The next MEPCO is coming ... to Bulgaria, in early August, 1999!
For details on this astronomical conference just before the total solar eclipse click here!

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New: every page on two servers, in Europe and the U.S.!

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Update # 120 of January 29th, 1999, at 19:10 UTC

Gamma Burst sensation: Bright optical counterpart seen 'live' for the first time! Thanks to a remarkable fast information system for gamma ray bursts a small telescope in New Mexico has been able to image the optical counterpart while the burst was still in progress. And what the ROTSE (Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment) saw in the sky for a few seconds could have been seen in binoculars: a 'star' of 9th magnitude that faded quickly to 14th magnitude. When other telescopes looked for the optical afterglow a few hours later, it had faded to 18th magnitude (and stands at not more than 21 right now). Two satellite observatories had been essential for this breakthrough in astrophysics that happened on January 23rd: NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and Italy's Beppo SAX satellite. It was Compton's BATSE experiment that alerted the ROTSE system in real-time, but only with the help of Beppo's much higher angular resolution was it possible to nail down the identity of the new 'star' with the gamma burster. The burst had been particularly bright in gamma rays, and ROTSE had never seen anything on a burst's position: This has led to the speculation that a gravitational lens might be involved. Also the burst seems to have taken place in a galaxy with a redshift of 1.60 and would have been extraordinarily energetic. But if the faint 21st magnitude galaxy that is seen in the same spot as the optical transient is actually a foreground object 'lensing' the burster, the figures would make more sense to some.	All the news about the burst (from a GRB community news service). Selected News and graphics. A detailled account and pictures (alternative URL; a shorter NASA release). ROTSE Homepage / GRB News from NASA. News coverage of the event from ABQ Journal, ABC and BBC. HST observing time has been allotted for the afterglow.
Delta launch abort - Stardust in danger? Seconds before liftoff the much-delayed launch of a Delta rocket was aborted on Jan. 28th, when one of the two vernier engines did not ignite. The rocket detected the problem and stopped the engine start sequence prior to ignition of the first stage main engine. This is the 5th such incident; the last was in December 1995. Although a new launch date has not been selected, another attempt is expected in about 10 days - historically, that is the amount time needed to fix the problem and prepare the rocket for flight. Once launched, the rocket is to carry a trio of research satellites into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Officials are also making plans to check the engines on another Delta 2 rocket, scheduled for launch next week, to ensure it is problem-free. That rocket is slated for a Feb. 6 liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., to send NASA's Stardust spacecraft to a comet. There is only a limited launch window to reach comet Wild 2! (Adapted from Boeing information)	Updates from Florida Today Stories from SpaceViews and SpaceCast. Homepages of the three satellites on board: ARGOS (plus BBC and CNN stories), Sunsat (often defective) and Oersted. Payload overview.
Five MIDEX candidates selected Five spacecraft have been chosen as candidates for NASA's medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) program. The five proposals will undergo detailed study over the next five months in the first step of a two-step process. Following detailed mission concept studies, which are due for submission by June 18, 1999, NASA intends to select two of the mission proposals in September 1999 for full development as the third and fourth MIDEX flights. The two missions developed for flight will be launched in 2003 and 2004. The selected MIDEX proposals are: The Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer, a three-telescope space observatory for studying the position, brightness, and physical properties of gamma ray bursts. Swift would use its gamma ray telescope, X-ray telescope, and ultraviolet/optical telescope to determine the nature of gamma ray bursts. The Next Generation Sky Survey (NGSS), a four-channel, supercooled infrared telescope designed to survey the entire sky with 1000 times more sensitivity than previous missions. This infrared survey should discover millions of new cosmic sources of infrared radiation. The Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME), a space telescope designed to obtain highly precise position and brightness measurements of 40 million stars - a kind of Super-Hipparcos satellite that would determine the distance to all of the stars on this side of the Milky Way galaxy with unprecedented precision. The Auroral Multiscale Midex Mission (AMM), a formation of four identically instrumented small satellites in a near-polar, highly elliptical orbit that would study the electrical connection between Earth's ionosphere and the distant magnetosphere. And the Advanced Solar Coronal Explorer (ASCE), a powerful solar telescope with two solar instruments that are 100 times better than previous solar coronographs. It would be deployed on a recoverable satellite from the Space Shuttle and retrieved two years later. NASA has also selected instruments from two proposed MIDEX missions for technology development funding: an X-ray detector for studying black holes of all sizes and detectors for studying waves in the Earth's upper atmosphere. (Adapted from NASA News Release #7 of Jan. 26)	NASA News Release on the selection. The FAME proposal: another press release and the Homepage. And a story on the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer proposal.

In a Nutshell: The Lunar Prospector has begun its Extended Mission today by lowering the orbit to a mean altitude of 30 km for even more detailled studies of the Moon. / Taiwan has its first scientific satellite in orbit: ROCSAT 1 was put into a 600 kilometers high orbit after lifting off on an Athena rocket on Jan. 26. The satellite carries an ocean-color imager, an experimental communications payload and ionospheric plasma electrodynamics instruments. / Did Russia decide to delay the launch of the ISS service module to September or not? Now they deny it ...

The role of galactic bars in feeding the central engines of galaxies has become clearer thanks to radio observations of magnetic fields: magnetic fields are essential. / A major new map of the Universe has been completed: 15 000 galaxies in 3D. / The aerobraking of the Mars Global Surveyor is coming to an end these days. / A daring explanation for the Fermi Paradoxon: Did local Gamma Ray Bursts sterilize the Galaxy until recently? / And here is your chance to select a target for Hubble!

Have you read the the previous issue?!
All other historical issues can be found in the Archive.

This Cosmic Mirror has been visited times since it was issued.

Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
(send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek