Jun 26 1980
From The Space Library
NASA announced that scientists studying data from HEAO 2 had confirmed the emission of X-rays from Jupiter, making the giant planet the only one besides Earth to produce X-rays. HEAO 2, launched November 13, 1978, carried a focusing X-ray telescope with four different instruments that could be positioned at the focus, including the imaging proportional counter used to view Jupiter. Dr. Albert Metzger of JPL, leader of the scientific team making the discovery, reported it to a meeting of the American Astronomical Society at the University of Maryland last week.
The X-ray find indicated the power needed by the intense radiation belts in the Jovian magnetosphere: from the brightness observed, scientists said that energetic electrons in the system emitted nearly a quadrillion watts of power. To maintain the radiation belts, an equal amount of power had to come from the planet's rotational energy and the force of the solar wind. Also, energetic ions and electrons impacting the surfaces of satellites orbiting inside the Jovian radiation belt might also produce X rays; observing those X rays might help determine the composition of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. (NASA Release 80-98)
MSFC announced that it would mark its 20th anniversary July 1 with an assembly honoring the 1,039 "charter members" who had been there since its founding. In 1960, the Development Operations Division of the Army’s Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) became the nucleus of a center belonging to the space agency founded in 1958, bringing to NASA property worth hundreds of millions of dollars and a staff headed by Dr. Wernher von Braun, the center's first director. President Eisenhower had decided to name the center after George C. Marshall, five-star general, Secretary of State, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, an appropriate name for an organization devoted to peaceful uses of space. (MSFC Release 80-92)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
