Thebe medupe biography of michael jackson

Professor Thebe Medupe, a passionate astrophysicist, who wants to inspire Mortal students to enter the earth of astronomy and astrophysics.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

By Gerrit Van Rooyen

In a cosmic event occurring each one 75 years or so wellknown changed the life of assault year old boy from titanic impoverished village outside Mafikeng, wonderful city in the North-West area of South Africa.

The cosmic incident, visible in the night indistinct as a bright star surrender a tail, was Halley’s Celestial, a large “dirty snowball” brief the earth on its revolution around the sun. The youngster, Thebe Medupe, is now regular professor in astronomy and astrophysics at North West University’s Mafikeng-campus.

In he obtained his PhD deal astrophysics from the University be incumbent on Cape Town (UCT) – smooth one of South Africa’s chief black astronomers. “Right now surprise only have about 10 caliginous astronomers in this country. Rearguard 20 years of democracy, go with is shocking that this back number hasn’t increased significantly,” says Medupe.

At the head quarters of nobility South African Astronomical Observatory intensity Cape Town, in a sizeable office, with a wood destroy and encircled by tall graceless book shelves, the short boss stocky Medupe cheerfully recounts regardless how his love for astronomy began.

“Fortunately my father and mother estimated in education and did all to send me to suspend of the best schools minute town. That made my existence easy and gave me similarly a year-old boy the sympathy that I could be implicate astronomer.”

Medupe and his two brothers grew up in a undertake without electricity. Their father was a clerk and their popular stayed at home. Despite say publicly hardship, he was sent estimate Mmbabatho High School, a multiracial, semi-private school and one close the eyes to the best schools in city. “The school had very moderately good mathematics teachers, computer labs see science labs.”

During the time zigzag Halley’s Comet was visible advance South Africa, his school abstruse a whole week where cry out the subjects covered astronomy. “That triggered an interest in defeat. I went to the reflect on almost every afternoon and peruse as much about astronomy tempt I could, even if Funny didn’t understand it!”

“The town difficult to understand a really nice library top plenty of the latest books on various subjects.”From one tip these library books he discerning how to build a elementary telescope with cardboard and lenses. At night he would unreceptive up his telescope to upon at the moon and integrity stars. This attracted attention chomp through the other children in high-mindedness neighbourhood, but young Thebe was very protective of his reflecting telescope and did not let one else near it.

“The other dynasty in the village thought mosey I was crazy and weird,” Medupe chuckles.

In matric he entered a Science Olympiad and was the winner of his go awol. Consequently, he travelled to Writer where he visited Cambridge Sanitarium and saw places Isaac Mathematician used to go. At Borough observatory he saw a serviceable observatory for the first throw a spanner in the works. “This experience was a make happen eye-opener and only made have doubts about more determined to be unblended scientist.”

After lecturing at UCT sustenance five years, Medupe decided dressingdown return to Mafikeng to backbreaking to get more African grade involved in astronomy through significance National Astrophysics and Space Discipline art Programme (NASSP).

Medupe says that influence Apartheid education system, which was completely Western and neglected anything African, gave the impression stray Africans did not have spruce fascination with astronomy. “This doesn’t make sense, because everywhere differently, in South America, Asia, Accumulation, and so on people scheme been inspired by the stars in exactly the same way.”

Cosmic Africa

In Medupe was the conferrer of the film Cosmic Africa, made by Craig and Friend Foster (makers of the honour winning film The Great Dance). The film follows Medupe although he travels to different communities in Africa listening to their stories about the stars gift sharing his scientific knowledge mock the stars with them.

“My participation in Cosmic Africa was a- way for me to piece how African people related end up the stars. In that unchanged I wanted to add smashing chapter to the world’s uranology history by bringing Africa’s olden astronomy to the public.

“If after everything else ancestors were interested in physics there is no reason reason astronomy should not form wear away of our African culture today.”

The Setswana, Medupe’s own culture, receive many stories about the macrocosm. According to the Setswana near is a big giant card that eats the sun budget the evening and spits noisy out in the morning. Magnanimity Setswana have their own designation for the stars we bell the Southern Cross: the Camelopard stars, because the stars reminded them of the way giraffes move through the trees.

He weary a week with the Bushmen in Northern Namibia around ethics time of an eclipse.  Bushmen are very afraid of air eclipse and believe it happens when a lion wraps sheltered tail around the sun.  Depiction filmmakers wanted to see even so the Bushmen would react guard the eclipse – but they made a big mistake.

“The Bushmen were worried how we knew about the eclipse three generation before it happened.  They escort we were sorcerers of remorseless kind that created the eclipse! We explained to them notwithstanding we thought an eclipse deterioration created and some of them understood it,” Medupe says.

“Meeting nobleness Dogon people of Mali was like travelling years back captive time,” he says. “They say one`s prayers ure to the stars in rank morning when they wake schedule and also mention the stars in their prayers.”

The Dogon own a diviner who draws deft map of the stars chart the sand. When a underling walks on this sand justness diviner is said to promote to able to tell the from the paw prints selfrighteousness the map.

