in at least six West Bank communities overnight by the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

The settlers claim that the crash which killed Sherman was deliberate. Police say they are investigating.

Three Palestinians were also killed and 10 people injured after an Israeli strike hit the central Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, officials at Awda Hospital said.

Hours earlier, another Palestinian had been killed in a strike in northern Gaza.

Israeli strikes on Gaza declined in the days after the Iran war began on 28 February, but locals say they have started to rise again.

At least 680 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the October ceasefire, including dozens in recent weeks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Read more:
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Israel, meanwhile, claims four of its ​soldiers in Gaza have been killed in the ​same period. Both sides accused each other of violating the truce.

The uneasy ceasefire brought a close to a war lasting more than two years, which reportedly claimed over 70,000 lives.

It was sparked by Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, 2023.

On Sunday, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, criticised a social media post by Steffen Seibert, the outgoing German ambassador, for mentioning the death of the teenager alongside a condemnation of the violence.

Mr Saar welcomed the imminent departure of Mr Seibert, claiming that his “obsession” with settlers in the West Bank had stopped him from condemning the death of the Israeli.

“Seibert finds it very difficult to condemn attacks against Israelis without bringing up the Palestinians,” wrote Mr Saar.

A spokesperson for Germany’s Foreign Ministry stated on Monday that the ministry stands behind its outgoing ambassador.

An NHS service has raised concerns about the potential impact of the new homes being built in a Cambridgeshire town

Twelve new homes could be built in a Cambridgeshire town, but concerns have been raised about the impact on local doctors. RCKA has submitted plans to Fenland District Council to build 12 new homes on land of 53 to 69 in Grounds Avenue in March.

The proposed homes include one block of flats with 10 apartments and two houses. A shared garden, secure cycle parking and waste storage is proposed.

Twelve car spaces, including two accessible, also form part of the plans. The site was previously used for garages, and the developers said the homes would “re-use previously developed land and under-utilised space”.

The developers added that the “high-quality” homes will be in a “highly suitable location”. In 2022, plans were approved on the same part of land to build six new homes.

The developers said even though more homes are proposed in 2026, they said they are “smaller in size to meet a specific local need”. The plans have not received any public objections so far, however some concerns have been raised by the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care System (CAPICS).

A NHS spokesperson said the development is “likely to have an impact” on three GP services in the area. The spokesperson said: “These practices do not have capacity to take on additional patients and this development of 12 dwellings would see an increase patient pressure of circa 28 new residents.”

To “mitigate” the potential impact, the NHS seeks a contribution from the developers. The NHS requested a contribution of £10,316.65, to match up with a possible extension and refurbishment it may need.

The NHS added: “Payment should be made before the development commences. CAPICS therefore requests that this sum be secured through a planning obligation linked to any grant of planning permission – in the form of a Section 106 planning obligation – with the proposal that the sum be used to fund a project which increases clinical capacity at one of the GP.

“Practices in the vicinity of the development, or any project at an alternative premises in the vicinity of the Practices/development which increases primary healthcare capacity.”

Ireland face a World Cup play-off against Czechia in Prague on Thursday and the former England striker has been speaking with a couple of old pals.

Ireland have been handed a World Cup thumbs up – from former England striker Michael Owen.

The ex-Anfield star has revealed that some of his old Liverpool teammates are very nervous ahead of the World Cup play-offs.

Owen lined out for the Reds alongside Czech legends Patrik Berger and Vladimir Smicer, and he was in touch with the pair recently.

Czechia have gone through a rocky spell, and their World Cup qualification campaign was so poor that they ditched manager Ivan Hasek.

He lost his job after they finished six points behind group winners Croatia, and only four points ahead of the Faroe Islands, who were just five minutes away from a draw in Czechia, before they pulled off a sensational win in Torshavn in October.

After axing Hasek, the Czech FA went on the hunt for a high-profile replacement, but were snubbed and eventually appointed 74-year-old Miroslav Koubek, who never managed outside of his country.

Owen said that his old pals weren’t exactly brimming with confidence ahead of Thursday’s play-off semi-final.

Speaking with the Irish Mirror, the ex-Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle and Manchester United striker, who now represents Casino.org, a resource designed to help players compare the top online casinos in Ireland, said: “If Ireland keep the form of the last few games up, then absolutely [they can win].

“The Czechs aren’t as good as Portugal and Hungary, that you’ve just beaten in recent times.

“The Czechs, the football there is on a bit of a low. I was only with Patrik Berger and Vladimir Smicer the other day and they were telling me about the recent history of the team.

“It’s not in a great position at the minute. So absolutely Ireland have a chance. Then you are one tie away from getting to the World Cup.

“Personally I think you have got more of a chance than the Czechs of qualifying, with the momentum you’ve got and the feelgood factor that you’ve got. So yeah, it’s pretty exciting.”

He added: “When I spoke to [Berger and Smicer], they weren’t too confident about their team.

“Long gone are the days of Smicer and Poborsky and Berger and Nedved, and all those. Long gone are those days.

