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Дата: 31 августа 1998 (1998-08-31)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Far-Flung Galaxy Clusters May Reveal Fate Of Universe
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FOR RELEASE: August 27, 1998
CONTACT: Don Savage
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1547)
Bill Steigerwald
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-5017)
Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
(Phone: 410/338-4514)
PRESS RELEASE NO.: STScI-PR98-27
FAR-FLUNG GALAXY CLUSTERS MAY REVEAL FATE OF UNIVERSE
A survey of galaxy clusters by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found
what could be some of the most distant clusters ever seen. If the
distances and masses of the clusters are confirmed by ground-based
telescopes, the survey may hold clues to how galaxies quickly formed
into massive large-scale structures after the Big Bang, and what that
may mean for the eventual fate of the universe.
According to theoretical models, if the clusters turn out to be massive
and very distant, it could imply that the cosmos does not contain enough
matter for gravity to stop the expansion of the universe. These models
predict that such a low-density universe would have built most of its
galaxy clusters long ago.
About 10 to 20 of the farthest clusters in the Hubble survey may be over
seven billion light years away, which means that the clusters, and their
populations of tens or perhaps hundreds of galaxies each, were fully
assembled early in the history of the universe.
Present distance estimates are based on the colors of the galaxies in
each cluster. The redder the overall cluster appears, the more distant
it is, an assumption based on the apparent reddening of light -- known
as red shift -- as stars and galaxies move away from us at high speeds.
The distances can be more accurately measured using a spectrograph
attached to a ground-based telescope.
The Hubble survey contains 92 new clusters uncovered during a six-year
sky survey known as the Medium Deep Survey, led by a team of astronomers
now at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
The project has been led by Professor Richard Griffiths and senior
scientist Dr. Kavan Ratnatunga. The catalog samples an area of the sky
that is small, but scattered over 300 random directions.
The clusters were found using an automated procedure developed by the
Carnegie Mellon team. They first identified large elliptical galaxies
in random fields taken by Hubble. Next, an automated procedure was used
to search statistically for an over-abundance of galaxies around the
large elliptical galaxies. The assumption is that the excess galaxies
all belong to the same cluster. This procedure helped to discriminate
clusters against the field galaxy population which is smoothly distributed
across the sky
Major new telescopes must be used to study these clusters to measure
their distances.
The whole HST catalog of galaxies can be searched on the web at:
http://astro.phys.cmu.edu/mds/
The Hubble observations will be published in the Astronomical Journal.
The research team members are: E. J. Ostrander; K. U. Ratnatunga; and
R. E. Griffiths, Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University.
The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) for NASA, under
contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble
Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA
and the European Space Agency (ESA).
- end -
EDITOR'S NOTE: Images and a caption associated with this release are
available on the Internet at:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/1998/27 or via links in:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html or
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html.
GIF and JPEG images are available via anonymous ftp to oposite.stsci.edu
in /pubinfo/gif/9827.gif and /pubinfo/jpeg/9827.jpg.
Higher resolution digital versions (300 dpi JPEG) of the release photos
available at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/1998/27.
TIFF files are available at
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/tiff/1998/9827a.tif, 9827b.tif and
9827c.tif.
Other images from Hubble's Medium Deep Field catalog are available at
http://astro.phys.cmu.edu/mds/.
STScI press releases and other information are available by sending an
Internet electronic mail message to pio-request@stsci.edu. In the body
of the message (not the subject line) users should type the word
"subscribe" (no quotes). The system will reply with a confirmation of
the subscription and users will receive new press releases as they are
issued.
************************************************
PHOTO CAPTION
FOR RELEASE: August 27, 1998
PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC98-27
FAR-FLUNG GALAXY CLUSTERS MAY REVEAL FATE OF UNIVERSE
A selection of NASA Hubble Space Telescope snapshots of huge galaxy
clusters that lie far away and far back in time. These are selected from
a catalog of 92 new clusters uncovered during a six-year Hubble
observing program known as the Medium Deep Survey.
If the distances and masses of the clusters are confirmed by ground
based telescopes, the survey may hold clues to how galaxies quickly
formed into massive large-scale structures after the big bang, and what
that may mean for the eventual fate of the expanding universe.
