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1992-12-18
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"921113.DFC" (9137 bytes) was created on 11-16-92
13-Nov-92 Daily File Collection
These files were added or updated between 12-Nov-92 at 21:00:00 {Central}
and 13-Nov-92 at 21:00:20.
=--=--=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:6_10_3_23.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {25736 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
AUGUST 1992 STATION BREAK NEWSLETTER VOL. 4 NO. 8
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_10_3_24.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {29378 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
SEPTEMBER 1992 STATION BREAK NEWSLETTER VOL. 4 NO. 9
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:6_10_3_25.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {26452 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
OCTOBER 1992 STATION BREAK NEWSLETTER VOL. 4 NO. 10
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
=--=--=START=--=--= NASA Spacelink File Name:8_7_5.TXT
NOTE: This file is too large {15910 bytes} for inclusion in this collection.
The first line of the file:
SPACE SCIENCE STUDENT INVOLVEMENT PROJECT SSIP
Source:NASA Spacelink Modem:205-895-0028 Internet:192.149.89.61
=--=--=-END-=--=--=
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