Apr 27 1993
From The Space Library
The New York Times reported that 1993 had become the year of the supernova for astronomers and astrophysicists. The appearance on March 28 of a rare and very bright supernova named SNI993J led to a great deal of information. Researchers also made many discoveries about supernova by conducting laboratory experiments and by using powerful supercomputers to test competing theories. The former investigations were conducted by research teams at the TRIUMF National Laboratory in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Yale University. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California used its supercomputers to pick out the theory that appeared best to explain what astronomers see when a supernova explodes. (NY Times, Apr 27/93)
The journal Science reported that the brightness of a full Moon, thought to be caused by a process called shadow hiding, in which the Sun shining directly on the Moon minimizes shadows, is really caused by a phenomenon known as coherent backscatter.
Coherent backscatter involves "reflection of light rays from the surface of the Moon, which combine with light from the Sun to create a brighter lunar appearance as seen from Earth," according to Robert M. Nelson, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the author of the new study. (NY Times, Apr 27/93)
Astronauts aboard Shuttle Columbia left their medical and scientific studies on Tuesday, April 27, to work on repairing a malfunctioning toilet and waste-water system. Engineers believed that a device that squirts waste over-board from a storage tank got stuck and caused the tank to spring a small nitrogen leak. The astronauts rerouted the waste into two rubber-lined storage bags until the problem could be fixed. NASA said that the problem would not endanger the nine-day mission. Earlier in the day, the astronauts carried out a series of medical and scientific experiments. (UPI, Apr 27/93; AP, Apr 28/93; RTW, Apr 27/93, Apr 28/93; NY Times, Apr 28/93; C Trib, Apr 28/93)
Reinhard Furrer, a former German astronaut, criticized the German government for planning to cut funds for manned space flights such as the U.S.-German Shuttle mission now orbiting the Earth. Furrer flew on a joint U.S.-German scientific mission in 1985. (RTW, Apr 27/93)
During Take Our Daughters to Work Day on April 26, daughters of Johnson Space Center employees got to see where astronauts prepare for space flights and were even able to test the pressurized space suit gloves worn by astronauts. Daughters were also welcomed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Facility, where they toured the control room, investigated an SE-71 cockpit, and crawled around inside a modified Boeing 747. (AP, Apr 27/93; W Times, Apr 29/93; Antelope Valley, Apr 29/93)
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