8- The Michigan Daily - Monday, May 6, 2002 Students take notice of planetary alignment By Ashley Friedman For the Daily For the first time in 62 years, five planets will line up across the sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn began to align \two weeks ago in a formation that will reach its peak May 13. The sky show can be seen just after sunset on the western horizon. "The planets, in order from the horizon upward, are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter," LSA senior Peter Susalla said. He added this is not the actual order of the planets from the sun and that other planets are too far away to be seen. "Uranus and Neptune may be in the area also, but they can't be seen without a tele- scope," he said. Susalla added that the sun moves across an imaginary line, called the ecliptic, in the sky. "The five visible planets are moving close together on this ecliptic, as we see them from earth," he said. Ray Villard, news director for the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said the alignment visible during the next few weeks is a result of the planets "moving around the sun like hands on a clock at differ- ent speeds and rates." Mars has an orbit lasting two years while Saturn has a 30-year orbit, so finding them along the same line in the sky is a rare occur- rence. "It depends on what you call a line-up. They are not all in a straight line from the sun, but you can draw a line between them like a game of connect the dots," Villard said. In the next few weeks, Mercury will begin to appear on the western horizon close to 15 min- utes after dusk. Astronomy Prof. Charles Cow- ley said the best way to view Mercury is from a clear and high point. "Mercury is the planet that is toughest on observation because it is the closest to the sun and lowest to the horizon," he said. Besides Mercury, he said the rest of planets should be easily visible and can be seen with- out a telescope. The four planets will appear in what looks like a line in the night sky. The Student Astronomical Society will be holding an open house May 17 at the observa- tory on the roof of Angell Hall to give stu- dents and community members a chance to view the planets. Villard said the last time a similar plane- tary alignment, called super conjunction, occurred was in the 1980s. Superstition exist- ed then that the alignment had effects on the ocean tides, but Villard said the planets align- ing should have "no measurable effect on the earth." This specific planetary alignment will not happen again until 2040. 4 Visitors at the Cranbrook Institute of Science look at the planets start their alignment Friday. Disco ball 'U' is the top research spender, state comes in second after California 4 Engineering junior Rob Sutherland plays a game of disc golf at Brown Park earlier this week. SAFFOLD Continued from Page 1 pound in Ramallah where Prime Minister Yasser Arafat and several dozen aids had been under house arrest by Israeli forces since March 29. Before approaching Arafat's headquarters, Saf- fold said his team formed into two groups. One group served as a decoy and was fired upon by Israeli troops while the other ran into the restricted area, he said. When asked about the danger, Saffold said because the ISM sees the Palestinian struggle for freedom from Israeli domination as a civil rights issue, the team is prepared to take the risks associ- ated with such a struggle. "We keep thinking one of these days, one of us will get killed and that's a test to see if we'll continue. So far, the more people hear about our members being wounded, the more want to join. That's what has to happen in civil rights movements," he said. The ISM, which was founded by University alum Huwaida Arraf in the spring of 2001, is fash- ioned after the campaign of the Civil Rights Move- ment and began by organizing non-violent demonstrations and protests in support of the Pales- tinian people. "The ISM awakened in people a vision that international citizens standing on international law can actually organize and resist non-violently," Saffold said. But for some, the recent rash of Palestinian sui- cide bombers makes them doubtful about the suc- cess of a non-violent movement. Though Saffold said he finds suicide bombings morally wrong, he can understand the appeal they hold to the Palestinian people. "We can see some very sad justification in (the suicide bombings) in the sense that Palestinians have no weapons to use against Israel except their bodies. Everyone over there talks about suicide bombings but with a very sad, very conditional support," he said. The ISM also took part in "human shield" actions by providing protection for occupation protesters during non-violent weekly demonstra- tions held in Ramallah after Friday prayers. "(Israeli soldiers) are afraid of killing us. They're not afraid of killing Palestinians. That's why the organizers asked us to be there," Saffold said, explaining that the ISM's presence influ- enced the soldiers' decision to release tear gas and sound bombs rather than open live fire. Saffold returned from his trip May 2, the same day the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed resolutions that almost unanimously pledged support for Israel. The resolutions, Saffold said, serve to reflect the definite bias Americans hold toward seeing Israel as the victim and the Palestinians as the terrible aggressors. "The media coverage (of the conflict) in America is laughable except there's such deadly consequences," he said. "It made me sick, angry and more committed than ever to be standing in the face of lies." But LSA junior Richard Dorfinan, a member of the Michigan Student Zionists, said the coverage is more complicated than it seems. "The truth is, the media sells what people want to see. As a whole, America supports Israel so the American media supports Israel, but the media is also sensationaliz- ing Palestinian oppression to make the story more interesting,"he said. By Donielle Cunningham For the Daily According to a National Science Foundation report released Tuesday, the University spends $509 million on research, more than any other college in the country. The University's spending helped push the state's research spending to $18.7 billion, second only to California. "Research spending is a tool, not an object in its own sake," University Vice President of Research Fawwaz Ulaby said. "Money facilitates the research and scholarships conducted by our faculty and students. These scholarly activities are part of what it takes for our faculty to be the best in their respective fields." The National Science Foundation reported that the three main states for research and develop- ment spending remained the same for two years since the data was collected in 1999. The report added that, "each state had significant increases in research and development spending." "Our faculty needs to be engaged in solving problems and answering difficult research ques- tions if they are to serve their disciplines, and our students," Ulaby said. "Funding to support this also makes it possible for faculty to provide assistantships to students, to upgrade or build new lab facilities, and so on." Much of the investments goes toward biomed- ical research at the National Institutes of Health. Chemistry Prof. Larry Beck said spending is worthwhile to the University's reputation "We have a very large medical school. Train- ing that many doctors and doing as much research as the University does takes a lot of money," Beck said. Senior associate research scientist Thomas Fin- holt explained how useful research is for the Uni- versity. "Research excellence is multidimensional. Research energizes the faculty," he said. "I used examples from my own research in class. It made material that can sometimes be dry more lively and meaningful." Beck added research is a supplement to the dry material of textbooks and lectures. "We involve undergraduate and graduate stu- "Research excellence is multidimensional Research energizes the faculty. " - Thomas Finholt Senior associate research scientist dents in breaking and cutting edge research," Beck said. "Similar to a business student doing an internship at a company, they are doing real research instead of just reading about it." Though the University is the top research spending school in the country, it is still not the best in research. But Ulaby said money is not the only determinant to what makes a top research school. "Money is not the only measure of excellence. It suggest that our faculty members have ideas for research directions that funding agencies find exciting and choose to fund," he said. Ulaby said it may not always be obvious that the faculty do more than just research at the University. "Many of our faculty serve on national boards and committees that help set national policy in sci- ence higher education and other matters of public importance," he said. "Our involvement in these bodies is both valuable service to the nation and a sign that we have many very intelligent and talent- ed people on the faculty." The rewards from research spending are not always instantaneous. Finholt said it sometimes takes many years to reap the benefits of hard work and money spent. "The biggest contribution is the legacy that is sometimes difficult to measure in the near terms. The investments the government made in social research after the second world war, when it cre- ated the Institute for Social Research (at the Uni- versity) helped society with the studies of voting ! behavior, minority populations, drug use, and crime. Things that are critical in making our lives better," Finholt said.