Stars sparkle over SOAR

“So what is the reward of being a scientist? Why would you ever spend all this time and all this effort to do something like look at points of light that we call stars? Well, there’s this moment when you look deeply into something and you have a special tool that you built, so you can see things for the first time that no one else knows. So the moment of scientific discovery that excites most scientists, that keeps them going, is when you learn something about this universe, and for a little bit of time, only you know that. You have possession of knowledge no one else on earth has, you know something about the universe – maybe it’s not significant, maybe it is significant – but you alone know it. And before you tell anybody, you get to enjoy a few minutes in possession of profound knowledge that you got through your own hard labor, that only you possess. That’s why people are scientists.” Dr. Chris Clemens, UNC astronomy professor and SOAR board member, says. (Photos by Aly Moser)