One of the peak days to observe the Lyrid meteor shower this year will fall on Earth Day, an international celebration of our pale blue dot that raises awareness for environmental protection.
And perhaps, there is no better way to celebrate our life-giving planet than to be reminded of the terrifying beauty of outer space — and just how small we are in comparison.
On the evening of April 22 into the morning of April 23, the Lyrid meteor shower will be at its most visible. If you’re interested in a late-night family outing or fashion yourself an amateur astronomer, then break out the lawn chairs and pack up the car for some spectacular stargazing.
The Lyrids are an annual meteor shower that take place in April.
According to NASA, the light show we see as shooting stars is actually shards of space dust that get ejected off comets as they pass around the sun. The Lyrid meteor shower is a result of the debris trail left by the comet Thatcher.
When the Earth passes through Thatcher’s dust trail, the debris disintegrates as it collides with our planet’s atmosphere, creating fiery and colourful shooting stars.
The Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers in recorded history. The first documented sighting of the astronomical event was in 687 CE by Chinese observers. That means that humans have been enjoying the Lyrid meteor shower for at least 2,700 years.
The Thatcher comet was first discovered and last spotted from Earth in 1861. Its orbital period around the sun is about 415 years so it won’t be seen again until 2276. Until then, we’ll just have to enjoy its beautiful dust trail in the form of the Lyrids.
The radiant point for the Lyrids originates in the constellation Lyra, giving the meteor shower its name. This means that the Lyrids meteors appear to originate from within the Lyra constellation (just as the Perseid meteor shower in August appears to come from the Pegasus constellation), specifically close to the star Vega.
The timespan between April 21 and April 23 will be the best time to watch the Lyrid meteor shower, with its predicted peak occurring at 12 a.m. EDT on the morning of April 22.
The moon is currently in a gibbous phase which means it is still quite large and bright in the sky, making stargazing more difficult. Thankfully, the moon is waning, which means it will get smaller and smaller each night.
As a result, the best conditions for star-gazing may be the evening of April 22 into the next morning or before the moonrise begins on either night.
If you want to watch the Lyrids by moonlight, it’s best to sit in the shadow of a tree or building. More meteors will be visible if you are out of the direct path of moonlight.
Under ideal conditions, with no moonlight, observers can see up to 10 to 15 shooting stars per hour. But the Lyrids are also prone to unpredictable surges that can result in up to 100 visible meteors per hour.
Canadians are well suited to view the Lyrids as they are most visible in the Northern Hemisphere.
According to EarthSky, a specialty publication focusing on astronomy, the best way to pinpoint where the meteors will start falling is to look for the star Vega: the Lyrid’s radiant point.
Vega begins to rise above the horizon at around 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. local time in the Northern Hemisphere. Look in the northeast sky to spot it (you can use star charts or any number of night sky apps to help you pinpoint Vega.)
At around midnight, Vega will have risen enough that the Lyrids will appear to streak across the northeast sky. Just before dawn, Vega will be high overhead and shooting stars will look like they’re raining down from the top of the sky.
Stargazers who look directly at the Lyrid’s radiant point near Vega will notice shorter shooting stars. It’s best to look in the northeast direction but not directly at Vega to see longer streaks in the sky.
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Some best practices for general stargazing include checking the weather and cloud cover in your area diligently. Clear skies are important for observing meteor showers so check conditions in your area before embarking on a, potentially, long drive to get away from light pollution.
This brings us to our second point – be prepared to drive long distances to get away from urban areas or clusters of bright lights. Too much light pollution will stymie even a pro’s attempt at observing a meteor shower as the glowing space dust is too dim to compete with the bright lights of urban Canada.
You can use the DarkSiteFinder light pollution map to help find a spot where light pollution won’t interfere with stargazing.
For most regions in Canada, driving outside the limits of your city or town will be enough to escape the majority of light pollution you might see. However, in more developed areas of southern and central Ontario, and along the St. Lawrence River, residents might have a harder time finding dark sites to stargaze.
For Ontario and Quebec urbanites, your best bet is to try a provincial park in order to escape the dome of light pollution.
Our last tip is to be patient.
It’s ideal to wait about 30 minutes in a dark viewing spot to allow your night vision to develop, making it easier to spot shooting stars. During that time, avoid looking at bright lights, as doing so will reverse the progress you’ve made to develop better night vision.
If you need to use your phone, try shifting it to night mode to filter out blue light and reduce the overall brightness.
Bring a lawn chair or picnic blanket so you can watch the night sky comfortably and be sure to wear multiple layers if you’re in a colder part of the country.
