Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/DAILY_1/921117.DFC

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16-Nov-92 Daily File Collection
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=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:921113.REL

11/13/92:  HUBBLE OBSERVES MOST DISTANT KNOWN GALAXY IN UNIVERSE

HQ 92-203/DISTANT GALAXY

Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                     November 13, 1992

Jim Eliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.


RELEASE:  92-203

        NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has revealed a chain of luminous
knots in the core of the most distant known galaxy -- one that existed in the
infancy of the universe and is located more than 10 billion light years from
Earth.

        "These knots could be giant clusters of stars.  If that is so, then
each knot would contain about 10 billion stars and would be about 1,500 light
years across," said Dr. George Miley of Leiden University in the Netherlands
and leader of the international astronomer team which examined the galaxy.

        An alternative theory is that the knots are gas or dust clouds caught
in a "searchlight" beam of energy from a massive black hole hidden at the
galaxy's core.

        The galaxy's great distance from Earth indicates that it was formed
only 1 or 2 billion years after the Big Bang, which marked the beginning of the
observable universe.  Most galaxies probably formed during this early epoch.

        The new photos, taken with the HST's wide field and planetary camera,
reveal detail ten times better than photographs previously taken with
ground-based telescopes.

        The galaxy, designated 4C 41.17, also is known as a radio galaxy.
Radio galaxies produce powerful, extended radio emissions.  Several have been
discovered by this international team in the past few years at great distances
from the Earth.

        In the case of 4C 41.17, astronomers presume that a massive black hole,
rotating in the core of the galaxy, is producing twin jets of particles moving
at enormous speed.  The energy from the jets would be the source of the radio
emissions.

        The Hubble photographs are remarkably similar to images of the galaxy
produced on the basis of the radio emissions, Miley said.

        These corresponding images suggest that the high velocity particle jets
compress gas and dust along their paths, triggering the formation of new stars.
This would account for the elongated optical appearance of the galaxy.

        If this explanation is accurate, the knots along the jet paths would be
clusters of stars in "enormous numbers, the products of the highly disturbed
inner region of the primeval galaxy," Miley said.

        It also is possible, said Miley, that the light photographed by the HST
is not due to stars along the jet paths, but rather is light from a disk of
material surrounding the black hole which is being scattered off clouds of gas
or dust.

        An active galactic nucleus of this description is called a quasar.  It
is hidden from optical view by a thick dust shroud which allows light to escape
only along the radio or jet axis.

        Hubble can help discriminate between these possibilities by further
studying the colors and other properties of these and similar objects.  After
the scheduled Space Shuttle servicing mission for Hubble in late 1993, HST then
can be used to carry out detailed studies of many galaxies at distances
comparable with 4C41.17.

        "More than 50 are now known," said Miley, "observing them with the
renewed Hubble would provide us with an important new window through which we
can glimpse the early history of our universe."


        The observations of galaxy 4C 41.17 were carried out by Miley and co-
investigators Kenneth Chambers, of the University of Hawaii; Wil van Breugel of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories of the University of California; and
Duccio Macchetto of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore and the
European Space Agency. The results will be published in the December 20 issue
of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

        This research was supported by the Netherlands Organization for the
Advancement of Pure Research, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the
European Space Agency, NASA, the European Economic Community, NATO and the U.S.
Department of Energy.

        The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation
between NASA and the European Space Agency.


     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=

=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:921113.SHU

KSC SHUTTLE STATUS 11/13/92



              SPACE SHUTTLE WEEKLY STATUS SUMMARY
                    Friday, November 13, 1992


George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center



Vehicle: OV-103/Space Shuttle Discovery
Current Location: Launch pad 39-A
Mission: STS-53 DoD   Inclination: 57 degrees
Launch timeframe: Dec. wk 1   Nominal Landing Site: KSC
Mission duration: 7 days 5 hours 54 minutes   Crew Size: 5


STS-53 IN WORK TODAY:

- Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT)
- changeout left and right SRB fuel isolation valves
- KSC Launch Readiness Review (LRR)


STS-53 WORK COMPLETED:

- X-rays of reaction control system bellows
- star tracker inspection


STS-53 WORK SCHEDULED:

