NASA Daily News Summary – Media Advisory m00-009

NASA Daily News Summary

For Release: Jan. 13, 2000

Media Advisory m00-009

SUMMARY:
LONE BLACK HOLES DISCOVERED ADRIFT IN THE GALAXY 
CHANDRA RESOLVES X-RAY GLOW INTO MILLIONS OF OBJECTS
Video File for Jan. 13, 2000
Live television: PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS FOR EARTH-MAPPING SHUTTLE MISSION SET FOR

JAN. 21
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LONE BLACK HOLES DISCOVERED ADRIFT IN THE GALAXY 
     Two international teams of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble

Space Telescope and ground-based     telescopes in Australia and Chile

have discovered the first examples of isolated stellar-mass black

holes adrift among the stars in our galaxy. 
Full text: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-004.txt
NASA Headquarters contact: Donald Savage (Phone:  202/358-1547)
Space Telescope Science Institute contact: Ray Villard (Phone:  410/338-4514)
——
CHANDRA RESOLVES X-RAY GLOW INTO MILLIONS OF OBJECTS
     While taking a giant leap toward solving one of the greatest

mysteries of astronomy, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory also may

have revealed the most distant objects ever seen in the Universe

and discovered two puzzling new types of cosmic objects. Chandra has resolved

most of the X-ray background, a pervasive glow of X-rays throughout the

Universe, which was first discovered in the early days of space exploration.

Before now, scientists have not been able to discern the origin of the hard,

or high-energy, X-ray background, because until Chandra no telescope has had the

technology to resolve it.
Full text: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-010.txt
NASA Headquarters contact: Donald Savage (Phone:  202/358-1547)
Goddard Space Flight Center contact: Bill Steigerwald (Phone:  301/286-5017)
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics contact: Dr. Wallace Tucker (Phone:

617/496-7998)
———
Video File for Jan. 13, 2000
Video File for Jan. 13, 2000
Item 1 – Black Hole Passes in front of Star
Item 2 – An Expanding Bubble in Space
Item 3 – Chandra Observations Explain X-Ray Glow 
Item 4 – STS-99 TCDT Pad Q&A (replay at 3 pm)
Item 5- First images from FUSE satellite (GSFC) (replay)
Item 6 – TRMM – Improving Tropical Rainfall Forecasts (GSFC) (replay)
Item 7 – New Shuttle Stamp – KSC (replay)
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Item 1 – Black Hole Passes in front of Star 
Item 1a – Black Hole

Two teams, using ground-based    telescopes and HST, discovered the first

examples of isolated stellar mass black holes in our galaxy. The black holes

were detected indirectly by the way their gravity bends, or lenses, the light of

a more distant star behind them. Hubble image taken on 6/15/99, right panel,

pinpointed the lensed star from another star in the field. in the left panel are

the ground-based observations.

TRT – :20

Video Courtesy NASA
Item 1b – Adrift in a sea of stars

Lone black holes were discovered adrift in the galaxy. The following images

show these discoveries.

TRT – :20

Video Courtesy NASA
Contacts: Don Savage and Ray Villard
Item 2 – An Expanding Bubble in Space

Astronomers, using a camera on the HST, now understand the complex

geometry and dynamics of the Bubble Nebula, NGC7635 System. The

spherical bubble is the boundary between an intense wind of particles from

the star and the quieter interior of the nebula.  Hubble captured the images in

October and November 1997 and April 1999.

TRT – :19

Video Courtesy NASA

Contacts: Don Savage and Ray Villard
Item 3 – Chandra Observations Explain X-Ray Glow

Synopsis: While taking a giant leap towards solving the greatest

mystery of X-ray astronomy, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory also may

have

revealed the most distant objects ever seen in the Universe and discovered

two puzzling new types of cosmic objects.

TRT – 8:25
ITEM 3a THE 37-YEAR MYSTERY OF THE X-RAY GLOW – ANIMATION
Scientists have known about the X-ray glow, called the X-ray background,

since the dawn of X-ray astronomy in the early 1960s.  For the first time,

scientists have been able to unravel a key mystery of whether the X-ray

background came from distinct objects or was diffuse radiation from hot,

intergalactic gas.  The spaceborne Chandra X-ray telescope has resolved

that the glow is made up of millions of discrete sources stretched across

the sky.
ITEM 3b TWO NEW TYPES OF OBJECTS DISCOVERED – ANIMATION
Observations showed that nearly one third of the sources are galaxies whose

