Look inside for special offers from Kroger. Find the insert in the IDS print edition each Thursday. Thursday, July 19, 2018 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
IDS The Kirkwood Observatory offers the public a chance to look at planets, stars and other space objects through its telescope. The observatory is located at 119 S. Indiana Ave.
MATT BEGALA | IDS
On campus, out of this world Kirkwood Observatory opens a window to space. By Varda He vhe@iu.edu
Left Dunn’s Woods, with the Kirkwood Observatory in the background, are shown in November 1975.
IU ARCHIVE
Middle Astronomers James Cuffey, Frank K. Edmondson and Lawrence H. Aller. are shown in 1947 at the observatory.
It was a balmy Wednesday night by 10:30 p.m., and the Kirkwood Observatory was already bustling with visitors of all ages, eager to catch a glimpse of the heavens. Built in 1900, the observatory is named after Daniel Kirkwood, an astronomer and IU professor of mathematics, who discovered the Kirkwood Gaps in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in 1866. Although the observatory is no longer used by the University for research, it is still used for instructional purposes, as well as outreach events. Karna Desai, a former graduate student at the IU astronomy department, greeted
visitors as they came through the front door. “The observatory does a lot of outreach to the Bloomington community,” Desai said. “We hold open houses every Wednesday night from spring break to Thanksgiving, an hour after sunset, if the weather is clear.” Desai said the open house events mainly allow people to look at bright night sky objects, such as the moon, Jupiter, Saturn and some globular clusters and nebulae. “Due to light pollution in the area, we can’t look at a lot of deep sky objects,” Desai said. This open house was primarily focused on Jupiter. SEE CAMPUS, PAGE 4
Teacher gives thoughts on Thailand rescue Hoosier Hysteria set for Sept. 29
By Cameron Drummond
cpdrummo@iu.edu | @cdrummond97
An 18-day ordeal for 13 members of the Wild Boars soccer team in Thailand came to an end July 10, when the final team members were successfully pulled from the flooded Tham Luang caves. In total, 12 boys and one coach from the team were all rescued from the flooded caves. The rescue efforts to safely find and remove the team members were international events, with British divers first finding the group safe inside the cave, before an international group of rescuers helped bring the team members to safety. The rescue operation was closely followed by media outlets around the world, and Anmar Mirza, a national coordinator for the National Cave Rescue Commission, soon found himself in high demand as someone able to explain what was going on in Thailand to different audiences. In addition to his role with the NCRC, Mirza also teaches the Emergency Medical Technician class within the Department of Applied Health Science in the School of Public Health at IU. The Indiana Daily Student spoke with Mirza about the success of the cave rescue in Thailand, why the rescue was so difficult and what those exploring caves in Bloomington and Monroe County should do to remain safe. Q: What is your reaction to the soccer team members being able to make it out of the cave? A: The people who were involved with the management of the rescue and the people who were actually involved with performing the rescue itself, I just commend outstanding work. I could not have done any better if I were there. I felt that they made just absolutely outstanding decisions. They were in a very tough position because if anything had gone wrong, every single decision they made would be questioned right now. From that standpoint, everybody is very fortunate, the people
From IDS reports
PHOTO COURTESY OF TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Rescuers work July 9, 2018, near the cave where 12 young soccer team members and their coach were trapped in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
who got out and the people who managed it, that even if something had gone wrong, I would stand behind the decisions they were making. Q: Why was it so dangerous to rescue the team members? A: There were three primary options: one was to try to dive them out, which is what they ended up doing. The other option was to wait until the water went down and they can walk out, and early on that was considered a good option because they were pumping the water down, water was getting lower. The next option was to either try to find or make a new entrance into the cave, that too was being explored simultaneously. To be clear, they were exploring all three options simultaneously, it wasn’t like they were going with one and leaving the others alone. The problem with waiting for the water to go down was they’re
in the middle of the monsoon season and it was going to be weeks to months before any possible opportunity would happen. If they could have stayed safe where they were, then waiting was the safest option. The problem is that it was unknown whether the area they were in the cave was safe from the water rising further. If they were not safe, then the riskier diving option was going to be the preferred choice. Of course, if they ended up waiting, they would have also been exploring putting in another entrance at the same time and teaching the kids to be diving at the same time, so they would have had the maximum number of options available. In this case, the weather cooperated and they were able to pump the cave down to the point where the diving option, while still risky, was much less risky than it was. They were also facing fatal air in the cave with the oxygen levels
dropping and the carbon dioxide levels rising, and that was actually driving the decision to make an attempt to do the dive. With the monsoon weather coming in, it was predicted to potentially inundate the area that the kids were staying. So they figured it was better to do that now, when the water was at its lowest and the diving was the easiest because the water was so low. Q: What were the risks of trying to get the kids out for both the kids and the rescuers? A: Honestly, even somebody who was an open-water diver would only be a little bit better off than the boys there. The lack of swimming skills and the lack of diving skills certainly made it harder, but it was really the being in a blackout environment when you are underwater in a very tight and closed space. Even people who aren’t prone SEE RESCUE, PAGE 4
The IU men’s and women’s basketball programs have officially announced when they will kick off their 2018-19 seasons. IU announced Tuesday that the Hoosiers’ annual tip-off event, Hoosier Hysteria, will take place Saturday, Sept. 29. The event is designed to introduce fans to both the IU men’s and women’s basketball teams for the upcoming season with a night full of festivities including a three-point contest, a dunk contest and a scrimmage for the men’s team. There will be plenty of hype surrounding both teams coming into the event this season. The men’s team, led by second-year coach Archie Miller, finished just 16-15 last season, but brings in the No. 7 recruiting class in the country, headlined by top recruit Romeo Langford. The Hoosiers will also bring back senior forward Juwan Morgan, who was named second team All-Big Ten last year. Meanwhile, the women’s team is coming off a historic season in which it won the WNIT Championship after winning 15 of its 17 final games of the year. Fifth-year coach Teri Moren brings in a young squad led by sophomore guards Jaelynn Penn and Bendu Yeaney. Penn was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team in 2017-18. This year’s date also marks the same day as the IU football team’s game at Rutgers. Last year, Hoosier Hysteria took place on the same day as IU’s 17-9 loss at Michigan State. Admission is free for fans. An official starting time will be released at a later date. Murphy Wheeler