The images are each a combination of two exposures in yellow and deep
red taken with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Each
cluster's distance is inferred from the reddening of the starlight,
which is due to the expansion of space. Astronomers assume these
clusters all formed early in the history of the universe.
HST133617-00529 (left)
This collection of spiral and elliptical galaxies lies an estimated 4
to 6 billion light-years away. It is in the constellation of Virgo not
far from the 3rd magnitude star Zeta Virginis. The brighter galaxies in
this cluster have red magnitudes between 20 and 22 near the limit of the
Palomar Sky Survey. The bright blue galaxy (upper left) is probably a
foreground galaxy, and not a cluster member. The larger of the galaxies
in the cluster are probably about the size of our Milky Way Galaxy. The
diagonal line at lower right is an artificial satellite trail.
HST002013+28366 (upper right)
This cluster of galaxies lies in the constellation of Andromeda a few
degrees from the star Alpheratz in the northeast corner of the
constellation Pegasus. It is at an estimated distance of 4 billion
light-years, which means the light we are seeing from the cluster is as
it appeared when the universe was roughly 2/3 of its present age.
HST035528+09435 (lower right)
At an estimated distance of about 7 to 10 billion light-years (z=1),
this is one of the farthest clusters in the Hubble sample. The cluster
lies in the constellation of Taurus.
Credit: K. Ratnatunga, R. Griffiths (Carnegie Mellon University); and
NASA
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=SANA=
Дата: 31 августа 1998 (1998-08-31)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: First Hypersonic Propulsion Hardware Delivered
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Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC August 27, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1979)
Keith Henry
Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA
(Phone: 757/864-6120)
Kirsten Williams
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA
(Phone: 805/258-2662)
Anthony Castrogiovanni
GASL, Inc., Ronkonkoma, NY
(Phone: 516/737-6100 x128)
Lowell Keel
MicroCraft, Inc., Tullahoma, TN
(Phone: 615/455-2617 x235)
RELEASE: 98-154
FIRST HYPERSONIC PROPULSION HARDWARE DELIVERED
A revolutionary new engine that ultimately may reduce
the cost of putting payloads in orbit has been delivered to
NASA for testing.
The 30-inch long "scramjet" engine was fabricated by
GASL, Inc., Ronkonkoma, NY, for the Hyper-X program, an
ambitious research effort to demonstrate hypersonic
propulsion technologies in flight.
The engine is the first program hardware to be completed
and will be used in high-speed ground tests at NASA's Langley
Research Center, Hampton, VA.
An identical engine being fabricated now will be mated
to its flight vehicle in February 1999 and delivered to NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, leading to the
first flight of the program in early 2000.
The contract for flight and ground hardware is
implemented for NASA by a team led by MicroCraft, Tullahoma
TN, and including Boeing, Seal Beach, CA, and Accurate
Automation, Chattanooga, TN. A second contract, to Orbital
Sciences Corp., Dulles, VA, will provide rockets to boost the
research vehicles to test altitude.
Langley manages the five-year, approximately $170
million Hyper-X program, and Dryden is responsible for
vehicle fabrication and flight tests.
Three flights are planned -- two at Mach 7 and one at
Mach 10 (seven and ten times the speed of sound). The flight
tests will be conducted within the Western Test Range off the
coast of southern California. Each of three planned vehicles
will be flown once.
Hyper-X vehicles, which have been designated X-43, will
be boosted to their test point on the first stage of a
modified Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus booster rocket and
will be launched by NASA's B-52 from an altitude of 19,000 to
43,000 feet, depending upon the mission. For each flight,
the booster will accelerate the X-43 to Mach 7 or 10 at
altitudes up to 100,000 feet, where it will separate from the
booster and fly under its own power. Mach 7 is approximately
5,000 mph at sea level. Mach 10 is approximately 7,200 mph
at sea level.
Hyper-X program managers hope to demonstrate "air-
breathing" engine technologies that could ultimately be
applied in vehicle types from hypersonic (Mach 5 and above)
aircraft to reusable space launchers. By comparison, the
high-flying SR-71 reconnaissance airplane, which flies more
than Mach 3, is the fastest air-breathing aircraft to date.
