Dec 8 1986
From The Space Library
NASA looked ahead to the launching of four new generation space observatories that promised a new era for astronomy. The Gamma Ray Observatory, providing a greater wavelength range, could determine if arriving gamma radiation originated in quasars and pulsars or from other sources. The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility would study highly energetic environments found in nearly every object in the universe, including stars, planets, neutron stars, black holes, quasars, and cores of active galaxies. The Space Infrared Telescope Facility could span the infrared part of the spectrum with a 1000-fold increase in sensitivity, enabling it to search for planets around stars. The Hubble Space Telescope, penetrating the universe in visible and ultraviolet light, was predicted to expand the observable universe by hundreds of times, see objects with ten times the clarity of ground observatories, and detect objects 1,000 times dimmer than those observed by previous space-craft. (NASA Release 86-168)
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, developed an air-borne sensing device, an infrared radiometer, for measuring ocean surface temperatures and charting temperature and wind maps. Tested over southern California's ocean aboard the Goodyear blimp Columbia, the new instrument was unique in that it could distinguish water temperature from the temperature of the air immediately above it. Researchers expected that the device could greatly enhance satellite capability to monitor ocean weather. (NASA Release 86-169)
Because the ocean surface mirrors the ocean floor as gravity pulls water down into depressions and forces it up around the mountains (looking north from Puerto Rico, for example, the ocean surface drops nearly 60 feet), scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, employed satellites to map the ocean's floor. Data taken from altimeters on the Geodynamic Experimental Ocean Satellite and the Sea Satellite were used to generate a computer image of the ocean surface, reflecting the Earth's structure underneath the water. The data, said Dr. James Marsh, also increased knowledge of circulation and current systems. (NASA Release 86-172)
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