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‘If I Die, I Die,’ Say Young People Capitalizing on Cheap Flights; 7-Year-Old Girl from USA Tests Positive for Coronavirus; and New Type of Teardrop-shaped Star Discovered by Amateur Astronomers.
While most folks are canceling flights during the coronavirus scare, others, like Ashley Henkel, 20, are grabbing their cellphones and booking trips. She lives in California, but plans to visit New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver this summer.
“I feel like if the coronavirus would get even more serious and like wipe out a large amount of people, I might as well be somewhere having fun,” said Henkel to NBC News in a message.
She said she’d thought about taking those trips before, but they were too expensive. Now that demand is down, she decided there was “no fun in staying at home and being all worried.”
Jack Mulligan, 29, from Manchester, England also joined in, saying the coronavirus wasn’t going to stop him from traveling.
“I think the coronavirus is clearly something people need to be wary of, but I don’t plan on putting my life on hold because something is going around,” Mulligan said to NBC News.
27-year-old Capri Nicole shares the sentiment, saying, “There’s sicknesses everywhere. I could get a disease today unrelated from the virus. If I die, I die. I miss my family.”
Related: White House Says Trump Wasn’t Tested for Coronavirus After Talking to Patients
A 7-year-old girl in the Bronx tested positive for the virus, making her the youngest person in the United States to do so. The number of cases in New York City continues to rise.
The girl showed minimal symptoms and had no preexisting conditions when she tested positive for COVID-19, said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. So far, her parents and two sisters have tested negative for the virus.
New York has been hit hard by the coronavirus. There were 98 confirmed cases in Westchester as of Monday. The girl in question is a student at Westchester Torah Academy, where three children – a girl and two boys – tested positive for the coronavirus. The school was closed last week as a precaution.
The children who tested positive had been in contact with a Manhattan attorney linked to the outbreak in the Westchester area.
Related: 7-Year-Old Boy Has 526 Teeth Removed After Saying Mouth Hurt
A new teardrop-shaped star that pulsates on only one side has been discovered in the Milky Way. It’s about 1500 light-years from earth. Scientists expect to find similar systems as new technology enables them to listen to the “beating hearts” of stars.
This particular star is the first of its kind to be discovered.
“What first caught my attention was the fact it was a chemically peculiar star,” said Dr. Simon Murphy from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney.
“Stars like this are usually fairly rich with metals—but this is metal-poor, making it a rare type of hot star.”
Professor Kurtz, the inaugural Hunstead Distinguished Visitor at the University of Sydney said, “I’ve been looking for a star like this for nearly 40 years and now we have finally found one.”
“We’ve known theoretically that stars like this should exist since the 1980s,” he continued. And the cause of the star having a teardrop shape? It has a red dwarf companion that distorts the oscillations of the star with its gravitational pull.
Related: Is There Evidence That the Solar System Is Heating Up?
