Status Report

Space Science News from NASA HQ 2 Jan 2001

By SpaceRef Editor
January 2, 2001
Filed under ,

What’s new at http://spacescience.nasa.gov :

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Astronomers have been using a bunch of new ground-based and space-based
tools to observe the peak of the Sun’s 11-year cycle of activity. We’ve
been teaming up with NOAA to try to maximize the science return from all
the new data. A NASA/NOAA press release, jazzed up with images at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast22dec_1.htm?list52322

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Five Space Science news items, including two related to the Sun, are
included in NASA’s annual “Top Ten” for the year 2000. Bragging at
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-198.txt

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From teachers to graduate students and homemakers to veterinarians, 203
space aficionados from 48 states have been selected to share their love of
space exploration with the public. We’ve been running this program since
1997. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2000/solarsysambas.html

In other Education/Public Outreach news, we’ve published our first Space
Science E/PO newsletter, which highlights some of our recent E/PO
accomplishments. It’s an Acrobat file at
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/education/news/2001jan.pdf , get the free
reader at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html if you need it…

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Cassini’s reaction wheels (which maintain the orientation of the
spacecraft) were turned on again in the evening of December 21, after being
shut down for a short time, and science observations resumed on December
28. Meanwhile, Galileo flew by Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, and survived the
high radiation dose it received. Cassini and Galileo images (and sounds!)
from Jupiter are being posted frequently at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby/

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We recently announced that we are seeking proposals from scientists and
institutions around the world to develop the first mission to Pluto. This
decision comes three months after cost increases on the Pluto/Kuiper
Express (PKE) mission led us to issue a stop-work order to the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. More at
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-201.txt

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The rock and dust kicked up by an asteroid impact 65 million years ago were
not enough to kill the dinosaurs, according to new research — but the
debris may have sparked a deadly global chemical reaction in the
atmosphere. Bad space weather at
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/12/18/dinosaurs.crater.ap/index.html

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The European Space Agency has selected the landing site for its Mars
Express mission, which will launch in 2003 with some U.S. hardware
aboard. ESA press release at
http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/GGGJDUPCWGC_index_0.html

More Mars news: Mars’ patchwork magnetic field acts as an array of
umbrellas to protect the planet’s atmosphere, according to a new mapping
study by Mars Global
Surveyor. http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2000/12/15_mars.html

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Weekly Web Highlight: so you want to be an astronomer? Go outside at night
and look up. Oh, you want to make money at it too? Young people
especially should see http://www.aas.org/~education/career.html for a nice
description of the field.

SpaceRef staff editor.