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29 March 2022
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Story Teli Mothabeng
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Photo Supplied
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Philmon Bitso, Student Recruitment Officer, with the top-10 cohort of the class of 2021 Free State Star of Stars.
The Department of Student Recruitment Services at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted its annual Free State Star of Stars competition at the Amanzi Private Game Reserve during the first week of March. The event saw some of the brightest young minds in the Free State inducted as UFS first-year students into this year’s top-10 cohort for the competition. This marks the first Star of Stars event since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This new cohort consists of a dynamic group of academically gifted students from Quintile 1-3 schools in the Free State who are currently enrolled for different UFS academic programmes, ranging from Medicine, Law, Education, and various Bachelor of Science courses. Many of these students had to overcome insurmountable challenges to perform as well as they did in their Grade 12 academic year and to become part of the top-10 cohort for the class of 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Student Recruitment Services was forced to take a different approach to celebrate these deserving students; consequently, a weekend-long induction camp was the substitute for the annual gala dinner.
Apply for the 2022 Free State Star of Stars competition
The UFS realised the need to establish a platform that recognises and celebrates the diverse and, in most instances, difficult circumstances that disadvantaged schools (Quintile 1-3) are facing. Consequently, the Star of Stars competition was developed and established in 2016. This competition provides disadvantaged Grade 12 learners from all districts in the Free State an opportunity to showcase their excellence, while motivating them to aspire to achieve more.
Two scientists part of team that discovers the source of the highest energy cosmic rays at the centre of the Milky Way
2016-03-22
Artist's impression of the giant molecular clouds surrounding the Galactic Centre, bombarded by very high energy protons accelerated in the vicinity of the central black hole and subsequently shining in gamma rays.
Artist's impression: © Dr Mark A. Garlick/ H.E.S.S. Collaboration Spotlight photo:
Dr Brian van Soelen and Prof Pieter Meintjes of the UFS Department of Physics.
Photo: Charl Devenish
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H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) scientists publically revealed their latest galactic discovery in the international science journal, Nature, on 16 March 2016. These scientists were able to pinpoint the most powerful source of cosmic radiation – which, up to now, remained a mystery.
Part of this team of scientists are Prof Pieter Meintjes and Dr Brian van Soelen, both in the University of the Free State (UFS) Department of Physics. Dr Van Soelen explains that they have discovered a proton PeVatron – a source that can accelerate protons up to energies of ~1 PeV (10^15 eV) – at the centre of the Milky Way. The supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A has been identified as the most plausible source of this unprecedented acceleration of protons.
The protons are accelerated to Very High Energy (VHE) gamma rays. The energy of these protons are 100 times larger than those achieved by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research).
According to Dr Van Soelen, the fact that this research has been published in Nature demonstrates the importance and pioneering nature of the research conducted by H.E.S.S. The H.E.S.S. observatory – operational in Namibia – is a collaboration between 42 scientific institutions in 12 countries.
In 2006, H.E.S.S. was awarded the Descartes Prize of the European Commission – the highest recognition for collaborative research – and in 2010 the prestigious Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society. The extent of the observatory’s significance places it among the ranks of the Hubble Space Telescope and the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
“The next generation VHE gamma-ray telescope,” Dr Van Soelen says, “will be the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), which is currently in the design and development stage.” Both Dr Van Soelen and Prof Meintjes are part of this project as well.
H.E.S.S. has issued a complete statement about the paper published in Nature.