Jan 13 1992
From The Space Library
At the American Astronomical Society's semiannual meeting in Atlanta, a team of scientists announced that, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST), they had made the most precise measurement to date of the percent of heavy hydrogen in space, which better determines the physical conditions present in the theorized Big Bang at the origin of the universe. Deuterium, also called heavy hydrogen, differs from ordinary hydrogen by having one neutron in addition to one proton in its nucleus. A measurement of the ratio of deuterium to ordinary hydrogen provides a critical test of conditions in the universe at the time of the Big Bang because it is believed that essentially all of the deuterium now present was created at that time. If further research finds no evidence for large amounts of "missing matter," then the new deuterium measurements strengthen the idea that the universe will expand forever. If true, the universe had a brilliant beginning but will have no end. (NASA Release 92.2)
Astronomers reported interesting initial results from a survey of several hundred quasars being studied with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Using Hubble's high resolution images, the "snapshot Survey" program detected evidence on gravitational lensing at a level of detail not usually found with ground-based telescopes. The findings set new limits on the nature and distribution of material in the universe. The results provided information on objects such as stars and galaxies that can be detected with telescopes as well as non-luminous material or "dark matter." In the past decade, about a dozen examples of probable gravitational lenses had been discovered by ground-based telescopes. According to conventional theoretical models, approximately half of all multiple-image gravitational lenses cannot be identified from ground-based telescopes because the separation between the images would be less than one arc second, which is below the nominal resolution limit for ground-based telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope routinely provides 0.1 arc second resolution of moderately bright point sources, making it a unique and powerful tool for searching for multiple-image lenses. The HST data may ultimately provide new and unexpected insights into the early universe. While the snapshot Survey will not offer insights into the competing Big Bang models, results will provide scientists with the denizens of the universe but not how they got there. (NASA Release 92-3)
At a press conference of the 179th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, astronomers reported that recent ultraviolet observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) suggest that what were thought to be randomly distributed, nearby primordial clouds of hydrogen may actually be associated with galaxies or clusters of galaxies. (NASA Release 92-4)
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers announced the detection of the rare element boron in an ancient star. This element may be "fossil" evidence of energetic events which accompanied the birth of the Milky Way galaxy. An alternative possibility is that this rare element may be even older, dating from the birth of the universe. If that is the case, then the HST findings may force some modifications in theories of the Big Bang. (NASA Release 92-5)
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