Here’s a fun iDea: if yOu DO a headstand tonight and look towards the east, you can see Betelgeuse (colloquially pro-nounced Beetlejuice, like the 1988 Tim Burton comedy-horror classic), the left shoulder of the Orion constellation. The star glows red, is fairly bright and if its recent behaviour is anything to go by, it might explode tonight... or in half a million years.
Over the past few months, this red star has been reducing in brightness to the point that avid stargazers can now notice it dimming with the naked eye, like a candle sizzling at the end of its wick. A lot of stars die a dramatic death in the form of a supernova, some of the most powerful explosions in the universe, and Betelgeuse might be well on its way to giving us a good light show.
At a hefty 15-times the mass of our sun, the “Juice” is the James Dean of stars: its excessive use of its fuel gives it a very short lifespan no more than 10 million years. Our sun, Sol, which is halfway through its 10-billion-year lifespan, is far more frugal with its fuel spend.
Denne historien er fra February 2020-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra February 2020-utgaven av Noseweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.
