Paul Delaney, senior lecturer and director of the Division of Natural Science in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, spoke to CTV News July 31 about a potentially planet-killing asteroid that may collide with Earth in 2182 -- 172 years from now. Delaney says that while the impact would be equivalent to the asteroid believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs, there's no need to put Bruce Willis on standby. Scientists are keeping an eye on the asteroid and mapping its potential course. His interview is available on CTV’s Web site.

Delaney also spoke to CTV News Aug 2 about the 50-50 odds Canadians have for seeing the northern lights this week, provided the skies cooperate by staying clear:

The sun has entered a solar maximum, a stormy period in the sun's activity cycle that recently resulted in a coronal mass ejection -- a release of a large amount of charged particles that are hurtling towards the Earth at high speeds.

York University astronomer Paul Delaney said the result is that the incoming charged particles "are going to interact with the Earth's magnetic field, or magnetosphere."

"We've got a 50-50 chance that as those particles rain down into our atmosphere, they will trigger extensive aurora borealis -- the northern lights -- all across the northern hemisphere from about Toronto's latitude and further north," Delaney told CTV News Channel during an interview in Toronto on Tuesday morning.

Delaney's interview is also available on CTV's Website.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer