CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: A newly discovered asteroid has a tiny chance of smacking Earth in 2032, space agency officials said Wednesday.
Scientists put the odds of a strike at slightly more than 1 percent.
“We are not worried at all, because of this 99 percent chance it will miss,” said Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies. “But it deserves attention.”
First spotted last month by a telescope in Chile, the near-Earth asteroid — designated 2024 YR4 — is estimated to be 130 to 330 feet (40 to 100 meters) across.
Scientists are keeping close watch on the space rock, which is currently heading away from Earth. As the asteroid’s path around the sun becomes better understood, Chodas and others said there’s a good chance the risk to Earth could drop to zero.
The asteroid will gradually fade from view over the next few months, according to NASA and the European Space Agency. Until then, some of the world’s most powerful telescopes will keep monitoring it to better determine its size and path. Once out of sight, it won’t be visible until it passes our way again in 2028.
The asteroid came closest to Earth on Christmas Day — passing within roughly 500,000 miles (800,000 kilometers) of Earth, about twice the distance of the moon. It was discovered two days later.
Chodas said scientists are poring over sky surveys from 2016, when predictions show the asteroid also ventured close.
If scientists can find the space rock in images from then, they should be able to determine whether it will hit or miss the planet, he told The Associated Press. “If we don’t find that detection, the impact probability will just move slowly as we add more observations,” he said.
Earth gets clobbered by an asteroid this size every few thousand years, according to ESA, with the potential for severe damage. That’s why this one now tops ESA’s asteroid risk list.
The potential impact would occur on Dec. 22, 2032. It’s much too soon to know where it might land if it did hit Earth.
The good news, according to NASA, is that for now, no other known large asteroids have an impact probability above 1 percent.
Newly spotted asteroid has a tiny chance of hitting Earth in 2032
https://arab.news/m8er8
Newly spotted asteroid has a tiny chance of hitting Earth in 2032
Rare New Zealand snail is filmed for the first time laying an egg from its neck
- The habits of the threatened Powelliphanta augusta snail were once shrouded in mystery
- The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast
WELLINGTON: The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country’s conservation agency said Wednesday.
What looks like a tiny hen’s egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand.
The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades.
The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat — a remote mountain they were named for, on the West Coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining.
Observing their habits
Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises.
“It’s remarkable that in all the time we’ve spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we’ve seen one lay an egg,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg.
A long but slow reproductive life
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,” said Flanagan. “They’re polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.”
The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss.
They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world’s largest snails , with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns.
A political storm
The Powelliphanta augusta was the center of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company’s plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails’ habitat.
Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn’t adapt well to new habitats.
In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control.
But the species’ slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.
Poisoned guests rarely invited before deadly mushroom lunch, Australia trial hears
- An Australian woman accused of triple murder with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington had rarely invited her four guests to eat at her home before, a court heard Friday
SYDNEY: An Australian woman accused of triple murder with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington had rarely invited her four guests to eat at her home before, a court heard Friday.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in July 2023 by serving them the pastry-and-beef dish with death cap mushrooms.
She is also accused of the attempted murder of her husband’s uncle, who survived the meal after a long stay in hospital.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In a trial that has seized international attention, prosecutors played a recording of a police interview with Patterson’s son, then 14, following the lunch.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said his mother had hosted his paternal grandparents at her house “once before.”
And she had “never” previously hosted Heather and Ian Wilkinson, his father’s aunt and uncle, the boy said.
His mother’s relationship with the couple was “not a negative one, but it is not strong,” the youngster told police.
The accused’s estranged husband, Simon Patterson, had declined the invitation to lunch at her home in the sedate Victoria state farm village of Leongatha.
Four members of his family attended: his parents Don and Gail Patterson, and his aunt and uncle.
While the guests had lunch, Patterson’s children went to a McDonald’s and the cinema.
Within hours after eating, the four guests developed diarrhea and vomiting and were taken to hospital, where doctors diagnosed death cap mushroom poisoning.
Days later, three of the guests were dead. Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, lived after weeks of hospital treatment.
On the morning after the lunch, Patterson’s son said she was “a little bit quieter” than usual, complaining of “feeling a bit sick and had diarrhea,” the court heard.
The family had missed their local church service because “mum was feeling too sick,” he said.
That night, Patterson and her children ate the purported leftovers of the beef Wellington.
The defendant has said she scraped off the mushrooms because her children were picky eaters.
“It was probably some of the best meat I’ve ever had,” her teenage son said.
“Mum said it was leftovers.”
Jurors also heard a recording of a police interview with Patterson’s daughter, then nine, who said her mum was a good cook.
“We make cupcakes and muffins,” she said.
The girl, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, said she did not get sick from eating the claimed leftovers.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests and took care that neither she, nor her children, consumed the deadly mushrooms.
