Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/mac/TEXT/SPACEDIG/V09_5/V9_561.TXT

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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #561

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 561

Today's Topics:
      NASA's Voyager 2 finds new moon around Neptune (Forwarded)
            US technology and HDTV
        In response for references for Black Holes ...
            Black Hole Temperature
            SETI related Questions
        Mallove and Matloff's THE STARFLIGHT HANDBOOK.
                  Apollo 11
            Soviet Shuttle as a Billboard
           Voyager Status for 07/11/89 (Forwarded)
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 7 Jul 89 16:25:19 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA's Voyager 2 finds new moon around Neptune (Forwarded)

Paula Cleggett-Haleim
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                  July 7, 1989

Mary Beth Murrill
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.


RELEASE:  89-110

NASA's VOYAGER 2 FINDS NEW MOON AROUND NEPTUNE

     A new moon has been discovered orbiting Neptune, scientists
on the Voyager Project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena, Calif., announced today.

     The moon's discovery was confirmed Wednesday, July 5, when
it was located in images returned from the Voyager 2 spacecraft
enroute to Neptune.  Temporarily designated 1989 N1, the new moon
was initially seen in Voyager 2 images transmitted to Earth in
mid-June.  Later images showing the small body in its predicted
orbit confirmed its existence.

     Dr. Stephen P. Synnott, a Voyager imaging team scientist at
JPL, found the small, bright smudge in Voyager pictures that led
to the moon's discovery.  According to Synnott, the new Neptunian
satellite could range in diameter from about 125 miles to 400
miles and is in a very nearly circular, equatorial orbit about
57,600 miles from the planet's cloud tops or 73,000 miles from
the planet's center.

     At this point, the moon is too indistinct to appear in
photographic prints made from the Voyager images.  Pictures taken
in coming weeks will show the moon more clearly.

     The moon cannot be seen from Earth because the moon is so
close to Neptune that the brightness of the planet itself masks
the tiny point of light.  Voyager 2 will continue to study the
moon and conduct searches for others as it approaches the planet.

     Neptune has two other known moons:  Triton discovered in
1846 and Nereid discovered in 1949.  Triton is between 1,500 to
2,500 miles in diameter.  Nereid probably is between 200 miles to
700 miles in diameter.

     Voyager 2 is now 43 million miles away from Neptune and will
make a close pass of the planet on Aug. 24, 1989.  The spacecraft
was launched in 1977 and flew past Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in
1981 and Uranus in 1986.  The Neptune encounter will be the final
planetary flyby of the Voyager mission, which also included
Jupiter and Saturn flybys conducted by twin spacecraft Voyager 1.

     The Voyager mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of
Space Science and Applications, Washington, D.C.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 7 Jul 89 17:47:56 EDT
From: John Roberts <[e-mail]>
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are those of the sender
    and do not reflect NIST policy or agreement.
Subject: US technology and HDTV


>From: shelby!portia![e-mail]  (Michael Brooks)
>The optimistic forcast by S. Morozumi (head of the
>Seiko Group) is to have is to have LCDs for HDTV in the mid-late `90s.
>Unrealistic?  Don`t bet against the Japanese in this.  You can
>probably bet against a US sponsored effort and make money.  IF such
>displays do become available, they will probably be commercial and
>not mil-spec`d (let alone space-spec`d), unless we license the
>technology (from the Japanese) and build an appropriate version.
There are several other technologies being explored in the US, including
active (glowing) and passive (like LCDs) flexible thin-film displays. Note
that at least for consumer products, dots per inch is not a limiting factor,
since the displays can be made as large as desired.

>In the race for LCD technology we are far
>behind, like that of other electronics items (256K DRAMS).
(256K DRAMs are two generations old now. Everybody knows how to make them)
The US is not really far behind Japan in DRAM technology. The few US companies
still in the DRAM business expect to have the 4Mbit DRAMs available in quantity
a few months behind the Japanese companies. What the US companies lack is
volume capacity (which was wiped out by the Japanese a few years ago through
dumping at an estimated cost of $4 billion), and willingness to take short-term
losses or drops in profit as an investment toward future gains. Now that DRAMs
are profitable again, several former US contenders are hesitant to reenter
the market, because long-term gain is not absolutely guaranteed, and because
a drop in quarterly profit could make them susceptible to attack from
corporate pirates. (Opening a DRAM fabrication line costs several hundred
million dollars.)
                                  John Roberts
                                  [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date:     Fri, 7 Jul 89 13:29 PDT
From: <[e-mail]>
Subject:  In response for references for Black Holes ...

