A comet that was discovered earlier this year will be making its closest pass to Earth this weekend.
Comet Leonard should be a spectacle B.C. residents could view in the skies. But Mother Nature could spoil that.
Environment Canada is forecasting clouds and periods of rain for the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island through to Wednesday, while clouds and snow are expected for the Okanagan during the same timeframe.
However, should the clouds somehow part, British Columbians are urged to take in this rare experience.
One website report says, via orbital calculations, Comet Leonard spent the last 35,000 years travelling towards the sun.
Wesley Fraser, a senior research officer with the National Research Council of Canada at the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre in Victoria, says Leonard is a long-period comet.
Your feeling that? It might be that my forward scattering is starting to kick in!
If the predictions are correct, comet leonard might brighten up to mag 4 in the next few days! Keep your eyes peeled, and feel free to ask any questions while you still can. pic.twitter.com/ybb4EmdJS1
Comets like Leonard are called long-period comets because, Fraser explains, their orbital periods go around the sun once every tens to hundreds of thousands of years.
“In that sense, Comet Leonard is kind of a standard comet, in that it’s another long-period comet,” Fraser told Global News. “But it happens to be that it gets relatively close to the Earth for good viewing by us, and gets extremely close to Venus not too long thereafter.
“And so it’s drawn a bit of excitement from the astronomy community because it’s an opportunity to observe a newly falling-in body that is going to get pretty close and pretty bright.”
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“Most comets we see are actually falling in towards us, from some other distant location,” Fraser said.
“Some fall from the Kuiper Belt inwards, but most of them fall from the Oort Cloud. We know the presence of the Oort Cloud because of these comets, and we see a bunch of them fall in from basically all different directions at a range of distances.”
Comet Leonard was discovered in January 2021 by Greg Leonard, a senior research specialist at the University of Arizona.
It’s thought the comet’s nearest approach to Earth will be 34 million kilometres away, which will likely require binoculars if skies are clear enough.
But when it passes by Venus, reports have it passing at a distance of 4.2 million km.
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“It’s not going to be like Comet Hale-Bopp (in 1997), which was a spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Fraser. “And Comet Neowise (in 2020), when those of us on the West Coast, even with the clouds in summer, could see it.”
“(Leonard) is going to be closer to that, though not quite as spectacular. It is getting pretty bright.”
Fraser said, in fact, if you have clear skies and look towards the southwest just after sunset, you should be able to see it.
However, he noted it won’t be big, and that it will look like a tiny star.
“So it’ll be very hard to identify unless you know exactly what you’re looking for,” said Fraser. “But if you have binoculars, you should be able to see a little bit of a tail sticking off it.”
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Fraser noted that if you choose to visually hunt the comet, a dark spot is best.
“It is a comet that is bright enough that I do think it’s worth getting out the binoculars and trying to find,” said Fraser.
To spot it, Fraser said look directly south of Venus, just after sunset. He also said the comet will be near a bright star named Arcturus.
Locate those two spots, said Fraser, look down, then scan the horizon to spot the comet.
“Unfortunately, it’s here only for another couple of nights, before it moves to the southern hemisphere, where we’ll no longer be able to see it,” said Fraser.
“But it’s still a rare thing and they’re really spectacular to see. If you’ve never seen a comet before, go find a pair of binoculars and get out and look at the skies this weekend, because another one of these might not come around for another 15 years, which is pretty typical.”
“And they’re amazing to see. The first time you see one, it blows your mind. So I really recommend that people go take advantage of one of these natural phenomenons.”
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
