The Cosmic Mirror

of News events across the Universe

Archival Issues #21 til 30 of Nov. 25, 1996 til Jan. 17, 1996

Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer, Skyweek - older "Mirrors" in the Archive

Winner of the Star Award Logo in January, 1997!

Update #30 of Jan. 17, 1997, at 13:00 UTC

Is "Hamlet" about Copernicus?

William Shakespeare never ceases to amaze scholars - including those far outside the field of literature. Now an astronomer (who normally is a specialist for quasars, but also for the history of astronomy) has started to see references to 16th century cosmological controversies in Shakespeare's most famous play, "Hamlet"!

In this new interpretation Hamlet represents the English astronomer Thomas Digges. Digges was well ahead of his time when he not only accepted the Copernican sun-centered world view but also suggested that the stars weren't fixed to a crystal sphere outside the solar system. Instead he proposed an infinite space beyond the planets, full of stars (this got into the headlines in the British press about 5 years ago when the then-president of the British Astronomical Association suggested that he had used a telescope - decades before the Dutch and Galileo - to arrive at this conclusion).

Hamlet's friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to be named after the ancestors of Tycho Brahe who, despite his observational achievements, still supported an Earth-centered Universe, while Hamlet's uncle, King Claudius, could be Claudius Ptolemy, another Earth-centrist. Besides the names, there are also "cosmological" statements in the play; e.g. Hamlet says "I could be bounded by a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space" etc. But critics may also be right who say: "The more you look, the more meaning you can discover..." ( Science Now Jan. 13, 1997)

The End of the Universe...

... will be a vast soup of subatomic particles in eternal darkness - but not very soon. At the moment we live in the so-called Stelliferous, the "star-filled" era, which is about half over. When the Universe turns 10^15 years old, the Degenerate Era begins when all stars have run out of fuel. Now most matter is locked up in dead stars - and the decay of the proton destroys them very slowly. At 10^38 years the Black Hole era begins in which those entities - if they exist; see below - suck up all matter.

But even they are not stable and will eventually radiate away. At around the year 10^100 the Universe is filled by a diffuse sea of electrons, positrons, neutrinos and radiation which thins out with the continuing expansion of the Cosmos (which we assume here, as nearly all observational evidence points to an open Universe that will never collapse). The "end" of everything can then be defined as the year 10^200 - what difference do a few zeros make... (CNN Online Jan. 15, 1997)

Cosmological origin of Gamma-Ray Bursts increasingly likely

The explanation of the Gamma-Ray Burster mystery continues to oscillate between a more local model where the sources are just outside the Milky Way and the "cosmological" alternative where they are distributed all over the Universe. The discovery of an apparently repeating source of hard Gamma-Ray Bursts (see Update # 26) favored the local model - but now a powerful statistical argument has let the pendulum swing again in favor of the cosmological view.

The BATSE instrument on the CGRO spacecraft has now bagged more or less precise positions of over 1700 GRB's, enough to perform a high-quality search for anisotropies in their distribution in the sky - and there is total isotropy! Both the dipole and the quadrupole moment of the distribution are zero (-0.014 +/- 0.014 and -0.004 +/- 0.007, to be precise), which means that there is neither a tendency for the bursts to appear in the direction of the Galactic Center nor towards the plane of the Galaxy.

Statistically speaking, the GRB's are about 300 times more likely to come from the edge of the Universe at distances billions of light years away than from anywhere near our own Milky Way - which means that they are incredibly powerful events, liberating as much energy in seconds than our Sun does during its whole lifetime. What the physics is behind them and how such an event can repeat several times, would be the next mystery... ( NASA MSFC News Jan. 15, 1997)

Black Holes all over the place at astronomy convention

New evidence - all indirect, however - has been presented for the presence of Black Holes in most galactic nuclei and several double stars in our own Galaxy. After some time in which 'discovering' Black Holes had somewhat fallen out of favor in order to get public attention, they are back, at the 189th AAS Meeting, which took place this week in Toronto, Canada...

