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Rigel (on left)

Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion, approximately 860 light-years (260 pc) from Earth. It is the brightest and most massive component of a star system of at least four stars that appear as a single blue-white point of light to the naked eye. A star of spectral type B8Ia, Rigel is calculated to be anywhere from 61,500 to 363,000 times as luminous as the Sun, and 18 to 24 times as massive. Its radius is over 70 times that of the Sun, and its surface temperature is 12,100 K. Rigel varies slightly in brightness, its apparent magnitude ranging from 0.05 to 0.18. It is classified as an Alpha Cygni variable. It is generally the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and is usually the brightest star in Orion, though it is occasionally outshone by Betelgeuse. With an estimated age of 7 to 9 million years, Rigel has exhausted its core hydrogen fuel, expanded and cooled to become a supergiant. It will end its life as a type II supernova. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Beulah Ream Allen receiving the Medal of Freedom

... that American volunteer civilian physician Beulah Ream Allen (pictured, right) survived three Japanese internment camps in the Philippines during World War II?
... that the 74 artists who created the 95 original prints for the subscription portfolio L'Estampe originale included Toulouse-Lautrec, Gaugin, Renoir, Rodin, Pissarro, Whistler, Redon, and Bonnard?
... that Tom Hayden used his Campaign for Economic Democracy to help pass a rent-control measure in Santa Monica, California?
... that when Turkish singer Hamiyet Yüceses lamentingly sang an Ottoman classical song after her husband's death in a submarine accident, many people thought she had composed the song herself?
... that the sketch-comedy series The Fuccons stars a cast consisting solely of mannequins?
... that with no prior work experience, William B. Jordan turned the Meadows Museum's collection into the most prominent collection of Spanish art outside Spain?
... that the chiton Tonicella marmorea was first described from Greenland by the Danish naturalist Otto Fabricius, who spent five years as a missionary in the country?
... that the 1831 Londonderry City by-election was the second of three in that constituency within nine months, all of which were won by Robert Ferguson?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic: Disease; Virus; By location; Impact; Portal

Cyclone Ianos

Azerbaijani and Armenian armed forces clash in Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting the introduction of martial law in both countries and mobilization in Armenia.
Bah Ndaw takes office as Mali's interim president following a coup d'état the previous month.
Cyclone Ianos (satellite image shown) stalls over Greece, killing four people and flooding several cities.
At the Primetime Emmy Awards, Schitt's Creek wins in seven comedy categories and Succession wins in four drama categories.

On this day

September 28: Meskel in Ethiopia and Eritrea (2020)

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo

1542 – Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (pictured), the first European to travel along the coast of California, landed at what is now the city of San Diego.
1912 – Over 470,000 people from Ulster, Ireland, signed the Ulster Covenant in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill.
1963 – Whaam!, now considered one of Roy Lichtenstein's most important works, debuted at an exhibition held at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York City.
2014 – Hong Kong protests: Unhappy with the direction of electoral reform, Occupy Central with Love and Peace began a civil disobedience campaign to fight for equal suffrage.

Isis Pogson (b. 1852)
Charles Duryea (d. 1938)
George Odlum (d. 2003)

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John Tong Hon

The Bishop of Hong Kong is the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, and responsible for looking after its spiritual and administrative needs. The Diocese of Hong Kong is nominally part of the ecclesiastical province of Canton and thus is a suffragan of that archdiocese. However, it has been exempt in practice since 1951, when the People's Republic of China severed diplomatic relations with the Holy See. As a crown colony of the United Kingdom at the time, Hong Kong was unaffected by this and relations with the Vatican continued unabated. Consequently, the bishop of Hong Kong answers "directly to the Holy See". The current bishop is John Tong Hon (pictured), who served as the diocese's thirteenth ordinary from 2009 until 2017, and is presently its apostolic administrator following the death of his successor, Michael Yeung, in 2019. Eight men have been Bishop of Hong Kong; another six were heads of its antecedent jurisdictions. Three bishops – John Baptist Wu, Joseph Zen, and John Tong Hon – were elevated to the College of Cardinals. (Full list...)

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Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. This $500 silver certificate, part of the series of 1878, depicts Charles Sumner, an American lawyer, politician and United States senator from Massachusetts. The series is known for the ornate engraving on the reverse of the notes. This banknote is part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

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Banknote design credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; photographed by Andrew Shiva

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