Welcome back to Robertson’s Reportings! Finally, after a stay-at-home order along with an extension on this order, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper announced that Phase One of reopening the state will begin Friday afternoon. Retail businesses will be allowed to open at 50% capacity, as long as social distancing is used. This means that nonessential stores, such as clothing or houseware stores, will be allowed to reopen. Still, gatherings have a 10 person limit. Additionally, salons, gyms, and various other businesses must remain closed. Restaurants will have the same guidelines as prior to Phase One, meaning that they will still be closed for dine-in. If cases of COVID-19 begin to drop after two to three weeks of Phase One, Phase Two will take place. In Phase Two, restaurants’ dining rooms at a certain capacity will open, and gyms, places of worship, and entertainment centers can reopen. In the final phase, things begin to return to normal. All businesses and venues can reopen and percent capacity for businesses can increase. Phase Three, taking place four to six weeks after Phase Two, can begin as early as June 19. 

A black hole 1,000 light years from Earth, named HR 6819, was discovered and became the first known black hole to be as close to Earth as it is. While the black hole is invisible to the eye, as it consumes all light due to its gravitational pull, the area surrounding it can be viewed from the Southern Hemisphere at night without a telescope. Astronomers originally thought that they were researching a binary star system, which is two stars surrounding a center of mass. They were shocked to find out that, instead, they were looking right at a hidden black hole. Scientist Thomas Rivinius stated in response to the discovery, “There must be hundreds of millions of black holes out there, but we know about only very few. Knowing what to look for should put us in a better position to find them.” 

According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Murder hornets, an approximately two-inch long insect from Asia, have come to the United States. The first sightings were in Washington, but other sightings have been reported. Murder hornets mainly hunt honeybees by decapitating them and feeding them to their young. However, honeybees have discovered one way to defend themselves against the dreaded insects: cooking them. A swarm of honeybees circle the hornet and flap their wings rapidly, therefore raising the temperature inside the circle and “cooking” the murder hornet until it dies. Every year, murder hornets, despite preying mostly on bees, kill approximately 50 people in Japan. After two to three stings, the venom can have a fatal effect on humans. What’s next, aliens invading the earth?

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