Although prior flight experiments conducted by the
Russians using a rocket booster have demonstrated air-
breathing engine operation at Mach 5 to 6 conditions, the X-
43 will be the first free-flying demonstration of an
airframe-integrated, air-breathing engine and will extend the
flight range to Mach 10.
Extending air-breathing technologies to much greater
speeds requires the development of scramjet engines, the type
that will propel the research vehicles. Unlike a rocket,
which must carry its own oxygen for combustion, an air-
breathing aircraft burns oxygen in air scooped from the
atmosphere. Air-breathing hypersonic vehicles therefore can
be lighter and should carry more cargo/payload than
equivalent rocket-powered systems.
A ramjet engine operates by subsonic combustion of fuel
in a stream of air compressed by the forward speed of the
aircraft itself, as opposed to a conventional jet engine, in
which the fan blades of the compressor section compress the
air. A scramjet (supersonic-combustion ramjet) is a ramjet
engine in which the airflow through the entire engine remains
supersonic (faster than Mach 1 or the speed of sound). The
fuel for the X-43 will be hydrogen.
- end -
Images of the Hyper-X/X-43 vehicle and additional
information can be obtained at the following URLs:
STILLS:
http://lisar.larc.nasa.gov/LISAR/BROWSE/hyperx.html
ANIMATION: http://lava.larc.nasa.gov/BROWSE/hyperx.html
FACT SHEET: http://oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/Hyper-X.html
* * *
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=SANA=
Дата: 31 августа 1998 (1998-08-31)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Cassini Update - August 28, 1998
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CASSINI SIGNIFICANT EVENTS FOR WEEK ENDING 8/28/98
Spacecraft Status:
The most recent Spacecraft status is from the DSN tracking pass on Wednesday,
08/26, over Goldstone. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of
health and is executing the C9 sequence nominally. The speed of the spacecraft
can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page
(http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/today/)
Spacecraft Activity Summary:
On Wednesday, 08/26 the Solid State Recorder (SSR) record and playback pointers
were reset. This housekeeping activity, done approximately weekly, maximizes
the amount of time that recorded engineering data is available for playback to
the ground should an anomaly occur on the spacecraft.
Upcoming events:
Activities scheduled for the week of 08/28 - 09/03 include: SSR FSW Partition
Maintenance and SSR Pointer Reset, both performed on 9/02.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 31 августа 1998 (1998-08-31)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Space Frontier Conference 7 - Rates go up 10 September!!
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SPACE FRONTIER CONFERENCE VII - "SPACE: THE REVOLUTION IS NOW! "
October 9-11, 1998
Sheraton Gateway Hotel
Los Angeles International Airport, CA
There is a revolution underway in the opening of the greatest human
frontier of all time! If you want to know what's really happening, then
join the players who are opening the space frontier this Columbus Day
weekend in Los Angeles. This conference is THE EVENT for anyone who wants
to understand or become a part of the human breakout into space.
This is your chance to hear from a cross-range of NASA and other government
representatives, entrepreneurs, financiers, scientists and space media
leaders, and to then decide what YOUR role will be in opening the space
frontier.
The conference is presented by the Space Frontier Foundation and is
co-sponsored by: The Foundation for the Non-Governmental Development of
Space (FINDS); ProSpace, the citizen's space lobby; and Rotary Rocket
Company, an entrepreneurial space transportation company.
A selected list of confirmed speakers includes:
"The Washington Connection"
* Congressman Dana Rohrabacher: Chairman of the House Space & Aeronautics
Subcommittee
* Joe Rothenberg: NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight
* James Asker: Aviation Week and Space Technology, Washington Bureau Chief
* Ralph Moslener: Manager of Space Station Commercialization for Boeing
"The Entrepreneurs and Financiers"
* Dr. Buzz Aldrin: CEO of Starcraft Boosters Inc. and Apollo 11 Astronaut
* Shubber Ali: KPMG Peat Marwick
* Joe Carroll: Tether Applications, Inc.