cores are very bright in X rays yet emit virtually no optical light from

the core. The observation suggests that these “veiled galactic nuclei”

galaxies may number in the tens of millions over the whole sky. They almost

certainly harbor a massive black hole at their core that produces X rays as

the gas is pulled toward it at nearly the speed of light.
ITEM 3c FARTHEST OBJECTS EVER OBSERVED? (HST DEEP FIELD)
A second new class of objects, comprising approximately one-third of the

background, is assumed to be “ultra-faint” galaxies. These sources may emit

little or no optical light, either because the dust around the galaxy

blocks the light totally or because the optical light is eventually

absorbed during its long journey across the Universe.  In the latter

scenario, these sources would be well over 14 billion light years away and

thus the earliest, most distant objects ever identified.    The sources

would even farther away than the galaxies captured in this “Deep Field”

sequence by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
ITEM 3d CHANDRA X-RAY DATA
Stretched across the entire sky, this would account for approximately 70

million sources, most of which would be identified with galaxies. Their

analysis confirms that a significant fraction of the X-ray background

cannot be due to diffuse radiation from hot, intergalactic gas.
ITEM 3e THE HUNT FOR OPTICAL SOURCES (B-ROLL AND

ANIMATION)
Scientists are searching for the optical counterparts to the newly

discovered X-ray sources with the powerful Keck telescope atop Mauna Kea,

Hawaii, and the Hubble Space Telescope in hopes of determining their

distance.
ITEM 3f CHANDRA ANIMATION
Animation of the spaceborne Chandra X-ray Telescope.
ITEM 3g INTERVIEW EXCERPTS
Richard Mushotzky

Astronomer

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD
Item 4 – STS-99 TCDT Pad Q&A (replay at 3 pm)
HQ Contact:  Dwayne Brown 202/358-1726
Center Contact:  Joel Wells 321/867-2468
ITEM 5 – First Images From The FUSE Satellite (GSFC)  TRT 10:00
The FUSE spacecraft is observing the intestellar lifeblood of galaxies.

The extended halo of half-million-degree gas that surrounds the Milky Way

was generated by thousands of exploding stars, or supernovae, as our galaxy

evolved, according to new observations by NASA’s Far Ultraviolet

Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft.
Since stars destined to explode don’t live long, compared to stars  like

our Sun, star explosions are actually a record of star formation.  By

comparing supernova generated halos among galaxies, researchers hope to be

able to compare their star formation histories.
Video shows the extended halo of gas created by these explosions.
HQ Contact:  Don Savage 202/358-1727
Center Contact:  Wade Sisler 310/286-6256
ITEM 6 – TRMM – Improving Tropical Rainfall Forecasts (GSFC)  TRT 2:00
New research shows that the accuracy of tropical three-day rainfall

forecasts can be improved as much as 100% by combining existing forecast

models with satellite rainfall data.  The research could be particularly

valuable in the prediction of hurricane behavior and rain accumulation.
Video shows, Hurricanes Floyd and Irene (September 1999) and TRM animation.

Using the new “super-ensemble” forecasting techniques, the following

visualizations compare September’s collected one-day forecasts to the

collected daily observations of actual rainfall.  This new forecasting

technique is a major improvement over earlier methods.  The tropics are

notoriously hard for daily precipitation predictions; in this

representation the overall forecasting trend through time is more

significant than precise matching of the rainfall areas depicted by the

color map shown.
HQ Contact:  Dave Steitz  202/358-1730
Center Contact:  Wade Sisler 310/286-6256
ITEM 7 – New Shuttle Stamp – KSC   TRT TBD
Video of the new stamp which the Post Office and NASA unveiled at the

Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center, FL at 11 a.m. eastern time on 1/1/00.
HQ Contact:  Kirsten Williams 202/358-0243
Center Contact:  Lisa Malone 321/867-2468
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Live Television:
PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS FOR EARTH-MAPPING SHUTTLE MISSION SET FOR JAN. 21
     A series of background briefings on the upcoming Shuttle

Radar Topography Mission, designed to map up to 80% of the Earth’s

populated surface in 11 days, will be held on Friday, Jan. 21, at

NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. The mission, designated STS-99, also

is designed to produce unrivaled three-dimensional images of the world.
Full text: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/note2edt/2000/n00-001.txt
Headquarters contact: Kirsten Williams  (Phone:  202/358-0243)
Johnson Space Center contact: Eileen Hawley (Phone:  281/483-5111)
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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

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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

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http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html
For general information about NASA TV see:

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end of daily news summary