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Alumni News

Black Holes, Galaxies, and Supernovas

How often do you hear someone say, "well, it's not rocket science." For alumnus Pete Ratzlaff that's exactly what it is! Ratzlaff is an astrophysicist at the Chandra Observatory Center at Harvard University and is one of 150 people working with the most powerful X-ray telescope in outer space. He graduated magna cum laude in 1995 with a double major in physics and mathematics. His mother, Helen Draschil, is also an alumnus who graduated with a B.S. degree in Mathematics in 1987. Ratzlaff is one of Helen's six children, and is not the only rocket scientist in the family. His sister Julie married Dane Drefke who studied for two years in our pre-engineering program before attending and graduating from the University of Missouri, Rolla. Dane works as an aerospace engineer for Boeing. Helen told the Springfield Newsleader that "At our house on Christmas Eve, they bring their rocket videos, so instead of watching 'Frosty the Snowman' we spend the evening watching Delta rockets and X-ray telescopes."

What is the Chandra X-Ray Observatory? It is a 4 1/2 story telescope observatory that was launched by the recent space shuttle, Columbia, to orbit the Earth about a third of the distance to the moon. Chandra's improved sensitivity will make possible more detailed studies of black holes, supernovas, and dark matter and hopefully add to our understanding of where planet Earth came from and where it's going. It's a large piece of equipment, but operates on only 2 kilowatts of electricty--about the same as a hair dryer. Ratzlaff says that "Chandra helps us study the high energy, violent processess of the universe." Thanks Pete, for helping to monitor what's going on out there!

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