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NASA’s first asteroid samples streaking toward Earth after release from spacecraft

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

A space capsule carrying NASA’s first asteroid samples streaked toward a touchdown in the Utah desert Sunday to cap a seven-year journey.Flying by Earth, the Osiris-Rex spacecraft released the capsule from 63,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) out. The capsule was expected to parachute down four hours later onto the military’s Utah Test and Training Range.Scientists anticipated getting at least a cup of rubble from the carbon-rich asteroid known as Bennu. About a teaspoon was returned by Japan, the only other country to bring back asteroid samples.The pristine samples are believed to be the leftover building blocks from the dawn of our solar system and will help scientists better understand how Earth and life formed.Osiris-Rex rocketed away on the $1 billion mission in 2016. It reached Bennu two years later and, using a long stick vacuum, grabbed dust and pebbles from the small roundish space rock in 2020. By the time it returned Sunday, the spacecraft had traveled 4 billion miles (6.2 ...

Two dead in late night drive-by shooting in Rexdale

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

Toronto police say two people are dead after a late night drive-by shooting in Rexdale. Police say they were called to the area of Kipling Aveune and Mount Olive Drive around 11:45 p.m. Saturday night for reports someone had been shot. Investigators say a group of individuals drove up to another group in the area and gunshots were exchanged. One person, believed to be a man in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say the vehicle involved in the shooting was found nearby in Jamestown and one person from that group was taken to hospital, where they were pronounced dead.It’s not known if any other injuries were sustained in the shootout but Toronto paramedics previously told CityNews a woman was taken from the scene on Mount Olive Drive to hospital with minor injuries.

A year after Fiona, a traumatized Newfoundland town backs away from the sea

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — One year after a wave driven by post-tropical storm Fiona slammed into the back of her house and twisted it like a corkscrew, Lori Dicks now lives up on a hill, far from the water.She still has a view of the ocean, but she’s far enough away that there’s no chance it will swell up and swallow her entire life again like it did on the morning of Sept. 24, 2022, in Port aux Basques, N.L.“I still think about it all the time. So much change has happened for us, for everyone. Even the whole town I find is affected, even the landscape has changed,” she said in a recent interview from her new home across the province in Burin Bay Arm, N.L. “On our side of the street where all our homes were, it’s completely gone. All of our homes are torn down now.”Fiona destroyed about 100 homes that morning in southwestern Newfoundland, and a 73-year-old woman died when she was swept out to sea. Houses that had belonged to families for gene...

Wildfires: Town of Clova busy as ever after Quebec premier said it was burning down

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

MONTREAL — Dominic Vincent’s inn and restaurant in Clova, Que., is fully booked these days, only months after Premier François Legault announced the town of 36 residents would burn to the ground during the unprecedented summer wildfire season. Far from gone, the hamlet within the city of La Tuque, around 325 kilometres northwest of Montreal, is bustling — filled with out-of-town forestry workers helping to harvest some of the burned wood as quickly as possible before it deteriorates from dryness and insects. “There’s three years’ worth of harvesting, and a year to do it, so it’s a bit of a race,” Vincent said in a phone interview. “We have a lot of forestry workers here that we normally wouldn’t have at this time of the season,” he said, adding that rental properties are “full, full, full.”In early June, however, it was another story. As more than 150 forest fires raged across the province, most of the community’s residents had to evacuate due to the approaching flames.The intensity...

Canada to get rare asteroid sample after OSIRIS-REx drops cargo to Earth on Sunday

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

MONTREAL — Seven years after it blasted into space to snag a sample of an asteroid, a spacecraft is set to deliver its rare cargo on Sunday — and Canada is getting a piece of the interstellar bounty.The NASA-led mission launched OSIRIS-REx into space in 2016 to collect from the surface of an asteroid material that scientists hope will offer them insight into the formation of the solar system. The spacecraft began orbiting the asteroid — called Bennu — in 2018 and grabbed a sample in 2020. It started its return trip to Earth in 2021, and a capsule with the rocks and space dust is expected to land in the Utah desert on Sunday, before the spacecraft continues on a mission to another asteroid.Canada contributed a laser altimeter to the mission — a device that measures altitude and distance — that has allowed Bennu to become the “most precisely surveyed body in our solar system,” says Cameron Dickinson, a staff engineer at Canadian space company MDA Ltd., which designed the C...

Man in serious condition after drive-by shooting in West Town

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

CHICAGO — A man is in serious condition after a drive-by shooting in Chicago's West Town neighborhood overnight, according to police.The shooting happened around 2 a.m. in the 900 block of North Fairfield Avenue. 15-year-old critical after driver crashes stolen Kia into John Deere tractor in Joliet According to information from the Chicago Police Department, the man was walking on the sidewalk when someone in a car fired shots.The man had gunshot wounds to the abdomen and was taken to Stroger Hospital.No one has been arrested yet in connection with the shooting and Area Three detectives are still investigating.Anyone with information should call police.

1 dead in southeastern Travis County following pedestrian crash

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — One person died Saturday evening after a vehicle struck a pedestrian in southeastern Travis County, according to Austin-Travis County EMS.Officials responded to the incident at 10:48 p.m. near the 4500-6000 block of South State Highway 45.ATCEMS medics at the scene obtained a “deceased on scene pronouncement” for an adult.EMS officials were no longer at the scene as of 10:51 p.m.

Austin-Travis County EMS swears in 30 new cadets

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin-Travis County EMS celebrated the graduation of 30 new cadets Friday. ATCEMS said the class includes 30 cadets. Of those, 22 are medic-field cadets and eight are lateral clinical specialists. "Academy graduation is a huge milestone for our Cadets. It marks the completion of the first major step as they embark on their careers caring for our community," ATCEMS Assistant Chief Heather Phillips said in a release.In 2022, ATECMS swore in 15 field cadets and one communications cadet.

Fatal shooting in west St. Louis metro area

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

ST. LOUIS COUNTY -- A man is dead after a shooting in the Fountain Park neighborhood. It happened just after 11:30 p.m. last night on Kings Highway off Kensington, which is approximately a mile and a half north of the Central West End. Police report that the victim was shot in the head and arm, resulting in his death at the scene. Homicide detectives with the Saint Louis Metropolitan Police are currently investigating. If you have any information, as always, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-371-TIPS. 

Avalanche Journal: Jonathan Drouin, Valeri Nichushkin and others with the most to prove during training camp

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:11:01 GMT

For most of the top Stanley Cup contenders, there could be a sense right now of wanting to fast forward to the start of the regular season, or even later in the NHL calendar.Just get to the games that matter. Every one between now and then is just an opportunity for injury.That sentiment might feel true for some of the most established players on the Avalanche, but there are plenty who need this training camp on some level. It could be to fight for a roster spot, compete for a role in the lineup, move up in the queue for an in-season call-up or simply to give the organization a little less collective stress when the regular season commences Oct. 11 in Los Angeles.If everyone was healthy, there might only be one spot in the lineup and two to four places on the opening-night roster up for grabs, depending on how many extras the club can keep within the constraints of the salary cap. Everyone is not healthy, however, and more likely than not won’t be at various points in the season. Co...