“[Tomas] Soucek has been their player of the year for the last handful of years.

“I would struggle to name five players in the Czech team these days.”

Owen added that he would struggle to name too many of Heimir Hallgrímsson’s squad, but that momentum could swing the tie in favour of the Boys in Green.

“Let’s be frank, the same goes for Ireland. 20 years ago Ireland were feared throughout the world. You didn’t want to be playing Ireland at a World Cup,” he said.

“With all due respect, they’ve not got the household names that they did have.

“You could say both teams were in a similar position, however it just feels like recent momentum could carry Ireland a little bit.”

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian missiles and drones targeted Israel and Gulf Arab states Tuesday, even as U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. was in talks with the Islamic Republic to end the war.

Trump also delayed a deadline for Iran to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz for shipping or see its power stations targeted by airstrikes, briefly driving down oil prices and boosting stocks.

The delay offered a reprieve after the U.S. and Iran traded threats over the weekend of strikes that could have cut electricity to millions in Iran and around the Gulf and knocked out desalination plants that provide many desert nations with drinking water, while raising fears of possible catastrophe if nuclear plants were hit.

But any information on the talks described by Trump remain in dispute with Iran, which denied any talks had been held.

“No negotiations have been held with the US,” Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf posted on X, adding that “fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said Israel will continue to strike Iran and Lebanon even as the U.S. considers a ceasefire.

“There’s more to come,” he said.

Iran hits Israel and Gulf neighbors, while Israel attacks Beirut

Iran fired three waves of missiles at Israel early Tuesday, with reports of an impact in the country’s north, the Israeli Home Front Command said.

Israel, meantime, pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs saying that it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group.

A strike on a residential apartment southeast of the Lebanese capital killed at least two people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

In Kuwait, power lines were hit from air defense shrapnel, causing partial electricity outages in several hours. Missile alert sirens sounded in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said it had destroyed 19 Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.

Oil prices briefly fell below $100 a barrel after Trump claimed his government was in talks to end the war. But that respite was short lived, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, back to $104 a barrel in morning trading, up more than 40% since Israel and the U.S. started the war on Feb. 28.

Iran skeptical of Trump’s motives in deadline extension

Trump initially set a deadline of late Monday, Washington time, for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants, but on Monday he gave Tehran five more days to comply.

Iran has allowed a small number of ships through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, but has said it will continue to target vessels linked to the U.S., Israel or its allies.

Its leaders are wary of Washington’s motives, in part because Tehran was in negotiations with the U.S. before the surprise attack that started the war. Iran had also been in talks last year when the U.S. and Israel attacked its nuclear facilities, starting a 12-day war.

Trump’s extension of the deadline comes as a contingent of thousands of Marines is on the way to the area, raising speculation that the U.S. may try to seize Kharg Island, which is off of Iran’s coast and vital to the country’s oil network.

The U.S. bombed the island in the Persian Gulf more than a week ago, hitting its defenses but saying it had left oil infrastructure intact.

Iran has threatened if the U.S. appears to be on the verge of landing troops it could mine the Persian Gulf, which would complicate an amphibious assault and also imperil all shipping in the area.

The delay could be timed to coincide with the arrival of U.S. Marines in the region, expected Friday, wrote the New York-based think tank the Soufan Center in an analysis.

“As Trump has in the past, he could be moving military assets into place, in this case to prepare for an invasion and seizure of Kharg Island, while using negotiations as a cover until those assets are fully combat-ready.”

However, the center also noted that “Trump could be actively seeking an offramp. Whether Iran reciprocates is yet to be seen.”

Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but has not ruled it out. Israel has suggested its ground forces could take part in the war.

Iran’s death toll has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.

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Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.

Locals are urged to avoid the area as fire crews continue to work to control the moorland blaze

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Members of the public have been urged to avoid the area after a huge wildfire has broken out in the region.

The moorland fire broke out on Monday evening, March 23 near Greater Manchester with clouds of smoke seen for miles.

Clouds of smoke were seen coming from the flames that erupted at Scout Moor, between Ramsbottom and Whitworth, underneath the turbines.

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Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue have been assisting Lancashire Fire Service at the scene, in attempts to control the blaze.

There has been no confirmation that the fire has stopped burning.

The latest warning urges members of the public to stay away from the area. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Five fire engines attended the scene at Gin Croft Lane, Bury at 5.44pm on Monday.

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Pictures and videos posted on social media show thick plumes of smoke billowing from the scene with roaring flames captured over the moorland.

As huge amounts of smoke filled the sky, residents in Bury and Rochdale both reported being able to see the blaze.

Due to the amount of smoke, it is also advised that windows and doors are closed as work continues on the inferno.

The science fiction film Project Hail Mary brilliantly uses authentic science to underscore the human drama and narrative tension of the story.

Based on the novel by Andy Weir, the story revolves around an effort to save the Earth – threatened by an alien organism that is consuming the Sun. By combining real science, compelling characters and a gripping narrative, the filmmakers have crafted a science fiction odyssey that might just inspire a whole new generation of scientists.

