Feb 18 2000
From The Space Library
NASA announced that a team of astronomers had discovered what they believed to be the earliest known structure ever to form in the universe. The researchers had used the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California and the National Science Foundation's Mayall Telescope in Kitt Peak, Arizona, to find an ancient quasar. By measuring the quasar's redshift to determine how fast the quasar was moving away from the galaxy, scientists had been able to calculate the cosmic distance separating Earth and the quasar. The odds of discovering such a distant and relatively fast-moving quasar were remote, especially since scientists could monitor only a fraction of the sky at any one time. The discovery had the broader value of providing a reference point by which to assess those bodies between Earth and the quasar. Daniel Stern of NASA described the finding's utility: "Finding a quasar at this distance is like turning on a flashlight at the edge of the universe.”
At a ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. Air Force General Ralph E. Eberhart succeeded General Richard B. Myers as the nation's top military space official, overseeing the U.S. Space Command, the U.S. Air Force Space Command, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, in addition to thousands of troops and more than 100 satellites. Eberhart took over the U.S. space operations post after having led the Air Force's Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.
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