Jun 22 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that the international ultraviolet explorer (IUE) observed for the first time the comet Giacobini-Zinner while the comet was approximately 87 million miles from earth on the inbound leg of its orbit between the sun and the neighborhood of Jupiter. /UE would continue observations of the comet as it moved closer and ultimately became the target of the world's first intercept, on September 11, 1985, of a comet by a satellite, the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft.
The June 22 IUE observations of Giacobini-Zinner produced ultraviolet spectrograms-graphic depictions of the intensity of light over a range of ultraviolet wavelengths-revealing emissions of two molecules, carbon monosulfide and another known as the hydroxyl radical. Preliminary evaluation indicated that the ultraviolet emissions from both molecules were somewhat brighter than expected at this stage of the comet's development.
The IUE had taken the ultraviolet "pulse" of not only nearby solar system objects such as comets and planets, but also extragalactic objects such as quasars, providing research data to more than 1,000 astronomers around the world.
Scientists, engineers, and technicians at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center designed and integrated the spacecraft, which was launched in 1978 as a cooperative venture of the British Science Research Council, the European Space Agency, and NASA. (NASA Release 85-103)
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