The story begins with the main protagonist, Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), waking from a coma in a sealed lab with no windows. Affected by amnesia, the novel describes how he nevertheless applies his knowledge of high-school physics to deduce that gravity in the lab is 50% greater than on the surface of the Earth. He concludes that he must either be in a constantly accelerating spaceship, or on the surface of another planet.

This opening scene perfectly illustrates a concept that Einstein described in 1907 as his “happiest thought”. Einstein realised that while a person is in perfect free-fall, they don’t directly experience the effects of gravity themselves. This is the state of weightlessness experienced by astronauts in orbit – in a perpetual state of free-fall about the Earth.

By the same token, Einstein realised that this inertial experience of acceleration is also perfectly equivalent to the force of gravity. As Grace discovers, there’s no way to distinguish the two. This principle of equivalence was the essential insight that Einstein needed to describe gravity as the effects of warped space-time in his general theory of relativity.

Grace soon discovers that, not only is his increased sensation of gravity due to the constant acceleration of the spacecraft Hail Mary, he’s rapidly approaching the vicinity of the star Tau Ceti, some 11.9 light-years from Earth. To date, the fastest that humans have ever travelled was on the Apollo 10 mission, which reached nearly 25,000 miles per hour – or about seven miles per second.

That may sound fast, but at that speed, it would take about 320,000 years to reach Tau Ceti. But Grace nevertheless finds himself there well within the course of a human lifetime. To understand how, we have to turn to some of the most fascinating results from Einstein’s theory of relativity.

A famous equation

A capable sports car might accelerate from 0 to 60mph in a time of 2.7 seconds. This is the same rate at which an object falls to the ground due to the effects of Earth’s gravity: 1g of acceleration. The 1.5g of the Hail Mary spacecraft corresponds to a 0-60mph time of 1.8 seconds; clearly rapid, but a comparable rate to a modern hypercar.

The difference is that even the highest performance cars can maintain that acceleration for only a few seconds. The Hail Mary accelerates at that rate for eight and a half months, reaching a maximum speed of 92% of the speed of light, or about 165,000 miles per second; about 25,000 times faster than Apollo 10. So how could the Hail Mary sustain this acceleration for so long?

The answer lies in Einstein’s most famous equation: E=mc². The Hail Mary is fuelled with huge tanks of astrophage – the fictional microorganisms in the story that feed off the Sun and can convert matter to pure energy. The astrophage provides the continuous thrust required to reach almost the speed of light. But it takes light itself 11.9 years to reach Tau Ceti, so even at 92% of the speed of light, how could Grace experience the journey in less than half that time?

The ultimate speed limit

Relativity is clear that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. At a constant speed of 92% of the speed of light, it would take the Hail Mary 12.9 years to reach Tau Ceti. However, one of the essential principles of relativity is that the speed of light is an absolute constant for all observers.

To keep the speed of light constant for all observers, Einstein realised that our intuitive expectations about time and space would have to be modified at relativistic speeds. To put it another way, some very weird stuff happens when travelling close to the speed of light.

If we assume that the Hail Mary is 40 metres long, an observer watching the ship fly by at 92% of the speed of light would observe the ship to be less than 16 metres in length. If we assume that Ryland Grace is the same height as his onscreen counterpart Ryan Gosling, he would appear to an external observer to be only 72 cm tall.

However, one of Einstein’s key insights from relativity is that anyone moving at a perfectly constant speed can consider themselves at rest, and everything else in the universe as moving towards them. If Grace is flying towards the distant star with a constant speed of 92% the speed of light, we can equally say that the Hail Mary is at rest, and that Tau Ceti is approaching the ship at close to light speed.

This can play with our perceptions. From the perspective of an external observer, at 92% the speed of light, the Hail Mary would appear to be length contracted by a factor of 2.55, but from the perspective of the Hail Mary, the ship is still its original length, and all other distances in the same direction appear to be contracted by this same amount.

Whereas the “rest-frame” distance to Tau Ceti remains 11.9 light-years, from the perspective of the Hail Mary, the distance is less than 4.7 light-years. At a constant speed of 92% the speed of light, the Hail Mary would arrive in about five years. This doesn’t mean that Tau Ceti is physically closer – only that from Grace’s point of view the distance is contracted. An observer tracking the mission back on Earth would still find that the journey took 12.9 years. While everyone would agree on the speed of the Hail Mary, the time and distance involved depend on the point of view of the observer.

By embracing the genuine principles of relativity, the filmmakers have crafted a science fiction masterpiece with a foundation in authentic physics. Far from detracting from the story, Weir’s masterful skill of weaving real science together with a riveting plot helps to underscore the emotional stakes of the narrative.

Science fiction is one of the few avenues through which concepts from relativity and astrophysics enter the mainstream public discourse. By brilliantly engaging with these concepts as part of such a compelling story, Project Hail Mary may just inspire a whole new generation to study these subjects, and perhaps even make new discoveries of their own.