NASA Daily News Summary – Media Advisory m00-004

NASA Daily News Summary

For Release: Jan. 6, 2000

Media Advisory m00-004

SUMMARY:
No News Releases Today
Note:

These Releases were Sent Out Late Yesterday:
NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS IN MICROGRAVITY MATERIALS SCIENCE

NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS IN MICROGRAVITY FLUID PHYSICS
See Add to NASA News Summary for Jan. 5, 2000 for more

information:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/media/2000/m00-003a.txt
Video File for Jan. 6, 2000
ITEM 1 – STAR FORMATION BUBBLES-UP IN NEARBY GALAXY
ITEM 2 – THICK HAZE COVERS SOUTHERN CHINA (replay)
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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 Jan. 6, 2000
ITEM 1 – STAR FORMATION BUBBLES-UP IN NEARBY GALAXY——-TRT  :15
Newly released images obtained with NASA’S Hubble Space Telescope

show clusters of newly forming stars in various stages of

evolution.  The images, taken in July 1997 with Hubble’s Wide

Field Planetary Camera 2, capture the “nearby” galaxy NGC 4214–

only 13 million light-years from Earth.  As hot, young stars

develop, they blow bubbles in the stellar gas, such as the bluish

heart-shaped bubble in the center of this image.  Hundreds of

massive blue stars, each more than 10,000 times brighter than the

Sun, inflated by stellar winds and radiation pressure, expand the

bubble as the most massive stars in the center reach the ends of

their lives and explode as supernovae. 
Contact at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD:  Ray

Villard (Phone 410/338-4707).

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Doug Isbell (Phone

202/358-1753).
ITEM 2 – THICK HAZE COVERS SOUTHERN CHINA-(replay)——–TRT 1:30
Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Wade

Sisler (Phone 301/286-6256).

Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  David E. Steitz

(Phone 202/358-1730).
URL:  http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html
ITEM 2a – SOUTHERN CHINA HAZE 
On Jan. 2, 2000, the Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor

(SeaWiFS) observed a thick layer of haze over southern People’s

Republic of China, including the cities of Chengdu, Congqing,

Wuhan, and the archaeologically important city of Xi’an.

Researchers are unclear as to the source of the haze, but it is

thick enough to obscure most of the natural colors reflected from

the ground beneath.
ITEM 2b – SOUTHERN CHINA – CLEAR DAY COMPARISON
The thickness of the haze is made more apparent by comparing an

image taken on a clear day, on Sept. 16, 1998 (first image), with

the January 2 image (second image).  SeaWiFS was originally

designed to monitor the color of oceans around the world.  Since

its launch, SeaWiFS has proved valuable in its ability to monitor

land color, too.  Color is an important indicator of life

processes, from plankton growth to chlorophyll concentration.
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Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN.
ANY CHANGES TO THE 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 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m.

and midnight Eastern Time.
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 Elvia Thompson,

202/358-1696, elvia.thompson@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