Mar 31 1977
From The Space Library
Dr. James L. Elliott of Cornell Univ. announced he had found 5 rings around the planet Uranus. Observations above the Indian Ocean with a 91cm telescope on NASA's Kuiper airborne observatory had revealed the rings during Uranus's occultation of a bright star (SAO 158687). Dr. Elliott had concluded earlier [see Mar. 3] that Uranus was surrounded by 100 moons; during the occultation, the same objects appeared as rings, not moons. Uranus and Saturn were the only two planets in the solar system found so far to have ring systems. Dr. Elliott's original mission was to check Uranus for atmosphere and diameter; discovery of the rings was unexpected. (NYT, Mar 31/77, 63)
Developing future telecommunications systems would pose few technical problems, Nature reported: the real bottlenecks would be finding the financial resources to build, and estimating the social implications of, such systems. A British Royal Society conference on "Telecommunications in the 14808 and After" had discussed the possible social effects of highly developed telecommunications systems, especially the ability of a system to foster integration in different populations or to increase isolation of individuals within their local groups. (Nature, Mar 31/77,409)
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