Once you’ve followed all our tips, all that’s left to do is sit back or lie down, and enjoy the show.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
It’s hard to know exactly why the relatives of today’s sockeye went extinct
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Published Apr 24, 2024 • Last updated 17 hours ago • 3 minute read
The artwork and publicity materials showcasing a giant salmon that lived five million years ago were ready to go to promote a new exhibit, when the discovery of two fossilized skulls immediately changed what researchers knew about the fish.
Initial fossil discoveries of the 2.7-metre-long salmon in Oregon in the 1970s were incomplete and had led researchers to mistakenly suggest the fish had fang-like teeth.
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It was dubbed the “sabre-toothed salmon” and became a kind of mascot for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon, says researcher Edward Davis.
But then came discovery of two skulls in 2014.
Davis, a member of the team that found the skulls, says it wasn’t until they got back to the lab that he realized the significance of the discovery that has led to the renaming of the fish in a new, peer-reviewed study.
“There were these two skulls staring at me with sideways teeth,” says Davis, an associate professor in the department of earth sciences at the university.
In that position, the tusk-like teeth could not have been used for biting, he says.
“That was definitely a surprising moment,” says Davis, who serves as director of the Condon Fossil Collection at the university’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
“I realized that all of the artwork and all of the publicity materials and bumper stickers and buttons and T-shirts we had just made two months prior, for the new exhibit, were all out of date,” he says with a laugh.
Davis is co-author of the new study in the journal PLOS One, which renames the giant fish the “spike-toothed salmon.”
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It says the salmon used the tusk-like spikes for building nests to spawn, and as defence mechanisms against predators and other salmon.
The salmon lived about five million years ago at a time when Earth was transitioning from warmer to relatively cooler conditions, Davis says.
It’s hard to know exactly why the relatives of today’s sockeye went extinct, but Davis says the cooler conditions would have affected the productivity of the Pacific Ocean and the amount of rain feeding rivers that served as their spawning areas.
Another co-author, Brian Sidlauskas, says a fish the size of the spike-toothed salmon must have been targeted by predators such as killer whales or sharks.
“I like to think … it’s almost like a sledgehammer, these salmon swinging their head back and forth in order to fend off things that might want to feast on them,” he says.
Sidlauskas says analysis by the lead author of the paper, Kerin Claeson, found both male and female salmon had the “multi-functional” spike-tooth feature.
“That’s part of our reason for hypothesizing that this tooth is multi-functional … It could easily be for digging out nests,” he says.
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“Think about how big the (nest) would have to be for an animal of this size, and then carving it out in what’s probably pretty shallow water; and so having an extra digging tool attached to your head could be really useful.”
Sidlauskas says the giant salmon help researchers understand the boundaries of what’s possible with the evolution of salmon, but they also capture the human imagination and a sense of wonder about what’s possible on Earth.
“I think it helps us value a little more what we do still have, or I hope that it does. That animal is no longer with us, but it is a product of the same biosphere that sustains us.”
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Arachnophobes need not fear: A new European Space Agency (ESA) image of Martian “spiders” actually shows seasonal eruptions of carbon dioxide gas on the Red Planet.
The dark, spindly formations were spotted in a formation known as Inca City in Mars‘ southern polar region. Images taken by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter show dark clusters of dots that appear to have teeny little legs, not unlike baby spiderlings huddling together.
The formations are actually channels of gas measuring 0.03 to 0.6 miles (45 meters to 1 kilometer) across. They originate when the weather starts to warm in the southern hemisphere during Martian spring, melting layers of carbon dioxide ice. The warmth causes the lowest layers of ice to turn to gas, or sublimate.
As the gas expands and rises, it explodes out of the overlying ice layers, carrying with it dark dust from the solid surface. This dust geysers out of the ice before showering down onto the top layer, creating the cracked, spidery pattern seen here. In some places, the geysers burst through ice up to 3.3 feet (1 m) thick, according to ESA.
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Inca City is also known as Angustus Labyrinthus. It’s named for its linear, ruin-like ridgelines, which were once thought to be petrified sand dunes or perhaps remnants of ancient Martian glaciers, which could have left high walls of sediment behind as they retreated.
In 2002, however, the Mars Orbiter revealed that Inca City is part of a circular feature approximately 53 miles (86 km) wide. This feature may be an old impact crater — suggesting that the geometric ridges may be magma intrusions that rose through the cracked, heated crust of Mars after it was hit by a renegade space rock. The crater would have then filled with sediment, which has since eroded, partially revealing the magma formations reminiscent of ancient ruins.
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The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of the glowing gas ejected from a dying star, which in this case happens to resemble a “cosmic dumbbell.”
The portrait may also include evidence that the star gobbled up another star, in a form of stellar cannibalism, before it collapsed.
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