Feb 10 1992
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Mission STS-45 was designated for the first flight of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS-1). The ATLAS-1 was to measure long-term variability in the total energy radiated by the Sun and measure the Earth's middle atmospheric constituents over one 11-year solar cycle. (NASA Note N92-14)
It was reported that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was studying aurorae on the giant planet Jupiter. The HST made observations of Jupiter over a four-day period when ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft swung by the giant plan-et. While passing Jupiter, Ulysses made measurements of Jupiter's powerful magnetic field and the flow of subatomic particles along magnetic field lines. Simultaneously, HST was looking at aurorae, one visual manifestation of these electrical fireworks. These joint observations provided a unique opportunity to combine ultraviolet images and spectra with information on particles and fields. By studying the activity of Jupiter's aurorae, astronomers hoped to learn more about the dynamics of Jupiter's immense magnetic field, the structure of the giant planet's upper atmosphere, the effects of aurora on the chemistry of the polar regions on Jupiter, and Jupiter's interaction with the Moon Io via a magnetic "flux tube." (NASA Release 92-22)
Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, declared that there was mounting evidence that a black hole about a million times the mass of the Sun is sucking away at the heart of the Milky Way, Earth's home galaxy. The latest clue was a bubble of gas possibly as hot as a million degrees centigrade discovered near a mysterious source of radio waves known as Sagittarius A, which had for some time been the leading candidate for the location of the suspected black hole. (W Post, Feb 10/92; P Inq, Feb 6/92; USA Today, Feb 6/92)
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
