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From today's featured article

Sirius A with Sirius B, a white dwarf, indicated by the arrow

A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter, supported against its own gravity only by electron degeneracy pressure. A white dwarf is very dense: in an Earth sized volume, it contains a mass comparable to the Sun. What light it radiates is from its residual heat. White dwarfs are thought to be the final evolutionary state of stars whose mass is insufficient for them to become a neutron star or black hole. This includes more than 97% of the stars in the Milky Way. After the hydrogen-fusing period of such a main-sequence star ends, it will expand to a red giant and shed its outer layers, leaving behind a core which is the white dwarf. This, very hot when it forms, cools as it radiates its energy until its material begins to crystallize into a cold black dwarf. The oldest known white dwarfs still radiate at temperatures of a few thousand kelvins, which establishes an observational limit on the maximum possible age of the universe. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

A Royal 10 typewriter

... that a Royal 10 (pictured) used in the music video for "Fortnight" caused an interest in typewriters among Swifties?
... that the Brazilian government advocated the use of COVID kits, which contained a drug used to treat head lice?
... that Brave Bunnies was among the children's series streamed ad-free on Sunflower TV for Ukrainian refugees?
... that it took more than two years after the Romans invaded Africa in 204 BC for them to completely defeat the Carthaginians?
... that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that "half of the residents of Mount Desert Island, Maine, are convinced they are millionaires since the body of Karl N. Mellon" was discovered?
... that AiScReam's recent debut song "Ai Scream!" went viral on social media?
... that Laura LeRoy Travis was the first woman at the University of Delaware to coach a men's sports team?
... that the screenplay for Smashing Frank was developed from an assignment in a filmmaking course?
... that the iconic 1937 photograph At the Time of the Louisville Flood identifiably depicts neither Louisville nor the flood?

In the news

Vera Rubin Observatory

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (pictured) in Chile releases the first light images from its new 8.4-metre (28 ft) telescope.
In basketball, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeat the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA Finals.
The United States conducts military strikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran.
In rugby union, the Crusaders defeat the Chiefs to win the Super Rugby Pacific final.
In ice hockey, the Florida Panthers defeat the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup.

On this day

June 24: Jaanipäev in Estonia

Julia Gillard

1374 – An outbreak of dancing mania, in which crowds of people danced themselves to exhaustion, began in Aachen (in present-day Germany) before spreading to other parts of Europe.
1717 – The first Grand Lodge of Freemasonry, the Premier Grand Lodge of England, was founded in London.
1724 – On the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Bach led the first performance of Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7, the third cantata of his chorale cantata cycle.
1943 – Amid racial tensions, U.S. Army military police shot and killed a black serviceman after a confrontation at a pub in Bamber Bridge, England.
2010 – Julia Gillard (pictured) was sworn in as the first female prime minister of Australia after incumbent Kevin Rudd declined to contest a leadership spill in the Labor Party.

William Arnold (b. 1587)
John Lloyd Cruz (b. 1983)
Lisa (b. 1987)
Rodrigo (d. 2000)

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Today's featured picture

The springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in the dry areas of southern and southwestern Africa. A slender, long-legged bovid, it reaches 71 to 86 cm (28 to 34 in) at the shoulder and weighs between 27 and 42 kg (60 and 93 lb). Both sexes have a pair of long black horns that curve backwards, a white face, a dark stripe running from the eyes to the mouth, a light-brown coat with a reddish-brown stripe, and a white rump flap. Primarily browsing at dawn and dusk, it can live without drinking water for years, subsisting on succulent vegetation. Breeding peaks in the rainy season, when food is more abundant. A single calf is weaned at nearly six months of age and leaves its mother a few months later. Springbok herds in the Kalahari Desert and the semi-arid Karoo used to migrate in large numbers across the countryside. The springbok is the national animal of South Africa. This male springbok was photographed in Etosha National Park, Namibia.

Photograph credit: Yathin S Krishnappa

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