Science
Fusion energy device sets a record by running for 20 seconds – Yahoo Movies Canada
The Canadian Press
Ontario reports 2,005 cases of COVID-19, 13th day of more than 2,000 diagnoses
TORONTO — Ontario reported 2,005 cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, marking the 13th straight day the province has seen upwards of 2,000 new diagnoses. The province also announced another 18 deaths linked to the virus. It says 823 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Sunday, including 285 people in intensive care and 194 on ventilators.Also Sunday, the province announced it had detected its third case of a contagious new strain of the virus that causes COVID-19.Public Health Ontario says the patient is from the Ottawa area, and recently returned from the U.K., where the coronavirus variant was first discovered. The province logged its first two known cases of the variant on Saturday, in a couple from Durham Region who were in contact with someone who had travelled the U.K. Public Health Ontario said it is screening large volumes of positive COVID samples to investigate how prevalent the U.K. variant is in the province. But health officials are not planning to report the different strains out separately in provincial summary reports.The province’s health officials said that while Canada’s diagnostic tests pick up the U.K. variant, the diagnostic tests do not distinguish which strain is which. That requires additional testing, which Public Health Ontario is doing with labs across the province at Sunnybrook, University Health Network, OICR and McMaster.The Public Health Agency of Canada said early data suggests these new variants may be more transmissible, but ongoing research so far indicates the variant does not impact vaccine effectiveness.Officials are urging people to stay home as much as possible as part of a provincewide lockdown that began Saturday.The restrictions are in effect in southern Ontario until Jan. 23, and until Jan. 9 in northern Ontario. But even so, Chatham-Kent police announced Sunday that a local church member is due in court next month after more than 100 maskless people gathered inside Old Colony Mennonite Church in Wheatley, Ont. on Saturday.Police responded to a report about the church gathering at 11 a.m. on Saturday and said everyone complied with police requests to end the service and leave the property.The provincewide restrictions allow for religious services of up to 10 masked people indoors.The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has also been adjusted over the holiday weekend, with five hospitals offering shots on Sunday, 10 vaccination clinics opening on Monday, and all vaccine sites reopening on Tuesday.The province says about 11,241 vaccine doses have been administered in the first phase of the Pfizer-BioNTech program, which is limited to on health-care workers and care providers at long-term care homes.Meanwhile, North York General Health said late Saturday that it’s “working intensively” to control a serious outbreak at Tendercare Living Centre in east-end Toronto, where 116 residents and 77 staff have the virus.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2020.
The Canadian Press
Science
Federal government announces creation of National Space Council – CBC News
Canada’s space sector received a boost from the federal government in its budget, both in terms of money and vision.
The 2024 budget included a proposal for $8.6 million in 2024-25 to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP), which invests in technologies for humanity’s return to the moon and beyond.
In addition to the funding, the federal government also announced the creation of a National Space Council, which will be “a new whole-of-government approach to space exploration, technology development, and research.”
For Space Canada, an organization comprised of roughly 80 space sector companies including some of Canada’s largest, such as Magellan Aerospace, Maritime Launch and MDA, it was a welcome announcement.
“We’ve been advocating for it since the inception of our organization, and we were really very happy, and we applaud the federal government’s commitment announced in the budget,” said Brian Gallant, CEO of Space Canada.
Gallant said that investment in space is an investment in Canada.
“Two-thirds of space sector jobs are STEM jobs. These are good paying solid jobs for Canadians. And on top of that, we have approximately $2.8 billion that is injected into the Canadian economy because of the space sector,” he said.
The U.S. formed its National Space Council in 1989, but it was disbanded in 1992 and reestablished in 2017.
In the 2023 budget, the government announced proposed spending of $1.2 billion over 13 years, that was to begin in 2024-25, to the CSA’s contribution of a lunar utility vehicle that would assist astronauts on the moon. The as–yet–developed vehicle could help astronauts move cargo from landing sites to habitats, perform science investigations or support them during spacewalks on the surface of the moon.
It also proposed to invest $150 million over five years for the LEAP program.
MDA, the company behind Canadarm, was also pleased with the announcement.
“Canada has an enviable global competitive advantage in space and the creation of a National Space Council is critical to Canada maintaining that leadership position,” CEO Mike Greenley said in an email to CBC News.
“Space is now a rapidly growing, highly strategic and competitive domain, and there is a real and urgent need to recognize its importance to the lives of Canadians and to our economy and national security.”
The next project for MDA is Canadarm3, which will be part of Lunar Gateway, a international space station that will orbit the moon. It will serve as a sort of jumping-off point for astronauts heading to the moon and eventually beyond.
“The Lunar Gateway is a great opportunity for Canada and for MDA Space to not only provide the next generation of Canadarm robotics but to clearly plant our flag as a core national and industry participant in the Artemis era,” Greenley said.
Lunar Gateway is set to begin construction no earlier than 2025, according to NASA.
Science
Astronomers discover Milky Way's heaviest known black hole – Xinhua
JERUSALEM, April 16 (Xinhua) — Astronomers have found BH3 is by far the heaviest known stellar black hole in the Milky Way galaxy, 33 times the mass of the Sun.
An international research team found the black hole when looking into the latest data group recorded in the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, Israel’s Tel Aviv University (TAU) said in a statement on Tuesday.
The black hole is located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, said TAU, whose researchers participated in the study of the newly discovered binary system.
In binary systems, a visible star can be found orbiting a massive but unseen companion, indicating the latter is a black hole.
Binaries have revealed around 50 suspected or confirmed stellar-mass black holes in the Milky Way, but scientists think there may be as many as 100 million in our galaxy alone, according to NASA.
Stellar-mass black holes are formed when a star runs out of its nuclear combustion fuel and collapses.
The massive black hole BH3 was detailed in the open-access journal Astronomy & Astrophysics for further study.
Science
'Almost hit my son' – Space junk crashes through Florida home – BBC.com
“It almost hit my son” – three years ago the International Space Station threw out refuse into space, expecting it to undergo “a natural re-entry”.
But a heavy piece of debris crashed through a home in Naples, Florida, narrowly missing the householder’s son.
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