Her defense says it was “a terrible accident” and that Patterson ate the same meal as the others but did not fall as sick.
The trial is expected to last another five weeks.
New York man charged after nearly 70 live cats and two dozen dead kittens are found in his home
- His house also was condemned as uninhabitable
- He was charged with 18 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and animal neglect and ordered to appear in court on May 23
NEW YORK: A suburban New York man has been charged with animal cruelty after authorities say they found nearly 100 cats in his home, including about two dozen dead kittens in a freezer.
The man, 75, surrendered Wednesday to detectives with the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at a local police precinct, the nonprofit organization said. He was charged with 18 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and animal neglect and ordered to appear in court on May 23.
His house, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Manhattan, also was condemned as uninhabitable because of overpowering odors of feces and urine, authorities said.
The man didn’t immediately respond to a Thursday phone message seeking comment. Court records don’t list a lawyer for him.
Authorities found 69 living cats, many of which had medical ailments including respiratory infections and eye disease, and 28 dead cats at Glantz’s home on Saturday while investigating a complaint about dozens of cats living in squalid conditions, the county SPCA said. About two dozen dead kittens were wrapped up in a freezer and the other deceased animals were found in other parts of the house, according to the group.
Three of the living cats taken from the home later had to be euthanized because they were in such bad shape, the SPCA said.
The surviving cats are being treated at the Islip town animal shelter with the help of the SPCA’s mobile animal and surgical hospital. Officials are working to find new homes for them and seeking donations to help pay for their care. More than two dozen will be brought to upstate New York to be made available for adoption, the SPCA said.
“The house was in absolute deplorable condition,” said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County SPCA. “Feces covered the floors, sprayed on the walls, saturated in urine. The floors were spongy, most likely from the urine. And the ammonia was so extremely high — the ammonia smell from the urine — that the town of Islip fire marshal condemned the house.”
It isn’t clear why the man had so many cats. Gross said the man’s wife died last month and they had lived in the home for more than 30 years.
It has been a busy and trying month for the animal welfare organization, which also has been helping to care for dozens of cats that were injured in a cat sanctuary fire in the nearby hamlet of Medford on March 31. The shelter’s owner was killed in the blaze.
UAE-based nurse nominated for Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award 2025 with $250,000 prize
- Filipino nurse says he will use money for cancer research if he wins
DUBAI: A UAE nurse shortlisted for the Aster Guardian Global Nursing Award 2025 has said that he will not spend a cent of the $250,000 prize money on himself, but instead on pediatric cancer research.
Fitz Gerald Dalina Camacho has been shortlisted for the award, which includes the quarter-of-a-million dollar prize.
The 10 shortlisted for the prize were selected from a record-breaking 100,000 applicants from 199 countries.
The only candidate working in the UAE and wider Arab world, Camacho is listed with nine other nurses in the running for the annual award, which celebrates their dedication and skill.
The Filipino nurse learned about the nomination during a shift at work. “I was shocked when my parents and friends sent me the links on social media. I did not expect to be nominated,” Camacho said.
Despite his modesty, Camacho has an extremely decorated career. After starting his pediatrics training in the Philippines, he moved to the Gulf, first in Saudi Arabia.
“It was quite a transition for me moving to Saudi,” Camacho said. “But it is a very good foundational place where the learning is very (well) supported.”
He has been stationed in the UAE for 11 years and is currently a duty manager at Mediclinic City Hospital in Dubai.
Since starting this post, Camacho has taken it on himself to upskill his nursing colleagues in areas where they might lack experience; especially in different age groups.
“I started an initiative of upskilling our nurses, and training them in terms of rehabilitation and intensive care,” he explained. “If they were an adult nurse, I have skilled them to pediatric and if they were pediatric, I have skilled them to adult.”
But Camacho said that he wants to make a move in his career from education to research so he could pursue one of his passions — pediatric care.
“I’ve seen how patients with cancer struggle,” Camacho said, “So if I were chosen as the winner, then I would use the money for pediatric cancer patients back home in the Philippines.”
The final round of the award will include interviews from a distinguished grand jury. After voting, the winner will be announced at a gala event in Dubai on May 26.
A rare New Zealand snail is filmed for the first time laying an egg from its neck
- What looks like a tiny hen’s egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country’s conservation agency said Wednesday.
What looks like a tiny hen’s egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand.
The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades.
The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat — a remote mountain they were named for, on the West Coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining.
Observing their habits
Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises.
“It’s remarkable that in all the time we’ve spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we’ve seen one lay an egg,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg.
A long but slow reproductive life
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,” said Flanagan. “They’re polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.”
The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss.
They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world’s largest snails , with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns.
A political storm
The Powelliphanta augusta was the center of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company’s plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails’ habitat.
Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn’t adapt well to new habitats.
In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control.
But the species’ slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.
