WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2017 STUDENT MEDIA
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LIFE&ARTS: A COMMUNITY OF ROLE PLAY
NEWS: BIKE RIDE FOR BUSH SCHOOL
LIFE&ARTS: THE SOUNDS OF AGGIELAND
Texas A&M professor watches neutron star merger firsthand Jennifer Marshall witnessed historic cosmic event from Chilean outpost By Alex Sein @AlexandrSein A neutron star merger, when two neutron stars collide due to a close orbit and gravitational radiation, is an extremely rare event. A merger that occurred on August 17, 2017 is the only such collision ever witnessed by scientists. Texas A&M astronomy and physics professor Jennifer Marshall was able to watch the merger while researching in Chile. Marshall arrived at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory a few days prior to perform routine checks on the telescope. By doing so, she prepared it for another period of observation with the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a five-year program currently in its final year that aims to map oneeighth of the sky in extreme detail. Several days into her stay, Marshall received an email from a colleague at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) there had been detection of new gravitational waves. The waves usually serve as an indication of a black hole merger, where two black holes that orbit each other very closely merge. “When LIGO makes a detection of a gravitational wave signature, it’s not like a telescope, it doesn’t point at a region in the sky,” Marshall said. “It makes a measurement that gives you a very large ellipse on the sky where an object might be.” With the help of Virgo, a similar detector Stars colliding is a rare event. A&M Professor Jennifer Marshall witnessed the colliding stars in Chile
in Italy, the LIGO team had narrowed the source down to a relatively small patch of sky, but needed a high-resolution telescope to pinpoint the exact location. “In the email, it said that LIGO had detected a gravitational wave signal from a source that looks like it could be a binary neutron star merger,” Marshall said. Usually, LIGO detects black hole mergers — four in its two years of operation, to be exact. According to Marshall, black hole mergers emit no light, and are thus invisible to conventional telescopes. Neutron star mergers, however, are not. They were predicted to release almost as much light as a supernova, which is an explosion of a large dying star that glows as bright as a galaxy for several weeks, Marshall said. Marshall’s observations showed it was indeed a neutron star merger that LIGO had detected. “From night to night, it changed a lot,” Marshall said. “Our observations matched the theoretical explanation for how these things should work, so we were pretty sure that this is what it was.” Direct observation of a neutron star merger, according to Marshall, is an incredible opportunity to prove, or disprove, theories scientists have held about the universe. For example, until now there ahs been no explanation for how heavy elements like gold or uranium were produced in the quantities that we see them today. According to Lucas Macri, astronomy and physics professor, neutron star mergers, also known as kilonovas, could be how these elements formed. NEUTRON STAR ON PG. 3 Graphic by Alex Sein
Old rivalry renewed for cause Texas A&M will play Texas in an exhibition game in Houston on Wednesday night to raise money for Rebuild Texas.
Meredith Seaver — THE BATTALION
Aggie Bags served as a symbol to passing drivers that the cadet was a respectful student in need of a ride.
Hitchhiking home to A&M Students use Aggie gear to catch safe rides back to College Station By Victoria Fluellen @tori_fluellen Although it has always been slightly dangerous to pick up hitchhikers, Aggie Bags were once a way for students to carry their belongings while also indicating that they were respectful people looking for a ride. In the early days of Texas A&M, students used these bags to hitchhike to their destinations. According to Lisa Kalmus, who works in the Sanders Corps of Cadets Center with aged Aggie Corps items, using homemade bags with the A&M logo painted on them was a common practice that can be dated all the way back to the
‘40s. Kalmus said the goal of using the bags was to grab the attention of drivers who passed by in order to help students hitchhike to their destination. Kalmus noted that the term ‘Aggie Bag’ has no specific meaning: Students would carry anything from a small duffel bag to a satchel to a simple zip-top duffel sack and would either paint or tape the A&M logo on the outside. Using Aggie Bags has not been traced to one origin date, but according to the Curator of the Office of the Commandant, the practice was in full swing around 1942. “Hitchhiking was so much about going on a Corps trip: If the football team was playing out of town or if they were just traveling for other reasons, like for short visits, this was a way for them to get around,” Kalmus said. “People didn’t have AGGIE BAGS ON PG. 2
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Aggies, Horns to play an exhibition game, raise money for Harvey relief By Ryan MacDonald @Ryan_MacDonald2 After a two-year hiatus, the A&M Texas men’s basketball rivalry will be revived at Wednesday’s charity exhibition game at Rice University’s Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston at 7 p.m. All proceeds will go to Rebuild Texas, an organization founded in September by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to help in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
“I saw that Kansas was playing Missouri and someone mentioned to me, ‘Y’all should play Texas’ and I said I’ll try to call [Texas head coach Shaka Smart]. So, I called and he said would be interested in helping the Harvey situation. Neither of us are ready to play a game, but we thought it would be a way to help,” A&M head coach Billy Kennedy said at a press conference Tuesday. John Sharp, Texas A&M University System chancellor, is the Commissioner of Rebuild Texas and said he is proud the famous rivalry will be used to help victims in a time of need. “I have witnessed the great needs in the communities struck by Hurricane HarBASKETBALL ON PG. 4