The Weather Prospects for the Aug. 11,1999 Total Solar Eclipse

have been studied in great detail by the Canadian 'eclipse meteorologist' Jay Anderson: The chances to see the eclipse in England are slim but get slowly better the farther to the East one moves. "The percent frequency of clear skies is about 18% over Normandy on the channel coast," he writes, "and barely rises above 20% throughout the length of the eclipse track over the rest of France. Beyond this point the maritime character of the westerly winds becomes more continental, and sunshine frequency begins a slow climb through Germany and Austria."

The best conditions in Europe, however, will be found in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - and further improvement can be expected in Eastern Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, before the chances for clear skies all but vanish in Pakistan and India with its monsoon conditions. Anderson's advice for people who want to stay in (or come to) Central Europe for the last Total Eclipse here in our lifetimes: Stay mobile and listen to the weather forecasts... (Preprint for the NASA 1999 eclipse circular - see the NASA Eclipse pages for details and the full circulars, up to 1998 at this point, and the GSFC Eclipse home page for tons of material)

Briefly noted:

All are happy aboard Mir after the successful launch and docking of Atlantis - which has become instrumental in keeping Mir operational now that the Russian Space Agency is so underfunded it can't even afford the minimum annual rate of Progress resupply flights. NASA considers the Mir visits essential as well: Where else could one learn how to run a space station? (AW&ST of Jan, 6, 1997, p. 22-23)

Clipper Graham crash due to human error: Faster and cheaper does not always lead to a better result, the DC-XA project team had to learn the hard way. On July 31nd last year the experimental suborbital rocket was destroyed in a fire when it fell over after the landing gear didn't deploy properly. This was due to an unconnected hose, the Failure Report says - and the quick procedures (for which the project had been often hailed) did not contain any checks for this critical item... (NASA News #3 of Jan. 7, 1997)

Hubble discovers intergalactic stars: Isolated red giant stars have been found in the Virgo cluster, by comparing deep images with the Hubble Deep Field (which represents the 'typical' night sky). The excess stars have been freed from the galaxies in which they were born by galactic interactions or collisions - their existence had been predicted for some time. (STScI Press Release #2 of Jan. 14, 1997)

Did astronomers observe comet crashes on Jupiter before? After the famous crash of SL-9 in 1994 there was a general consensus that this was the first ever event of this kind observed. Now two claims have surfaced that similar events were also seen in the 17th and 18th century (Science Now of Jan. 10, 1997; Sterne und Weltraum Jan. 1997, p. 28-33), and there are even more stories of dark spots on Jupiter in the past - but since systematic observations of Jupiter's clouds didn't start until much later, claims that any of these spots were the same phenomenon as the impact spots of 1994 are met with grave doubts (but can probably neither be disproven nor proven).

Hale-Bopp is now an easy naked-eye object - when you are far enough in the Northern hemisphere. The past three mornings I could see it even in moderately light-polluted skies with an estimated magnitude around 3. Large binoculars and a Comet Catcher revealed a short fan of a dust tail, stretching for some 40' (others have reported up to 2 degrees of tail) - and a very condensed coma. (DF, from Koenigswinter, Germany) There are now daily news from Hale-Bopp, which should develop quickly in the next few days - here's a finder chart, although it actually isn't necessary anymore: Next to Zeta Aquilae Hale-Bopp is the brightest object already in many square degrees!

Update #29 of Jan. 9, 1997, at 16:00 UTC

60 to 75 km/s/Mpc emerging as most likely range for "Ho"

Hubble Constant controvery almost over

The days when one camp of astronomers saw the expansion rate of the Universe, the so-called Hubble constant (Ho) near 100 km/s/Mpc and the other near 50 are counted - and as one would have guessed naively anyway the real value seems to be somewhere in between.

Many different methods of measuring the expansion of the Universe (by determining distances to other galaxies in the 'Hubble flow') had pointed towards high values of Ho, while one strong method always made Ho look small (and thus the Universe look old). And precisely this method involving Type Ia Supernovae is now converging with the other approaches - since a crucial correction formula has now been established.

After studying the light curves of about 30 Ia supernovae with modern CCD detectors astronomers in Chile can now prove convincingly that not all have the same peak brightness. And there is a formula which permits corrections for the differing peak magnitudes, thus turning Ia supernovae into real standard candles.

