Jun 7 1985
From The Space Library
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it was using sophisticated electronic equipment to identify pilots who were illegally using air-traffic control radio frequencies to harass nonstriking United Airlines pilots. The FAA had already initiated enforcement action against the pilots responsible for such incidents near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and the Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The equipment also identified other flight crew members who had engaged in such harassment, and additional enforcement actions were likely.
The equipment was a tracking device that helped pinpoint the source of otherwise unidentified radio transmissions, of which more than 50, either jamming a radio frequency by pressing a microphone button or verbal abuse over the radio, had occurred since the strike began on May 17.
FAA Administrator Donald Engen said he would not tolerate misuse of the air-traffic control frequencies, which could lead to suspension or revocation of a pilot's license and possibly criminal penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine of $10,000. (FAA Release 24-85)
Two groups of scientists, who were making observations at infrared and radio wavelengths, reported the strongest evidence so far of a supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the NY Times reported, strengthening the theory that very massive black holes existed in the cores of all galaxies. Astrophysicists had already deduced that black holes might be at the cores of some distant galaxies.
Eight physicists and astronomers from the University of California, Berkeley, reported in the British journal Nature their infrared observations showing gas whipping around a core at 100,000 to 400,000 miles per hour. They concluded the gas was in the grip of a black hole four million times the mass of the sun.
The group measured the velocities near the center of the core with sufficient precision to show that they decreased further out in a way to be expected if controlled by gravity from a single central object. They believed this ruled out a dense cluster of stars, proposed by some astronomers, because that gravity field would be more uniform.
Radio astronomers using coordinated observations with antennas in Westford, Massachusetts; Green Bank, West Virginia; Fort Davis, Texas; and Goldstone, Hat Creek, and Owens Valley, California; and the 27 antennas of the Very Large Array in New Mexico aimed the antennas at a radio source, a suspected black hole, almost directly in the center of the Milky Way called Sagittarius A (in the constellation Sagittarius). The results indicated that the source, despite its enormous mass and output of energy, was smaller than the orbit of Saturn. Donald Lyndon-Bell of Britain's Royal Greenswich Observatory and Martin Fees of Cambridge University had proposed 14 years before that there might be such an object there.
Astronomers using improved radio and infrared techniques had mapped in more and more detail the Milky Way core, which was 30,000 light years from earth. They could not see the core with visible light because of dense clouds of dust and gases. (NYT June 7/85, A15)
NASA announced it would alter its process of soliciting astronaut applications for pilot and mission specialist positions to one where it would accept applications from civilians on a continuing basis beginning August 1, 1985, and nominees from the military on an annual basis. NASA would make selections in the spring of each year with successful candidates reporting in the summer. Mission requirements and attrition rate of the current astronaut corps would determine number of candidates selected. (NASA Release 8589)
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