NASA Daily News Summary
For Release: Jan. 18, 2000
Media Advisory m00-011


SUMMARY:


No News Releases Today


Video File for Jan. 18, 2000

ITEM 1 - CLOUDS COVER GREAT LAKES  - SEAWIFS (GSFC)

ITEM 2 - DUST DISK "RINGS" IN SPACE - (STSCI)



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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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ITEM 1 - CLOUDS COVER GREAT LAKES  - SEAWIFS (GSFC)-------TRT 1:09

Synopsis:  Many residents near the Great Lakes are familiar with
the term "lake effect snow."   Seen from space, this phenomenon
looks like a thick white blanket pulled over the surface of the
water.  NASA's Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View  satellite, or
SeaWiFS, collected the first of these images on April 13, 1999,
the second on Dec. 21, 1999.  These images were enhanced and
rendered at the Scientific and Visualization Studio (SVS) at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.

As the visualization begins, the skies over the Great Lakes are
clear.  Then, as clouds thicken, notice how they appear to be
pushed slightly off center, towards the eastern edge of the lakes.

Here's what's happening:  as cold, dry air blows off the high
plains of Canada, it rushes over the lakes and soaks up moisture.
That moisture condenses into clouds, which builds up and trails
out like wool from a carding brush.  The thin stripes of blue
peeking out from the western edges of the lakes show the zone
where those dry winds have not yet soaked up enough moisture to
coalesce into clouds.  Past the eastern borders of each lake,
you'll see jumbled and tangled clouds above the ground.  Over many
of these areas, snow is falling as the now-lake-saturated air
gives up its moisture.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  David E. Steitz
(Phone 202/358-1730).
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:
Deanna Corridon (Phone 301/286-0041).



ITEM 2 - DUST DISK "RINGS" IN SPACE - (STSCI)-------------TRT 1:30

The planetary dust disk around the star Beta Pictoris is
dynamically "ringing like a bell," according to astronomers
investigating these NASA Hubble Space Telescope images.  The
"clapper" is the gravitational wallop of a star that passed near
Beta Pictoris some 100,000 years ago.

The surprising findings, presented at the 195th Meeting of the
American Astronomical Society, show that a close encounter with a
neighboring star can severely disrupt the evolution and appearance
of thin disks, which are the nurseries of planetary systems.
Similar fly-bys of our solar system long ago may have reshuffled
the comets that now populate our Oort cloud and Kuiper belt.

Discovered in 1983, the dust disk around the nearby star Beta
Pictoris--long suspected to harbor a planetary system--has puzzled
astronomers because it contains more dust grains than any other
comparable system.  Also, the dust spreads over a huge 65-billion-
mile-diameter area.  Yet, one side of the disk is 20 percent
longer and thinner than the other side.

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Donald Savage
(Phone 202/358-1547).
Contact at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD:  Ray
Villard (Phone 410/338-4707).



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