- OMS/RCS propellant loading activities Saturday and Sunday
- retract rotating service structure/perform APU hot fire Monday



Vehicle: OV-105/Orbiter Endeavour
Location: OPF Bay 1
Primary Payload: TDRS-F/IUS-13 + Diffuse X-Ray Spectrometer (DXS)
Mission: STS-54                    Inclination: 28.45 degrees
Launch Timeframe: January Wk 2     Nominal Landing Site: KSC
Mission Duration: 6 days           Crew Size: 5



STS-54 IN WORK:

- OMS thruster reaction control system bellows remove and replace
- drag chute closeouts/door installation
- orbiter/external tank door functional testing
- waste containment system functional testing
- main propulsion system leak checks (hydrogen side)
- mid-body closeouts



STS-54 WORK SCHEDULED:

- test cycle flight controls and aerosurfaces
- tire checks/pressure topoff
- aft compartment closeouts
- aft compartment leak checks
- orbiter structural leak checks
- crew compartment closeouts
- TDRS-F fueling at Pad 39-B


STS-54 WORK COMPLETED:

- Crew Equipment Interface Test (CEIT)
- ammonia boiler servicing
- payload airborne support equipment Interface Verification Test
- transfer IUS/TDRS to Pad 39-B
- install DXS payload in payload bay on Tuesday
- DXS Interface Verification Test


Vehicle: OV-102/Orbiter Columbia
Current location: OPF Bay 2
Mission: STS-55/Spacelab-D2         Inclination: 28.45 degrees
Launch timeframe: February, wk 4    Nominal Landing Site: KSC
Mission Duration: 8 days 22 hours   Crew size: 7


STS-55 IN WORK:

- powered up orbiter systems electrical testing
- forward reaction control system deservicing and removal preps
- main engine removal
- main propulsion system leak checks (hydrogen side)
- wheel and tire re-installation
- star tracker door cycle testing
- left hand payload bay door radiator #1 inspections
- tile repair and replacement


STS-55 WORK SCHEDULED:

- remove window #1
- remove forward reaction control system
- remove and replace freon pump package
- crew hatch functional test
- payload bay deconfiguration
- S-Band air-to-ground antenna testing
- drag chute system deservicing
- orbiter structural inspections


STS-55 WORK COMPLETED:

- USMP payload removal
- remote manipulator arm (RMS) removal
- main engine heat shields removal
- waste containment system removal
- wheels and tires removal
- hypergolic system and APU deservicing
- post flight system inspections
- main engine inspections
- Ku Band antenna testing
- Spacelab D-2 Mission Sequence Test

     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=

=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:921116.REL

11/16/92:  NASA, CRAY TO JOIN IN PARALLEL SUPERCOMPUTER RESEARCH

HQ 92-205/JPL Cray Technology

Drucella Andersen
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.              November 16, 1992

Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Franklin O'Donnell
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.


RELEASE:  92-205


        NASA is collaborating with Cray Research, Inc., Eagan, Minn., to
conduct joint research and development activities using the company's most
powerful supercomputer.

        The partnership is a NASA response to the multi-agency High Performance
Computing and Communications program, a bold national initiative to advance
U.S. capabilities in supercomputing.

        The computer will be located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena, Calif., with the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, as a
collaborator in the project.

        "The Cray T3D system, together with our expertise in parallel
processing, will allow us to tackle new computational problems in Earth and
space sciences," said Dr. Carl Kukkonen, Supercomputing Project Manager at JPL.

        "More importantly, we will be able to feed back JPL's and Caltech's
experiences to Cray and thus, contribute to maintaining U.S. leadership in
supercomputing," Kukkonen added.


        "This collaboration will help us address the grand challenges of Earth
and space sciences -- analyzing the enormous data sets from NASA's Earth and
planetary missions," said Joseph Bredekamp of the Office of Space Science and
Applications, NASA Headquarters. "We expect that 20 to 25 percent of our
scientific computing will be performed on parallel computers within 3 years."

NASA Applications

        JPL will use the new Cray T3D system for applications that require
high-power computers -- turning planetary data from spacecraft into
three-dimensional animations; electromagnetic simulations for the design of
communications antennas; analyzing Earth satellite data; studying the dynamics
of chemical reactions and the flow of space plasmas; and computational fluid
dynamics.

