Status Report

Space Science News from NASA HQ 28 August 2000

By SpaceRef Editor
August 28, 2000
Filed under

Happy Monday! Another day, another planetary rotation…

The latest at http://spacescience.nasa.gov :

————————-

The Little Black Hole That Could: astronomers using ASCA have found a
relatively tiny “supermassive” black hole pulling in as much matter and
radiating as many X rays as its larger, lazier cousins. Moral lessons from
deep space at http://unisci.com/stories/20003/0825002.htm

————————-

We’ve received a total of 27 proposals for our latest Discovery Program
opportunity. We expect to select several of these proposals for further
study around December, leading to a final selection late next summer.
Story at http://www.space.com/news/discovery_main_000828_MB_.html ; learn
more about the Discovery Program (including the past and current missions
Mars Pathfinder, NEAR, Lunar Prospector, and Stardust) at
http://discovery.nasa.gov/

————————-

Experiments show that a chemical vital to all living creatures can be
synthesised from organic and metallic compounds, “cooked” at very high
temperatures and pressures. Food for life from undersea thermal vents?
Food for astrobiological thought at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_894000/894481.stm

————————-

The world’s largest steerable radio telescope was dedicated last Friday in
West Virginia. The National Science Foundation, not NASA, paid for this
one; NSF is responsible for most U.S. ground-based astronomy. This is an
impressive looking beast. More info from the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory at http://www.nrao.edu/

————————-

Data collected earlier this year by our Galileo spacecraft provides very
strong new evidence that Jupiterís moon Europa has a significant water
ocean churning beneath its icy surface. Ice fishing, anyone? Info at the
Galileo page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/

————————-

Scientists have uncovered sets of oscillating X-ray signals from three
neutron stars that may tell the story of the bending of the fabric of space
around these objects. Bend the fabric of your mind around
ftp://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/PAO/Releases/2000/00-94.htm

————————-

Astronomers using our Hubble Space Telescope have taken attendance in a
class of brown dwarfs and found indications that these odd and elusive
objects also tend to be loners. The Hubble census provides new and
compelling evidence that stars and planets form in different ways. The
study also found that brown dwarfs are unlikely to contribute significantly
to the mysterious, unseen “dark matter” that dominates the mass of our
galaxy and the universe. http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2000/29/pr.html

In a related story, Hubble probed deep within the Orion Nebula, a
neighborhood stellar nursery, and uncovered a swarm of newborn brown
dwarfs. http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2000/19/

————————-

Web Page of the Week: build your own models of NASA spacecraft, including
Space Science missions and others, based on plans you can find at
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/Curriculum.Support/Technol
ogy/Models/.index.html

Subscribe: send blank e-mail to oss-update-subscribe@eGroups.com

Unsubscribe: send blank e-mail to oss-update-unsubscribe@eGroups.com

Archives: http://www.eGroups.com/messages/oss-update

Space Science home: http://spacescience.nasa.gov/

SpaceRef staff editor.