Dec 1 1980
From The Space Library
Astronomer Robert Victor, a professor at Michigan State University, said that the Christmas season would be marked by a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn "worth gazing at" that would not occur again until A.D. 2238 or 2239, The event had occurred in 7 B.C. and resembled a similar conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in 2 B.C., either of which could have appeared as the guiding light of the Magi or star of Bethlehem. (W Star, Dec 1/80, A-2)
ARC announced plans to mark the second anniversary of Pioneer Venus's orbiter when it would complete two Earth years (equivalent to three Venus days) circling the cloud-covered planet. It should remain in orbit there until 1992, looking at Venus from a variety of new vantage points.
Since its arrival December 4, 1978, Pioneer had made 730 24-hour orbits and returned more than a thousand UV pictures of Venus's clouds. It has mapped 93% of the surface by radar, showing a terrain of mountains, high plateaus, and wide plains. To transmit its 40 billion data bits back to Earth, its antenna had made more than 5 million rotations relative to the spinning spacecraft; it had recorded 75 gamma-ray bursts from other parts of the galaxy, and its other instruments had measured Venus's atmosphere and surface, interior, and surrounding environment.
During the first two years, Earth commands had kept Pioneer in a fixed position; from now on it would "float" in response to pressures of solar radiation and of Venus and solar gravity, orbiting over the planet's equator by 1986. It would be able to measure the bow shockwave of Venus and its wake region in the solar wind, or "tail," possibly in cooperation with USSR spacecraft scheduled to arrive there in 1982 and 1984. (ARC Release 80-88)
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