Jan 6 1993
From The Space Library
A team of astronomers from the University of Arizona told a meeting of the American Astronomical Society that they had found convincing new evidence that a black hole the size of a million suns is at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The astronomers reported that they had detected faint infrared emissions from an area at the galactic core that is the source of a powerful radio signal possibly produced by forces surrounding a black hole. The team detected the emissions by using a new adaptive optics system known as FASTTRAC, developed by graduate student Laird Close and Donald W. McCarthy Jr., of the University of Arizona. (W Post, Jan 6/93; NY Times, Jan 6/93; USA Today, Jan 6/93)
NASA has chosen 38 research proposals to be incorporated into phase II of its Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). The projects will be conducted by 36 small business from 18 states; the projects have a value of approximately $19 million. NASA will select approximately 100 additional research proposals in January and February 1993.
SBIR attempts to stimulate technological innovation in the United States by using small businesses to help federal agencies meet their research and development needs. (NASA Release 93-003)
NASA released two new Hubble Space Telescope photographs that show a bullet of gas streaking across the sky. According to J. Jeff Hester, an Arizona State University astronomer, the new pictures show a "shock wave from a colossal explosion of a star 15,000 years ago smashing into a pocket of interstellar gas, heating the gas and causing it to glow." Following the blast wave is a shaft of gas traveling at more than 3 million miles an hour. The images show the structure behind the shock waves in the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant. The Hubble photos are giving astronomers their first detailed look at the anatomy of the powerful astrophysical shock wave generated by a supernova. (NASA Release N93-002; B Sun, Jan 8/93; W Post, Jan 18/93)
According to Neal Pellis of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, a research project from the Cancer Center aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour could provide "a big step in developing better treatments for cancer patients." The experiment will attempt to find out more about the human immune system and why it does not work as well in long-term space travel. (H Post, Jan 6/93)
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