'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
An asteroid discovered just last week will pass closer to the Earth than the orbit of the moon this weekend, an occurrence so rare it happens only once in a decade, according to NASA.
The asteroid, called 2023 DZ2, will pass closest to the Earth on Saturday at just 175,029 kilometres away, less than half the distance to the moon (384,000 kilometres).
It was discovered last Thursday by astronomers at an observatory site at the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain located off the northwestern coast of Africa.
The asteroid is around 40 metres to 90 metres in diameter, meaning its size ranges from slightly smaller than Arc de Triomphe in Paris to as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York.
It is travelling around 7.78 kilometres a second, or around 28,000 kilometres per hour.
The NASA Asteroid Watch Twitter account flagged the asteroid’s approach, adding that it will pass us by safely.
“Astronomers with the International Asteroid Warning Network are using this close approach to learn as much as possible about 2023 DZ2 in a short time period - good practice for #PlanetaryDefense in the future if a potential asteroid threat were ever discovered,” the tweet stated.
The asteroid will pass closest to the Earth shortly before 4 p.m. EDT, according to current estimates, but EarthSky.com advises amateur astronomers hoping to catch a glimpse of the asteroid with a telescope should look early in the night on Friday.
Asteroids whiz by Earth all the time, but it’s rare for one of this size to pass so closely. Most asteroids logged as “close approaches” to Earth by the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies are either much smaller or passing much farther away, as it is still classified as a near Earth object (NEO) if it passes by within 0.2 astronomical unit, or more than 29 million kilometres away.
The next time an asteroid will pass by the Earth closer than the distance to the moon is in 2026, when an asteroid first discovered in 2013 around 15-33 metres in diameter will zip by.
In 2028, we’ll receive a close visit from 2001 WN5, an asteroid around the size of the Golden Gate Bridge at 0.93 kilometres in diameter, which last passed us in 2019. Its upcoming visit will see it pass by at just 248,332 kilometres away
And in 2029, the famous Apophis asteroid—named after the Greek term for an Egyptian god of chaos—will hurtle by at just 37,000 kilometres away, an incredibly rare occurrence that should be visible to the naked eye from Earth.
Numerous agencies have their eyes trained on the sky to keep an eye out for asteroids and other space objects that might pose a collision threat to the Earth. Although Apophis has raised eyebrows for years, a distant flyby of Earth in 2021 allowed astronomers to confirm that it wouldn’t pose any impact threat to Earth within the next century.
Last year, for a tense week in January, astronomers believed a newly discovered asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth in 2023, posing a risk level higher than had been seen in a decade. Luckily, further observations confirmed that the initial assessment of asteroid 2022 AE1’s trajectory were incorrect, and it will pass us safely this July at a distance of more than nine million kilometres away.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.