From : Arnold Gill
       Queen's University at Kingston
       BITNET:  gill@qucdnast

>>4) Black hole temperature -- Are medium-sized black holes hot or cold? I have
>> [ stuff deleted about black hole radiation, etc ]

>Here there were a few mistaken answers.  The surface area of a black hole
>is proportional to its ENTROPY, and INVERSELY proportional to its
>TEMPERATURE.  Thus a small black hole is hotter than a large black hole.
>In fact, small black holes can `evaporate' and disappear from the universe
>because of the high rate of energy loss (that's how we define
>temperature in the first place - equivalent black bodies, and so on).
>If you want more information (I just ran dry), read stuff by Hawkings,
>Wheeler, or Israel.  They know what they are talking about.  A good
>place to look would be back issues of Scientific American.  Sorry, no
>dates from me.

Re : Black Holes ... some references.

1.  "Four Laws of Black Hole Mechanics" :
     Bardeen, Carter, Hawking;  Communications in Mathematical Physics
                                vol. 31, p. 161-170 (1973)

2.  "Black Holes and Entropy"
     Bekenstein;  Physics Review D vol. 7, p. 2333-2346 (1973)

3.  "Particle Creation by Black Holes"
     Hawking; Communications in Mathematical Physics
                vol. 43, p. 199-220 (1975)

4.  "Black Holes and Thermodynamics"
     Hawking; Physics Review D vol. 13 p. 191-197 (1976)

You'll excuse me for any errors or if I didn't acknowledge any authors
to the above.  The references were taken from the publication
Scientific American : Cosmology+1.

                                           Henry Lee
                                  a 'lowly' physics undergrad @ S.F.U.
                                  BITNET : HLEE@TRIUMFCL    or
                                           HLEE@SFU

------------------------------

Date: 8 Jul 89 20:09:39 GMT
From: frooz!cfashap![e-mail]  (Steve Willner)
Subject: Black Hole Temperature


In an article now mercifully lost, I wrote:
> "Temperature" of a black hole surface goes as the inverse cube
> of the mass.

That's wrong.  Temperature goes inversely as the mass, radiation rate
per unit surface area goes as T^4, surface area goes as M^2.  Put it
all together and total radiation rate goes as M^-2, lifetime as M^3.
Obviously I (mis-)remembered only the last relation.

"Post in haste, repent at leisure."
Steve Willner            Phone [phone]         Bitnet:   willner@cfa
60 Garden St.            FTS:      830-7123           UUCP:   willner@cfa
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA                 Internet: [e-mail]

------------------------------

Sender: "Dennis_C._Brantly.WBST129"@Xerox.COM
Date: 7 Jul 89 04:51:02 PDT (Friday)
Subject: SETI related Questions
From: [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail]


What are some good sources of information on SETI related topics such as:

  > The actual mechanics of the search
  > Separation of intelligent generated vs natural noise
  > Politics (multinational co-operation/ non co-operation)
  > Policies (if Intelligence is detected is the press informed, who
responds, how do they respond, etc...)
  > Estimated impact on society in general if (when) ETI is detected
(religious, political, etc.)

Thanks,

Dennis

Rochester, NY
[phone]

------------------------------

Date: 9 Jul 89 16:21:00 GMT
From: wrksys.dec.com![e-mail]  (CUP/ASG, MLO5-2/G1 6A, 223-3283)
Subject: Mallove and Matloff's THE STARFLIGHT HANDBOOK.


        There is a new book now available on actual starship designs in
    most mass-market bookstores.  It is titled THE STARFLIGHT HANDBOOK:
    A PIONEER'S GUIDE TO INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL, by Eugene F. Mallove and
    Gregory L. Matloff, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1989,
    ISBN 0-471-61912-4 (hardcover - $19.95).

        The authors share extensive backgrounds in aerospace engineering
    and astronomy.  The book gives a good study of the various and varied
    ways we may one day reach other star systems, and there is an adequate
    supply of diagrams and mathematics to back up the engineering plans.
    It is definitely worth a read for those who want to know what it will
    really take to attain the "final frontier".

        Larry Klaes  [e-mail]
             or - ...!decwrl!renoir.dec.com!klaes
                 or - [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 12 Jul 89 16:44:45 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!milano!kepler![e-mail]  (Charlie Richter)
Subject: Apollo 11

With the anniversary of Apollo 11 approaching, I offer an
Apollo 11 trivia question for you to think about as you
watch the t.v. specials:

   In August, 1969, President Nixon awarded Medals of
   Freedom to four people associated with the Apollo
   11 mission.  Three medals went to Armstrong, Aldrin,
   and Collins.  Who was awarded the fourth, and what
   was that person's contribution to the mission?