        "NASA is committed to being an early user of new parallel
supercomputers, and Cray will be an important player," said Lee Holcomb,
Director for the High Performance Computing and Communications program at NASA
Headquarters.

        In the fall of 1993, JPL will receive a Cray T3D system, the company's
new "massively parallel" supercomputer.  The innovative machine uses 256
processors to reach a peak speed of 38 billion floating point mathematical
operations per second, making it Cray's most powerful computer.  The effort
involves JPL, Cray and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech),
Pasadena.

Center Of Excellence

        Cray has designated JPL/Caltech as one of four "Cray Centers of
Excellence in Parallel Computing." Under this program, the company will locate
staff engineers at JPL to carry out joint research in parallel computing
techniques.

        Cray President John Carlson said the company chose JPL as a site for
its Center of Excellence program "because of the great expertise developed at
JPL and the Caltech campus in parallel computation."

        The project is funded by NASA's Office of Aeronautics and Office of
Space Science and Applications, Washington, D.C.
     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=

=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:921116.SHU

KSC SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT 11/16/92








                     SPACE SHUTTLE STATUS REPORT
                     Monday, November 16, 1992

George H. Diller
Kennedy Space Center


Vehicle: OV-103/Space Shuttle Discovery
Current Location: Launch Pad 39-A
Mission: STS-53/DoD   Inclination: 57 degrees
Launch timeframe: December, wk 1    Nominal Landing Site: KSC
Mission duration: 7 days 5 hours 54 minutes    Crew Size: 5


IN WORK TODAY:

- OMS/RCS fuel system disconnects and purges

- auxilary power unit hot fire preparations


WORK SCHEDULED:

- retraction of rotating service structure targeted for 6 p.m.

- auxiliary power unit hot fire targeted for 10 p.m.

- begin SRB closeouts and orbiter aft closeouts on Wednesday

- final ordnance work next Sunday


WORK COMPLETED:

- OMS/RCS hypergolic propellant loading

- changeout of SRB fuel isolation valves

- X-ray reaction control system thrusters



SPECIAL TOPICS:  Fueling operations for the TDRS-F payload at Pad
39-B will be conducted Tuesday through Thursday. On Orbiter
Endeavour in OPF Bay 1, bellows changeout on one of the RCS
thrusters is in work and on schedule.  Cleaning of the payload
bay is underway in preparation for closing the payload bay doors
Wednesday night.  The orbiter structural leak check will follow
on Thursday, with aft compartment closeouts and the weight and
center of gravity determinations scheduled on Friday.  Rollover
to the VAB transfer isle is scheduled for 3rd shift Saturday
morning.
     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=

=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:921116A.REL

11/16/92: BRIEFING NOV. 19 ON HUBBLE IMAGE OF DISK AROUND POSSIBLE BLACK HOLE



Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.            November 16, 1992


Jim Elliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.



NOTE TO EDITORS:  N92-98


     Hubble Space Telescope's first image of a giant dust disk orbiting a
suspected black hole will be the subject of a media briefing Thursday, Nov. 19,
1992, at 1:00 p.m.  EST in the NASA auditorium, 400 Maryland Ave., S.W.,
Washington, D.C.

     Dr.  Walter Jaffe, of Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands, will present
this recent finding and show an image clearly depicting the Frisbee-shaped
disk.  The image provides astronomers with the first clear view of the disk's
bright hub, which presumably harbors a black hole.

     The disk is at the core of galaxy NGC 4261, chosen because it is one of
the dozen brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, located 45 million
light-years away.

     Host Dr. Stephen Maran, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md., will be joined by veteran panelists Dr. Bruce Margon, Professor
of Astronomy and Chairman of the Department of Astronomy, University of
Washington, Seattle, and Dr. Daniel Weedman, Professor of Astronomy at
Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

     The briefing will be carried live on NASA Select television, Satcom F-2R,
Transponder 13, 72 degrees west longitude, frequency 3960.0 MHz, audio 6.8 MHz.
Questions will be taken from NASA centers.

- end -
     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=

=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_7_2_16_18.TXT

11/13/92:  HUBBLE OBSERVES MOST DISTANT KNOWN GALAXY IN UNIVERSE

HQ 92-203/DISTANT GALAXY

Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                     November 13, 1992

Jim Eliott
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.


