NASA Daily News Summary
For Release:  July 19, 2000
Media Advisory m00-138


SUMMARY


NEWS RELEASES

  TIME TRAVEL THROUGH A TRAIL OF COMET DUST

  CUDDLING UP IN A QUILT OF GAMMA-RAY STARS


VIDEO     ***ALL TIMES EASTERN***

  VIDEO FILE FOR JULY 19, 2000

  UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS



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NEWS RELEASES


TIME TRAVEL THROUGH A TRAIL OF COMET DUST

     If you've seen one comet, have you seen them all? Not
according to new NASA research.  Scientists believe they may one
day be able to travel through time by looking more closely at the
dust swirling with a comet as it hurdles through our galaxy.

     The research also indicates that theories of how comets were
formed may need to be revised.

     Comets are lumps of ice, gas, rock, and dust * frozen relics
from the birth of our solar system * that orbit the Sun.
Scientists now believe comets could have formed at different times
during the evolution of the solar nebula, and may reveal their age
by the structure of the dust they carry.


Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Dolores Beasley
(Phone: 202/358-1753).
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Bill
Steigerwald (Phone: 301/286-5017).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-111.txt



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CUDDLING UP IN A QUILT OF GAMMA-RAY STARS

     The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory is gone, but its memory
lives on -- in a quilt museum located in a rural Virginia town. A
retired couple in Elkwood, VA took two gamma-ray images their son
received from NASA, back in 1993, and turned them into spectacular
coverlets.  One image, of the Crab and Geminga pulsars, is on
display through September 18 at the Virginia Quilt Museum in
Harrisonburg.  The second, of a gamma-ray quasar called 3C 279,
will have its first public viewing during a symposium on the
Compton mission July 19 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD.


Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Dolores Beasley
(Phone: 202/358-1753).
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Nancy
Neal (Phone: 301/286-0039).

For full text, see:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-110.txt



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If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will e-
mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.

Index of 2000 NASA News Releases:
http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2000/index.html

Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:
http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html



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VIDEO FILE FOR JULY 19, 2000

    ITEM 1 - SERVICE MODULE UPDATE - JSC
    ITEM 2 - HOW TO VIEW COMET LINEAR - JPL
    ITEM 3 - THE AGE OF COMETS - GSFC
    ITEM 4 - THE AMAZING QUILT STORY (QUILT OF COMPTON GAMMA RAY
             OBSERVATORY)- GSFC
    ITEM 5 - NASA SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY TO MONITOR MOTOR VEHICLE
             POLLUTION (REPLAY)


ANY CHANGES TO THE VIDEO LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA VIDEO
FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt

WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm
and midnight Eastern Time.



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UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS

July 19, Wednesday
4:30 - 9:00 p.m. - How to View Comet Linear Live News Interviews -
JPL

July 20, Thursday
6:00 - 10:00 a.m. - How To View International Space Station Live
News Interviews - MSFC

July 21, Friday
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. - Summer Scholar Live News Interviews - MSFC


For a complete list of upcoming live television events, see
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html



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Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN.

NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees
West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0
megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.

Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Fred Brown,
202/358-0713, fred.brown@hq.nasa.gov

During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will
continue to be posted at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html

For general information about NASA TV see:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/



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Contract Awards

Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information
Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html



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end of daily news summary