* Mitchell Burnside Clapp: Executive Vice President of Pioneer Rocketplane
* Charles "Pete" Conrad: Chairman of Universal Space Lines and Apollo 12
Astronaut
* Gary Hudson: CEO of Rotary Rocket Company
* Mike Kelly: Chairman, Kelly Space and Technology
* Richard Smithies: Barclays Capital
"The Scientists"
* Dr. Alan Binder: Principal Investigator, Lunar Prospector Mission
* Dr. Tom Gehrels: Director of Space Watch
* Dr. Eleanor Helin: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Mount Palomar
Observatory
* Dr. John Lewis: University of Arizona & author of "Rain of Iron and Ice"
& "Mining the Sky"
* Dr. Harrison Schmitt: University of Wisconsin and Apollo 17 Astronaut
* Dr. William "Red" Whittaker: Carnegie Mellon University Tele-Robotics
"The Storytellers"
* David Brin: Hugo Award winner, author of "The Postman" and "Startide Rising"
* Dave Brody: "Inside Space, the Sci-Fi Channel
* Rene Echevaria: Producer, Deep Space Nine, Paramount Studios
* Allen Steele: Hugo Award winner, author of "Clarke County, Space", and
"Lunar Descent"
* Robert Weiss: Broadway Pictures, Paramount Studios
THE CUT-OFF DATE FOR DISCOUNT ADMISSION IS SEPTEMBER 10, 1998. Full price
details are:
Admission before Sept. 10 after Sept. 10
General Admission* $90 $120
General Admission (student)* $70 $90
Friday luncheon $25 $25
Saturday luncheon $25 $25
Sunday luncheon $25 $25
Saturday Awards banquet $50 $50
Full Registration ** $180 $220
* includes receptions
** includes all events (a $35 and $25 savings, respectively)
For a complete list of our speakers and agenda, and to register on-line,
see our WWW page at
For other info: send email to conference@space-frontier.org or call
1-800-78-SPACE. Thank you.
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 31 августа 1998 (1998-08-31)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Mars Surveyor 98 Update - August 28, 1998
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1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT
August 28, 1998
John McNamee
Mars Surveyor 98 Project Manager
Mars Climate Orbiter:
Orbiter integration and test activities continue to proceed on
schedule. Mission System Testing of the launch/initialization phase
was repeated very successfully on August 26 with a fault protection case
causing a side swap inserted. The Mapping phase test conducted on August 22
was halted midway through the test due to a computer reset. This fault
has now been duplicated in the Spacecraft Test Lab for the first time
which provides promise that the root cause of this and previous resets
will be determined. The orbiter is on schedule for shipment to Kennedy
Space Center (KSC) on September 10. The only remaining work on the orbiter
prior to ship is the dry spin balance in vacuum scheduled for September 5.
Mars Polar Lander:
The lander is being assembled into the cruise configuration and is on
schedule to begin cruise thermal vacuum testing on September 2. The backshell
and cruise stage are installed and the spacecraft is scheduled to move
to the thermal vacuum chamber on August 29. The lander pre-ship review is
planned for September 15. Shipment to KSC is planned for October 12.
For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit
our website at:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/
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=SANA=
Дата: 31 августа 1998 (1998-08-31)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: NEAR Weekly Report for Aug. 28, 1998
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NEAR WEEKLY REPORT
August 28, 1998
MISSION OPERATIONS:
The NEAR spacecraft state/configuration has remained
nominal (Flight Computer #1 and Attitude Interface Unit #1 active). The
Magnetometer and XGRS instruments have remained on throughout the
reporting period.
The XGRS high voltages were turned ON this week. The
process was initiated on August 24; but due to DSN problems, the
activity could not be completed until August 26. All operations were
monitored by the XGRS instrument engineer.
NEAR's attitude mode is presently alternating between
GS-4 (Earth pointing) during high gain antenna tracks and GS-5 (~Sun
pointing) at all other times. The GS-5 off-sun pointing limit remains
at 10 deg.
Onboard image and attitude data recorded during the
August 19 test of a quick turnaround OpNav system was replayed on August
26 to allow further investigation regarding the missing attitude data.
Once again, the attitude data replayed was NOT archived in the MOC.
This problem is continuing to be investigated and will be re-tested with
a flight test on September 23.
Time tagged commanding of both Solid State Recorders (SSR)
continued this week. All science data was successfully recorded
and played back this week with the exception of a short span from
238/193727 to 238/194913 when recorder #2 record operations were
interrupted briefly for the OpNav test.