Applying this correction which cuts the scatter of the peak magnitudes in half to the quest for the Hubble constant, the best guess for the expansion rate of the Universe is 63 +/- 6 km/s/Mpc for all 4 galaxies with Ia supernovae for which Cepheid distances have been determined with the Hubble Space Telescope, or 67 +/- 8 for the two best galaxies.

The new values come close to the latest Ho determinations with the help of Cepheids, Hubble and various other standard candles which point to Ho ~ 70. The dream of nailing down Ho to within 10% before the century is over is closer to reality than ever, now that the main problem, the Ia supernovae, is history. (Hamuy & al., Astronomical Journal 112 [Dec. 1996] 2391 - 2437)

X-Rays from Comet Hyakutake explained?

A wave phenomenon in the coma of the comet - similiar to waves observed in-situ in the coma of comet Halley - could explain the amazing X-rays that ROSAT saw last spring. The instability resulting from the relative motion of newly picked-up cometary photoions and the solar wind could generate so-called lower hybrid waves, capable of accelerating electrons to keV energies - enough to make the X-rays. (Science Jan. 3, 1997 p. 49-51)

Solar Neutrino Problem confirmed!

According to the first measurements with the new, gigantic SuperKamiokande in Japan, there are indeed only 50% of the expected neutrinos arriving from the Sun - and the new measurements are more significant than ever. In its first 102 days of operation Superkamiokande has already seen more solar neutrinos than all other neutrino experiments (here are a nice introduction, and a thorough scientific review) in the past 30 years! (Science Now Jan. 7, 1997)

Briefly noted:

Balloon Telescope gondola recovered! In a daring rescue mission, astronomers have saved the Flare Genesis telescope from the icy wastes of Antarctica where it had been lying for almost a year. Only the tape with the data - 14 000 images of the Sun - had been recovered after its landing in Jan. 1996, now a reflight of Flare Genesis is possible.

Storm forces evacuation of JPL! On Jan. 6 the whole institute had to be closed down due to 70 mph winds. 120 trees on the vast campus of the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA, went down, and another 100 will likely have to be replaced. The storms caused the delay of publication of two new spectacular Galileo images of Io which are now available through the Galileo News page under "January 7".

The Countdown for STS-81 has begun: On Sunday, Jan. 12th, space shuttle Atlantis will launch at around 9:27 UTC for its 5th visit to Mir. Meanwhile the first trajectory correction of the Mars Pathfinder has been delayed because of slight orientation problems. And at JPL technicians are busily wrapping the saturn orbiter Cassini into thermal blankets - launch is in a mere 9 months!

Lots of Space-Links for the new year...

... are provided by CNN under the headline Space 2000 and Beyond, there is the NASA " Observation of the Week", and if you are into endless lists, check Orbital Payloads 1996, the updated Geostationary Log File, or the UN Registry of Space Objects...

Update #28 of Dec. 31, 1996, at 16:00 UTC

Prospects for 100 Day Balloon Flights for Astronomy

were the topics of a recent NASA workshop: Recent advances in composite balloon materials have greatly enhanced the prospects for very long duration balloon flights, which could open up new windows for astronomy. Balloon observatories would be cheaper than telescopes on planes and much cheaper than satellites: NASA, always on the lookout for ways to save money, is asking the community to come up with a 'strawman payload' for such an - as yet undefined - mission. A prototype superpressure balloon could support a ~1 ton scientific payload at >110,000 feet altitude for >100 days (~5 circumnavigations of the globe). This configuration could maintain stable altitude from day to night without ballast.

The workshop demonstrated significant interest on the part of potential users with ~100 in attendance. All of the major scientific disciplines that presently use balloons were well represented (atmospheric, cosmic rays, hard x-rays/gamma rays, infra red, and solar) with a few newcomers whose science would be uniquely enabled by longer flights. The 100 day number was arbitrarily chosen to be a order of magnitude greater than the present Antarctic long duration ballooning (LDB) program. Many missions would be enabled with shorter flights (especially at low latitudes) and there is no intrinsic limit at 100 days in the superpressure balloon concept. The results of the workshop can be found in its executive summary.

