Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack

Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack
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Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack

Surfer Saved After Friend Punches Shark in Australian Attack

A woman has survived a great white shark attack on Australia´s east coast after her surfing companion repeatedly punched it until it let her go.

Paramedics were called to Shelly Beach at Port Macquarie, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Sydney, on Saturday morning after the 35-year-old woman was attacked while surfing.

She was taken to a local hospital with serious leg injuries, but has since been flown to a nearby bigger hospital where she will undergo surgery.

New South Wales state police said the woman and a man were surfing when she was bitten on the right calf and the back of her thigh. Her companion then punched the estimated 3-meter (10-foot) shark until it let her go.

"We´ve had some really serious and tragic shark encounters over the past couple of months along the coastline, so to paddle out of your own safety zone, into an area where you know there is a large shark, I think is amazing ... a tremendous act of bravery," state Surf Life Saving chief executive Steven Pearce said.

Beaches in Port Macquarie have been closed for 24 hours as authorities attempt to track the shark.

There have been five fatal shark attacks in Australian waters in 2020, higher than the country´s average of three deadly attacks a year.



New Observations Show Asteroid Resembling a Spinning Hockey Puck

This composite image of asteroid 2024 YR4 was captured with the Gemini South telescope in Chile. (International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani via AP)
This composite image of asteroid 2024 YR4 was captured with the Gemini South telescope in Chile. (International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani via AP)
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New Observations Show Asteroid Resembling a Spinning Hockey Puck

This composite image of asteroid 2024 YR4 was captured with the Gemini South telescope in Chile. (International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani via AP)
This composite image of asteroid 2024 YR4 was captured with the Gemini South telescope in Chile. (International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani via AP)

The asteroid that once had a small chance of striking Earth and now might slam into the moon resembles a spinning hockey puck, scientists said Tuesday.
A team of astronomers used the Gemini South Observatory in Chile to observe asteroid 2024 YR4 in multiple wavelengths as it zoomed away from Earth in February, barely 1 1/2 months after its discovery. They created a 3D image of it based on their findings, The Associated Press reported.
The nearly 200 foot (60-meter) asteroid looks more like a flat disk — or not-quite-round hockey puck — than a potato. It also has a rapid rotation rate of about once every 20 minutes.
“This find was rather unexpected since most asteroids are thought to be shaped like potatoes or toy tops rather than flat disks,” the research team lead, Bryce Bolin from Eureka Scientific said in a statement.
Scientists said it most likely originated in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and is rich in silicates.
At one point earlier this year, NASA and the European Space Agency put the odds of the asteroid striking Earth in 2032 at 3%. It's now down to virtually zero for the next century, but there's a 3.8% chance it could strike the moon instead. Even if that happens, NASA assures the moon's orbit will not be altered.
The asteroid —- which swings our way every four years — will be too far away by next week for ground telescopes to see. The Webb Space Telescope will take another look later this month or next.
Scientists consider all this good practice for when a potentially killer asteroid heads our way.