RELEASE:  92-203

        NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has revealed a chain of luminous
knots in the core of the most distant known galaxy -- one that existed in the
infancy of the universe and is located more than 10 billion light years from
Earth.

        "These knots could be giant clusters of stars.  If that is so, then
each knot would contain about 10 billion stars and would be about 1,500 light
years across," said Dr. George Miley of Leiden University in the Netherlands
and leader of the international astronomer team which examined the galaxy.

        An alternative theory is that the knots are gas or dust clouds caught
in a "searchlight" beam of energy from a massive black hole hidden at the
galaxy's core.

        The galaxy's great distance from Earth indicates that it was formed
only 1 or 2 billion years after the Big Bang, which marked the beginning of the
observable universe.  Most galaxies probably formed during this early epoch.

        The new photos, taken with the HST's wide field and planetary camera,
reveal detail ten times better than photographs previously taken with
ground-based telescopes.

        The galaxy, designated 4C 41.17, also is known as a radio galaxy.
Radio galaxies produce powerful, extended radio emissions.  Several have been
discovered by this international team in the past few years at great distances
from the Earth.

        In the case of 4C 41.17, astronomers presume that a massive black hole,
rotating in the core of the galaxy, is producing twin jets of particles moving
at enormous speed.  The energy from the jets would be the source of the radio
emissions.

        The Hubble photographs are remarkably similar to images of the galaxy
produced on the basis of the radio emissions, Miley said.

        These corresponding images suggest that the high velocity particle jets
compress gas and dust along their paths, triggering the formation of new stars.
This would account for the elongated optical appearance of the galaxy.

        If this explanation is accurate, the knots along the jet paths would be
clusters of stars in "enormous numbers, the products of the highly disturbed
inner region of the primeval galaxy," Miley said.

        It also is possible, said Miley, that the light photographed by the HST
is not due to stars along the jet paths, but rather is light from a disk of
material surrounding the black hole which is being scattered off clouds of gas
or dust.

        An active galactic nucleus of this description is called a quasar.  It
is hidden from optical view by a thick dust shroud which allows light to escape
only along the radio or jet axis.

        Hubble can help discriminate between these possibilities by further
studying the colors and other properties of these and similar objects.  After
the scheduled Space Shuttle servicing mission for Hubble in late 1993, HST then
can be used to carry out detailed studies of many galaxies at distances
comparable with 4C41.17.

        "More than 50 are now known," said Miley, "observing them with the
renewed Hubble would provide us with an important new window through which we
can glimpse the early history of our universe."


        The observations of galaxy 4C 41.17 were carried out by Miley and co-
investigators Kenneth Chambers, of the University of Hawaii; Wil van Breugel of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories of the University of California; and
Duccio Macchetto of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore and the
European Space Agency. The results will be published in the December 20 issue
of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

        This research was supported by the Netherlands Organization for the
Advancement of Pure Research, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the
European Space Agency, NASA, the European Economic Community, NATO and the U.S.
Department of Energy.

        The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation
between NASA and the European Space Agency.


     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=

=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_8_3_4_34.TXT

MGN STATUS 11/13

Magellan Status

Status report of Magellan for Friday, November 13, 1992:

1.  Magellan continues to operate normally, performing a
    starcal and desat on each orbit and transmitting a carrier
    plus 40 bps X-band signal.

2.  On Wednesday Magellan ended its period of apoapsis
    occultations in which it passed through the shadow of
    Venus on each orbit.  Temperatures are expected to
    increase gradually, requiring adjustment of the radar
    heaters and the length of "hides" (periods in the shadow
    of the High Gain Antenna).

3.  The craft has completed 6086 orbits of Venus.  So far in
    Cycle 4 the spacecraft has completed 450 orbits which is
    almost exactly 25% of the orbits in a 243 cycle.

4.  The gravity data collected during the first ten days of
    Cycle 4 was affected by some residual effects of the Orbit
    Trim Maneuver to lower the periapsis, so the Mission
    Planning Team has recommended extending the gravity data
    collection to May 25, 1993.
     Source:NASA Spacelink    Modem:205-895-0028  Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=