The Delta Aquarid meteor shower is happening through mid-August
Stargazers in the U.S. can sneak a peek of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower from now until mid-August. Considered a strong meteor shower, 15-20 meteors an hour can be observed during the shower’s peak times. The meteors are most visible in the hours before dawn, in a dark space away from light pollution. Viewers can look for meteors flying in eastern, northern and western directions. Few meteors will be heading southward.
If you miss the Delta Aquarid shower, it will be closely followed by August’s Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on the night of August 12-13. However, a nearly full moon is expected to make viewing the Perseid meteor shower difficult.
A hiker scares off mountain lion by blasting Metallica
A hiker in British Columbia was walking her dog on a trail in the forest when she noticed a mountain lion watching her. Though not initially alarmed, the hiker began to worry when the animal slowly approached her, crouched in a prowl-like stance. She yelled at the mountain lion to stop, and it did, but it continued to stare at her.
Seeking something to scare the lion away, the hiker flipped through the music on her phone and settled on Metallica’s “Don’t Tread on Me.” She turned the music on full blast and pointed it at the cougar, which bounded out of sight into a bush. The hiker says she wouldn’t have survived the incident without the band. “I’d love to contact [Metallica] someday and tell James Hetfield that he saved my life,” she told the Montreal Gazette.
A mass die-off of reindeer in Norway is blamed on climate change
Researchers in Norway have discovered more than 200 reindeer that died of starvation on the country’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The researchers say that there has never been a mass die off of reindeer this severe and that their deaths were caused by lack of food and climate change.
According to researchers, heavy rainfall on the island in December made it difficult for the reindeer to find food. The reindeer are adept at digging through snow to find food, but they could not dig through the ice that resulted from the rain. Reindeer are the largest herbivores in the Arctic and play an important role in the ecosystem.
