More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Space enthusiasts could be in for a treat Monday as the Tau Herculid meteor shower is expected to light up the sky – depending on the speed and distance of the meteoroids.
According to NASA, Earth will pass through debris trails left from a broken comet that was shattered in 1995.
If these fragments from comet 73P/Schwassmann-Washmann (SW3) were ejected at speeds twice as normal, onlookers can expect a radiant show.
However, predictions for what to expect a range from a never-seen-before event to possibly nothing at all.
“(A meteor shower) is a distinct possibility. We just don't know how much debris arose from the break up of the common nucleus back in 1995,” Paul Delaney, professor of physics and astronomy at York University, told CTV News Channel Monday.
“There could be a ton of stuff, literally tons of stuff that rain into our atmosphere tonight. Or it all could have sort of dissipated over the last 20-25 years.”
“But, it could be absolutely spectacular … what we call a meteor storm.”
NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office lead Bill Cooke described the shower as an “all-or-nothing” event.
“If the debris from SW3 was traveling more than 220 miles per hour (354 kilometres per hour) when it separated from the comet, we might see a nice meteor shower. If the debris had slower ejection speeds, then nothing will make it to Earth and there will be no meteors from this comet,” Cooke said in NASA’s blog post.
“It would be a really spectacular meteor storm, people are even quoting up to 1,000, meteors that would be visible per hour,” astrophysicist and coordinator for the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Université de Montréal, Nathalie Ouellette told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview Friday.
In comparison, a typical shower averages one meteor every minute, roughly 60 an hour, said Outtlete. However, the speed and direction of the fragments will ultimately decide how much of a spectacle onlookers will get.
“The issue is that because it's the first time that we're passing through this debris field, it might be that we're actually going to pass just in front of it and we're going to miss most of the really good big chunks,” she said.
While the actual speed of the Tau Herculid shower will be slow, reaching speeds of just 16 kilometres per second (10 miles per second), the potential for a spectacle is still there as the actual size of the mass distribution of the meteroid is unknown, according to the International Meteor Organization.
Additionally, the current new moon will allow for better optics during the shower.
“Typically if you have a full moon during a meteor shower it’s not so good because the moon is drowning out any shooting stars,” Ouellette explained.
“Because we have a new moon we’re actually going to have a pretty dark sky so that’s one piece of good news.”
SW3 was discovered in 1930 by German observers Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann. The comet was faint for most of its years until 1995 when it became 600 times brighter after being shattered and it dragged debris on its trail.
According to NASA, North American onlookers can look out for the shower at 1 a.m. for those on the East Coast and 10 p.m. for those on the West Coast.
Ouellette’s advice to observers is to set up in a dark area and arrive early to allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness.
“It takes about 20 minutes for your eyes to get used to a dark sky so be patient and whatever you do, do not look at your phone because you’ll ruin your eyes for the next 20 minutes if you do,” she said.
With files from Rhythm Sachdeva
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.