Testing and review of reusable command sequences
continued this week.
Continued refinement of Eros operations practices and
processes.
The new Flight Computer (FC) software was delivered to
Mission Operations this week for loading on the brassboard. Further
testing of the FC software will continue next week.
Future Plans:
An EROS Mission Operations Review will be held at
JHU/APL on September 9. An Agenda will be transmitted from the Project
Office.
Continuing with planned MOC ground system
reconfiguration and establishment of independent test system (new third
Front End Processor with brassboard outside firewall). Ground system
freeze date is October 1.
Continuing with testing and review of command fragments
and operational use of Seq_Gen in production of weekly cruise phase
command loads. Goal is to operate NEAR in a manner as similar as
possible as that planned for asteroid operations next year.
Upcoming Spacecraft Activities:
September TBD: Flight Computer (FC) s/w upload
September TBD: Momentum Dump testing w/new FC s/w
October 14: TCM 15 w/new FC s/w
Hа сегодня все, пока!
=SANA=
Дата: 31 августа 1998 (1998-08-31)
От: Alexander Bondugin
Тема: Sky & Telescope News Bulletin - August 28, 1998
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SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN
AUGUST 28, 1998
SUBARU MIRROR COMPLETED
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) announced today that
the mirror for the Subaru Telescope being built atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea has
been finished. The 8.3-meter-diameter, 20-centimeter-thick piece of
polished Corning Ultra Low Expansion (ULE) glass is the largest monolithic
optical-infrared mirror in the world, surpassing the 8.2-meter mirrors of
the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. (However, the
Subaru mirror will have an effective mirror surface of 8.2 meters.) Testing
of the Subaru mirror revealed that errors in the surface are no more than
12 nanometers (12 millionths of a millimeter) over its surface. The
22.8-metric-ton primary mirror will be moved from outside Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, to Mauna Kea over the next few weeks, arriving in Hawaii by
the end of October. Subaru's "first light" is expected in January.
HUBBLE REVEALS MORE DISTANT GALAXY CLUSTERS
On the heels of the announcement on August 19th, when an Space Telescope
Science Institute astronomer revealed a distant and massive galaxy cluster,
another team of astronomers has turned up more faraway associations. Some
results of a six-year-long survey of distant galaxies by Hubble were
announced on August 27th. The so-called Medium Deep Survey, led by Richard
Griffiths (Carnegie Mellon University), has found nearly 100 new clusters
of galaxies. The researchers note that about half of the 20 farthest
clusters in the survey appear to be more than seven billion light-years
away. Thus, galaxies must have been able to form very early on. The
distances and masses of the clusters have to be confirmed by ground-based
spectroscopy, but if the distances hold up, it would lend additional
support to the scenario that the universe does not have enough mass to halt
its expansion since the Big Bang.
A NEW PIECE OF MARS
New details are emerging about a 2-kilogram (4.5-pound) meteorite found on
May 4th in the Sahara Desert. According to Jutta Zipfel (Max Planck
Institute for Chemistry), the highly weathered stone's mineralogy and
oxygen-isotope ratios proved that it came from the Martian surface. Zipfel
says overall the composition is closest to the class of Martian meteorites
called shergottites, which are basalts that erupted onto the red planet's
surface some 1.3 billion years ago.
Only 13 meteorites are known to have come from Mars. The rare pedigree
means that this sizable stone is worth more than $1,000,000. In fact, just
getting the private owners to relinquish enough of it for scientific
analysis has involved touchy negotiations. Even the find's location remains
a closely guarded secret, and despite four months in "captivity" it has yet
to be given an official designation. (For now, meteor aficionados have
dubbed it "Lucky 13".)
Meanwhile, a good-sized *lunar* meteorite has been found in the same
general region. Named Dar al Gani 400, the stone is a fine-grained fusion
of rock fragments weighing in at 1.425 kg. It becomes the 14th known lunar
meteorite find (two others are paired pieces). But only three of these
Moonstones are in private hands, and of these Dar al Gani is the largest.
COMET WILLIAMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH
Comet watchers report that Comet Williams (C/1998 P1) has brightened a
little and is now about 8th magnitude as it continues its northward trek