Please, PLEASE, don't post answers.  (I've probably already
made Eugene's blacklist just for posting the question.)  If
you want to answer, e-mail to me.  I'll post the answer in
a week or so.
--
Charlie Richter   MCC   Austin, Texas
  uucp: [e-mail]     arpa: [e-mail]
"The panic ... was not due to anything fundamentally weak in either business
   or finance.  It was confined to the market itself."   - WSJ, Oct. 31, 1929

------------------------------

Date: 14 Jul 89 20:31:44 GMT
From: att!cbnews![e-mail]  (William B. Thacker)
Subject: Soviet Shuttle as a Billboard

Today's Columbus Dispatch carried an AP story which reveals that 5
US companies are vying for ad space on the side of the Soviet
Buran space shuttle.  The shuttle is slated to launch August 30.

Bargaining is being handled through Soviet-Pacific Enterprises, based
in San Francisco.  The ads will be on thin plastic, and will vaporize about
45 seconds into the launch.  Soviet-Pacific's marketing director mentions
that they want to sell the entire "billboard", at a price of over
$1,000,000, to one advertiser, to avoid making the shuttle "look like
an Indianapolis 500 race car."  The space amounts to two 10x21 foot
panels. Ad space around the Baikonur cosmosdrome is included in the price.

The Soviets will not allow ads for liquor or tobacco companies (maybe
they're afraid US television won't show them ?).  It's pointed out that
a million dollars for 45 seconds compares favorably to the cost of
time during the Super Bowl.  The names of the five competitors were not
released, but include a major oil company, a TV network, an international
courier (*has* to be Federal Express !), a consumer-goods producer, and
a food company.

The article further mentions that the Soviets have also sold space on board
a 1991 flight to a Japanese TV network, which will send a correspondent,
for $12 million.   They add that NASA does not accept advertising or
private fares, and has even discontinued carrying commercial packages
since the Challenger explosion.



Now I'm all confused...  it's getting to where you can't tell your
communists from your capitalists without a score-card.


Followups to talk.politics.misc.   Those of you in sci.space may
want to edit that, depending on content.  Those of you in t.p.m
are largely incapable of editing it, but may want to add
misc.headlines, misc.misc, and soc.culture.nordic. 8-)


------------------------------ valuable coupon -------------------------------
Bill Thacker                        [e-mail]
    "C" combines the power of assembly language with the
     flexibility of assembly language.
Disclaimer: Farg 'em if they can't take a joke !
------------------------------- clip and save --------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: 15 Jul 89 06:36:19 GMT
From: trident.arc.nasa.gov![e-mail]  (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: Voyager Status for 07/11/89 (Forwarded)


                    Voyager Status Report
                        July 11, 1989


     Voyager 2's discovery last week of a new Neptunian moon
has scientists rethinking theories about the origin of
Triton.

     The new moon, 1989 N1, orbits Neptune in a tidy, nearly
circular orbit around the planet's equator.  The orderliness
of its orbit makes it an anomaly when compared with the two
other known Neptunian moons, Triton and Nereid, which occupy
unruly orbits around the planet.  Triton's orbit is
retrograde, or backward, and inclined at about 20 degrees to
the equator.  Nereid has a prograde, or forward, orbit that
is inclined 30 degrees to Neptune's equator.

     Before last week's discovery, scientists thought that
because of Triton's peculiar retrograde and tilted orbit, it
must have been a body wandering the solar system alone when
it was captured by Neptune.  But now, with the discovery of
1989 N1, "The difficulty we have is that we've found a moon
in a place we didn't think one should have existed," said
assistant project scientist Dr. Ellis Miner.

     If Triton were a relative newcomer to the Neptune
system, Miner said, it would have passed near enough to the
low orbit of any preexisting moon such as 1989 N1 either to
collide with it or sweep it up through gravitational
attraction.  Therefore, the existence of 1989 N1 in the orbit
it occupies suggests that Triton may not be a captured
object, but instead be a native to Neptune.  Theoreticians
are now battling with this new discovery to see if the
Triton-as-captured-object theory can be salvaged or if
alternative explanations for its retrograde orbit can be
found.


DISTANCE FROM EARTH:  2,675,488,000 miles
DISTANCE FROM NEPTUNE:  40,999,000 miles
HELIOCENTRIC VELOCITY:  42,198 mph

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V9 #561
*******************