thursday, march 4,2004
news
the university daily kansan
7A
Scientist uses ice to find black holes
By Bill Cross
bcross@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
KU physics professor Dave Besson spends his winter break summering in Antarctica, where temperatures reach an average high of minus 40.
Besson, a specialist in the study of subatomic particles, directs an experiment to detect black holes. The experiment relies on the Antarctic ice cap. Particles ejected from some black holes interact with the ice when they hit earth, giving scientists hints about the holes' positions.
Black holes can be 10 billion times as massive as the sun and 3,330 trillion times as massive as Earth. The gravity of such a heavy object pulls in everything around it, including visible light and other radiation, which makes black holes invisible to conventional telescopes and cameras.
tional telescopes.
Astronomers were elated last month as a black hole destroyed a star that had come near the invisible mass because it confirms that black holes can destroy virtually any other celestial body, according to a New York Times article published Feb. 19.
published in
Observing black holes through the destruction of nearby stars and planets is tedious, however.
Astronomers recorded the star's destruction for 10 years.
destruction for a system Besson thinks he has found a better way by placing detectors underneath the less-polluted atmosphere at the South Pole
He said particles interact violently in some layers of a black hole's gravitational field. Particles called neutrinos can become
"They are comparable to the kinetic energy of a tennis ball moving at 50 miles per hour concetrated into a single proton."
David Besson Physics professor
energized enough to escape the black hole.
"They are comparable to the kinetic energy of a tennis ball moving at 50 miles per hour concentrated into a single proton," Besson said.
Neutrinos then enter the earth's atmosphere and hit the Antarctic ice, giving Besson clues about the black hole's position, he said.
black hole's neutrinos are impossible to detect individually, it is easy to find them when they hit ice.
and then when it "neutrens collide with polar ice, the particle becomes an electron," he said. "The electron produced then initiates a large shower of electrons."
This shower, he said, is easily detected.
Despite the power of the black hole observed last week, MSNBC reported on Feb. 18 that there was no foreseeable danger to earth or its solar system. While there is a black hole in the Milky Way galaxy, it does not appear as dangerous as most, and events like last week's destruction of a star happen once every 10,000 years in any given galaxy, scientists estimate.
—Edited by Abby Mills
petitioners didn't live in the halls when the corrections were made. The initial proposals for the hall's repair projects, including Miller Hall's foundation, were filed in 1990, 11 years before the student's lawsuit.
The students withdrew their complaints regarding the allocation of the Watkins trust, but didn't withdraw a petition to allow Watkins and Miller hall residents partial control over the day-to-day operations of the halls and the spending of the Watkins trust.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
TRUST: Despite ruling, petitioners satisfied with suit's outcome
Douglas County District Court Judge Jack A. Murphy dismissed the student petition, saying that there were sufficient processes in place for students to review spending without controlling operations, including petitioning through the All Scholarship Hall Council and the Student Housing Advisory Board.
"The students receive an accounting list of how the trust is spent every year," said Lynn Bretz, director of University Relations. "There are definite avenues students can take to voice their complaints."
Murphy also rejected the student's petition to charge the University and Bank of America for their legal costs.
Many of the student petitioners were satisfied with the impact of the outcome — if not with the ruling, said Lindsay Poe, Wichita senior and president of the Student Preservations Committee.
"We're disappointed with the court's ruling, but happy with the changes," she said. "It worked out pretty well."
out pretty well to ensure the hall's funding is spent properly and the halls are cared for in the future, communication must be maintained between incoming students and current residents, Poe said.
"We have to make sure residents understand their responsibilities as beneficiaries of the trust," she said.
Bretz said maintaining the structural and operational integrity of the halls shouldn't be a problem.
"The University has a vested interest in maintaining the scholarship halls," Bretz said. "In many ways, they are the pride of the University."
- Edited by Meghan Brune and Donovan Atkinson
RETURNING: Coming home after graduation has pros and cons
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
for students, such as them depending on their parents to prepare supper.
prepare supper. Some students return home because they can't find a job. The baby-boom generation still holds the majority of jobs, Arnold said.
the majority of jobs. "The first 10 years of working will be awful." Arnold said. "The next 10 years will be great, when the market will open up for college graduates.
The baby-boom generation qualifies as people between the ages of 40 and 58. According to a census report from the U.S. Department of Labor, workers 55 and older will make up 19.1 percent of the labor force between 2002 and 2012.
Paul Comolli, associate economics professor, did not see anything wrong with students returning home after college gradation. The economy is bad, and students may need to rethink their career options, he said. Students can go home to examine their futures, while taking a temporary job, he said.
"It's time to not be at home. When you start getting into your twenties, its time to break. You've gotta start your life."
Suzanne Ash
Lenexa senior
porally job she said. Natalie Spiess, Overland Park senior, will graduate next fall with a bachelor's degree in art. She is applying to study abroad in Mexico this summer and in Costa Rica in the fall. She said she wanted to stay in Costa Rica for a few years, but planned to live with her parents after studying abroad. She said she would save money by doing this, and would continue to work at Border's Books, Music and Café in Overland Park as she had for the past five years.
Spiess said she would enjoy living at home because she
would be close to friends. But she would miss her personal space and additional independence. While her parents are usually trusting, her mother sometimes worries about her daughter arriving home at an acceptable hour.
acceptable Diana Spiess, Natalie's mother, will be happy to have her daughter return home.
daughter recounts "I think sometimes after graduation they still don't know exactly what they want to do," she said.
John Mackey, Bonner Springs senior, also plans to return home after he graduates in May. He wants to attend graduate school at the University of Texas in a year, but wants a break from school. He plans to find a part-time job while studying for the Graduate Entrance Exam. He is also scared of moving farther away from home.
His parents would not be upset about Mackey returning home, he said.
"They pretty much expect it," Mackey said. "We haven't dis-
Some students want to try living on their own immediately after graduation, even if they don't have a problem with going back to their parents' home.
Suzanne Ash, Lenexa senior will not return home upon graduation. But she wouldn't mind if she did. She said she understood how hard it was to start out alone after graduation.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in business this spring, she will continue to work as a student assistant in the business school's financial unit office while paying off loans and working on her master's degree in accounting for a year.
But she will be turning 25 in a month and would feel too old to move home.
"It's time to not be at home," Ash said. "When you start getting into your twenties, its time to break. You've gotta start your life."
— Edited by Guillaume Doane
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