From: Craig Tupper (dtupper@hq.nasa.gov)
Greetings!
A buncha new stuff at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/ :
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IMAGE, scheduled for launch tomorrow, is the first spacecraft dedicated to
imaging the Earth’s magnetosphere — an invisible magnetic field
surrounding the planet that is strongly influenced by the solar wind.
press release: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-040.txt
IMAGE page: http://pluto.space.swri.edu/IMAGE/
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Astronomers Discover Feeding Mechanism for Supermassive Black Holes – HST
results at http://www.acs.ohio-state.edu/units/research/archive/starfeed.htm
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Based on GRO data, astronomers have determined that half the previously
unidentified high-energy gamma ray sources in our own galaxy, the Milky
Way, actually comprise a new class of mysterious objects.
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-042.txt
——————
There was a really poor UPI story recently, picked up by many other news
outlets, about the Mars Polar Lander loss. So poor, in fact, that NASA
sent out a press release in response (a rare occurence). If you want to
read about this little brou-ha-ha, it’s at
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-043.txt
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Four contract-winning teams will begin the quest to design Terrestrial
Planet Finder, an ambitious mission in our Origins Program that will look
for possible life-supporting planets around other stars. Directly imaging
an earth-sized planet around another star won’t be easy. TPF is expected
to launch somewhere around 2012. JPL press release at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2000/tpfcontracts.html
——————
Gravitational Lens Helps Chandra Find Rare Type of Black Hole (also using
HST data and a telescope on Mauna Kea) –
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/00_releases/press_032000type2.html
——————
Extraterrestrial gases, including helium, are trapped in “buckyball”
molecules in a layer of sedimentary clay found in many places on Earth. The
buckyballs containing the gases arrived on Earth about 65 million years ago
during an asteroid impact that scientists theorize ended the age of the
dinosaurs. This discovery provides another tool to study past asteroid
impacts. http://george.arc.nasa.gov/dx/basket/pressrelease/00_20AR.html
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A meteorite that exploded over a remote area of northwest Canada in January
may increase our knowledge of the initial materials that made up the sun
and planets. It was a very rare find.
http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast16mar_1.htm
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A trio of newborn stars are taking part in a complex dance, as revealed by
recent Hubble observations. http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2000/05/
——————
The Space Science Data System has been online now for years, providing
access to science data from our missions, to the public as well as to the
professional science community. Apparently some folks weren’t aware of
that, since last summer we received unwarranted criticism for supposedly
shelving our science data in “data mortuaries” without it having ever been
analyzed. In order to increase the visibility of the SSDS, I’ve put a link
to them directly on the OSS Home Page; the SSDS is at http://ssds.nasa.gov/
——————
Using Hubble and Voyager observations, a team of astronomers say they have
detected the faintly glowing “bow shock” made by our solar system as it
plows forward through clouds of interstellar particles.
http://explorezone.com/archives/00_03/15_glowing_discovery.htm
Cheers!
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