Dec 7 1969
From The Space Library
Astronomers were contemplating possibility that universe might be several times larger than previously believed as result of observations from OAO II, NASA announced. Spacecraft, launched Dec. 7, 1968, had discovered that many galaxies were much brighter in uv radiation than expected, confirmed that hot stars lost as much as sun's total mass in 100,000 yrs and equivalent of earth's mass in 1 yr, and indicated that if extra mass assumed to exist as unobservable matter in universe was present it did not radiate in uv, suggesting that universe was not closed system. OAO Ws performance during first year in orbit had been exceptional. By Nov. 9, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's sky-mapping instrument package, in 169 days of operation, had taken 5,884 pictures during observations of 2,265 individual square areas of sky. Univ. of Wisconsin experiment had studied 568 specific objects during 1,995 observations in 165 days of operation. Achievements had prompted some astronomers to rank OAO II with invention of telescope in its importance to astronomy. (NASA Release 69-156)
Dr. John M. DeNoyer, former Assistant Director for Research at U.S. Geological Survey, became Director of Earth Observations Programs in NASA Office of Space Science and Applications. (NASA Hq WB, 1/5/70)
"Eyewitness to Space," exhibit of works of over 70 U.S. artists commissioned by NASA to document its activities, opened at National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Show included paintings, drawings, and sculpture by James B. Wyeth, Mitchell Jamison, Norman Rockwell, Lamar Dodd, William Thon, and Robert Rauschenberg. Eight-foot montage of disparate space themes by Rauschenberg was largest lithograph ever made, according to Gallery's Curator of Art H. Lester Cooke. (Constantine, W Star, 12/7/69, J8)
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