Source: Al Arabiya
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Thursday 9 March 2023 15:28:07
NASA: Asteroid Could Strike Earth on Valentine's Day 2046
An asteroid could potentially strike Earth on February 14, 2046, NASA said in a tweet on Tuesday.
The newly discovered asteroid, known as 2023 DW, has caught the attention of NASA’s Asteroid Watch team who have been tracking it to monitor its movements.
We've been tracking a new asteroid named 2023 DW that has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2046. Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/SaLC0AUSdP
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 7, 2023
As the asteroid is a new discovery, it will take several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and predict its orbit accurately years into the future.
The space agency said it will continue to monitor 2023 DW and update its predictions as more data becomes available.
The asteroid has an average diameter of 49m and is currently 0.12 astronomical units (AU) or approximately 11 billion miles away from Earth.
One astronomical unit is approximately the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.
However, NASA has confirmed that even if the asteroid does hit the Earth, it is unlikely to cause a global catastrophe.
To put things into perspective, a similarly-sized asteroid of about 50-60 meters in diameter exploded over Eastern Siberia in 1908. It caused a 12-megaton explosion that flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 km2 (830 square miles). The impact of the asteroid left no significant human casualties.
In contrast, the asteroid that caused the extinction of dinosaurs was believed to have been between 10 and 15 kilometers wide.
To prepare for any potential impact, NASA crashed its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft into the Dimorphos asteroid in September 2022. The mission aimed to test a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs) and assess how much a spacecraft impact deflects an asteroid through its transfer of momentum when hitting the asteroid head-on.
A live simulation of asteroid 2023 DW’s predicted path is streaming on NASA’s Eyes On Asteroids website for those interested in tracking its movements.
The space agency will continue to monitor the asteroid closely and update its predictions as more information becomes available.