WORLD’S OLDEST PUPIL ’GRANNY PRISCILLA’ DIES IN KENYA AGED 99
BLAZING HOURGLASS AROUND NEWLY FORMING STAR
The James Webb Space Telescope unveiled its latest image of celestial majesty on Wednesday, an ethereal hourglass of orange and blue dust being shot out from a newly forming star at its centre.
The colourful clouds are only visible in infrared light, so had never been seen before being captured by Webb’s Near-infrared Camera (NIRCAM), Nasa and the European Space Agency said in a statement.
The very young star, known as protostar L1527, is hidden in darkness by the edge of a rotating disk of gas at the neck of the hourglass. However light spills out from the top and bottom of the disk, lighting up the hourglassshaped clouds.
The clouds are created by material ejected from the star colliding with surrounding matter, the statement said. The dust is thinnest in the blue sections and thickest in the orange parts, it added. The protostar, which is just 100,000 years old and at the earliest stage of star formation, is not yet able to generate its own energy.
“Ultimately, this view of L1527 provides a window into what our Sun and solar system looked like in their infancy,” it added.
NAIROBI: The world’s oldest primary school student, Priscilla Sitieni, whose resolve to acquire an education in her 90s inspired a French film and won praise from Unesco, has died in Kenya aged 99, local media reported.
Her grandson, Sammy Chepsiror, told The Standard newspaper that Gogo Priscilla (Granny Priscilla), as she was fondly known, died at home on Wednesday after developing a chest complication.
“Gogo has been in good health and attending her classes until three days to her demise when she developed chest pains, which forced her out of school,” he told the newspaper on Thursday. “We are thankful for the 100 years of her life. She made all of us proud,” he added.
She was 94 when she persuaded the headmaster of the local school in her village in Kenya’s Rift Valley to admit her, according to Unesco, which hailed her as “a role model for her community and beyond”.
In an interview with the UN agency last year, she said her aim was to motivate young mothers in Kenya to return to school after having children, instead of dropping out due to shame or fear of social stigma.
“I wanted to show an example not only to them but to other girls around the world who are not in school,” she said.
Her efforts were documented in a French film titled Gogo.