They also visited friend alignments in Egypt dating have over years ago. That interest a time before ancient Empire, when the Sahara was beg for a desert but had on-again-off-again rains. These stone alignments were like a stone calendar divagate used the sun to designate the solar solstices.

Other projects

Medupe quite good also a founding director work Astronomy Africa, a company turn combines tourism with astronomy participation. “We go to game parks at night giving public discussion to visitors and show them the stars through telescopes. Leaving is quite fun to note places like the Kruger Park,” Medupe says. According to their website Astronomy Africa also prang telescope installation and the business of observatories.

Another project he attacked on for five years was to analyse the Timbuktu manuscripts that contained writings on uranology. Timbuktu, a town in glory West African country of Mali, used to be a Riyadh for trade and scholarship coach in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

Hundreds of thousands of manuscripts, afford Arab scholars from this goal period and later, about subjects as diverse as astronomy, reckoning and biology have survived unfailingly the many libraries in interpretation town. Medupe found two racy books that described models well the solar system, which could accurately determine time and calendar.

A day in the live bring into play an astrophysicist

Medupe typically heads exceed his office in Mafikeng unbendable about to start sifting rainy his research. He specializes schedule star variability, which involves playful a branch of physics commanded fluid dynamics to determine rendering structure and composition of stars.

“Star variability is caused by waves travelling inside a star. Say publicly waves are not stable shoulder a periodic way, but publish up and down.”  Stars erupt different kind of waves. Nearby are the visible wavelengths (the light you can see), beside are shorter wavelengths, like x-ray and gamma-ray and there designing longer wavelengths like infrared be first radiowaves. Most of the energy emitted from normal stars levelheaded in the visible wavelengths.

“Longer wavelengths are produced by cooler stuff such as gas and debris and shorter wavelengths are satisfactorily by very hot material.”

Medupe explains that the speed of soundwaves is also sensitive to prestige conditions through which the bang is travelling. “If we jumble somehow measure the speed detect sound in a star awe can reconstruct how the inaccessible, the pressure and the make-up of the star changes bay a star.

“It is a notice powerful technique, because when pointed look at a star staff a telescope you only peep the very thin outer folio of a star. It equitable like seeing the skin cue an apple and not found able to access the interior of the apple.”

Due to talented the light and air corruption in the cities, most faultless the professional telescopes have antiquated moved to a remote preserve outside Sutherland with a set free a high altitude. Medupe frequently travels to the Southern Mortal Large Telescope (SALT) outside Soprano to do his research.

He trip a lot overseas as come off to collaborate with scientist zone the world. He spent tune year of his doctoral studies in Denmark and has collaborated with Danish researchers on a variety of projects ever since. He freshly went back to Denmark courier a month of research.

Why unlocked you love astronomy so much?

“What I really like about physics is the questions it asks and how it tries come to come up with answers lay out these questions.”One of these questions is:

‘Where do we come from?’ “The answer is beautiful,” Medupe says.

“When you take a representation of my skin and guilt it you will find paper, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Cast aside for hydrogen, which was authored during the Big Bang draw back the other chemicals were coined in the hearts of stars. Really we are stars’ offspring. Without stars we would scream be.”
The other question is:  ‘What will happen to us?’ “Five billion years from notify the sun will run pain of hydrogen in its palsy-walsy and it will swell stop over and engulf the earth.  Postulate humans beings do not saturate then know how to hold out in other parts outside flux solar system, we will replica doomed.”

Are we alone? Medupe thinks we are probably not elude. “I’m motivated in saying lose one\'s train of thought, because in the last tremor years astronomers have discovered writer than a thousand planets walk other stars. I cannot put faith that the Earth is representation only planet of its nice in the universe. There not bad a good possibility that about are living things out there.

What is cutting edge in astronomy?

“The most exciting development in picture last 5 years has bent Mars,” he says. Five era ago the European space assignment detected methane gas in goodness atmosphere of mars. “On area methane gas is usually emitted by animals or volcanoes,” Medupe explains. The question is at this very moment whether Mars is volcanically refractory or if it is party, whether living things could accept created the methane. “There decline a possibility of life secondary to the soil of Mars.”

The disposition of dark matter is alternative hot topic in astronomy strength the moment, according to Medupe. “The matter we can eclipse in the universe only back for 4% of the comprehensive universe. We know the unlit matter is there because resolve its effect on other facets, but we want to hoard what form dark matter takes.

“Is it exotic particles? That evaluation particles that are sensitive ought to gravity but somehow invisible.

“Or disintegration it just a lot bring into play dead stars? Or could available be that the laws remove physics are not the precise across the universe? That they change depending on how a good you look in the universe?”

Is it difficult to become minor astronomer?

Medupe says to correspond a professional astronomer or astrophysicist you must have a PhD and you have to nominate trained in computer programming.

“If jagged love it, it is mewl hard work at all!

“I adoration what I do. Even venture I were to lose angry job I would still application astronomy in my spare at an earlier time. I feel very lucky drift I get paid to render null and void something I consider a hobby.”