Briefly noted:

In the last few days, the Web has become a place for rememberance of Carl Sagan who had suddenly died on Dec. 20. Particularly good information as well as links are provided by the National Space Society, M. Rapp, and P. Chui.

A new dramatic image montage from SOHO has been created from UVCS and EIT data: it shows the sun's outer atmosphere as it appears in ultraviolet light emitted by electrically charged oxygen flowing away from to Sun to form the solar wind (outside the black circle) and the disk of the Sun in light emitted by electrically charged iron. (ESA Information Note # 22 Dec. 3, 1996)

There is still a chance to have your signature fly to Saturn or rather Saturn's moon Titan on the Huygens capsule of the Cassini spacecraft: details can be found at a special website which is both multi-lingual and semi-commercial (i.e. sponsored by various news media in different European countries) - a rather peculiar way to get the public interested in space matters...

One of the best places to follow the fate of comet Hale-Bopp is being run by Gary Kronk. It retraces the observations to date and indicates highlights on 1997 - the pictures are a fine selection and well worth the downloading time!. Some of the best come from The Puckett Observatory and its Comet Watch Program. By the way: The most recent observations of Hale-Bopp place the comet at 3.5, perhaps even brighter, in the last week of December. If it rises to 1.something during January, it will beat Hyakutake. See also a Japanese analysis, which agrees with most other studies of Hale-Bopp's light curve in the first 17 months.

And finally a look back at the year 1996 in space: Several year-end artcles have been collected by Florida Today . May the next year be as dramatic as the past (but with fewer launch failures, please!) - the prospects aren't bad (see Update #27).

The Cosmic Mirror wishes all its readers a happy new year!
Signing off for this one - yours sincerely, Daniel Fischer

Update # 27 of Dec. 27, 1996, at 14:30 UTC

1997 promises space events galore!

1996 was one of the most exciting years in space in recent memory, with great successes, great disappointments and great drama - and 1997 promises to be comparable, to say the least. For example... For a look into the more distant future, check this list.

The Cosmic Mirror wishes everyone a happy X-Mas... :-)

Update # 26.1 of Dec. 23, 1996 at 17:30 UTC (corrected from Dec. 19)

The Cosmic Mirror shares the grief of the astronomical world about the death of Carl Sagan

Three Gamma Ray Bursts from the same source in the sky

seem to have been recorded by the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and up to three other spacecraft - the 25 year-old mystery both deepens and could move closer to a solution. During 43 hours on Oct. 27 to 29, 1996, the BATSE detector on CGRO was triggered four times, first for 100, then 20 seconds later for 0.9, then 2 days later for 30 and only 11 minutes later for 750 seconds. Only the last burst was bright enough to be seen by all four spacecraft, so its position is known to within 0.3 degrees. The other locations are only good to 5 degrees, but the error boxes all overlap.

Never before has that happened, have even two bursts been observed from the same sky location, and now astrophysicists around the world are wondering: Were there really four separate bursts from one source, or rather three (the first two could be two spikes of a long one) or only one extremely long burst with 4 spikes? Or is it all a bizarre coincidence, and we're actually dealing with bursts from 3 to 4 different sources in the sky that happenend to stand just next to each other (in projection, that is - the true distance could be vastly different)? This would be extremely unlikely, of course.

This October Surprise could become the key to unlocking the Gamma Ray Burster mystery. There are basically two competing classes of models (of which well over 100 different ones have been published...): Those with the bursting sources close to the Earth and those with sources in 'cosmological' distances, i.e. as far away as distant galaxies. This question of the distance scale of the gamma-ray bursts is both fundamental and completely unsolved. But one thing is clear: If the sources are very far away, they are very powerful, cataclysmic events (one favorite: colliding neutron stars) that can happen only once. If thus the repeating classical gamma-ray burst of Oct. 1996 was really one, the 'cosmological' models are in trouble. ( Marshall SFC News Dec. 17, 1996 and many other sources)

First light for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope

On Dec. 10 this largest optical telescope on the American continent (11 meters in diameter, composed of 91 segments) performed its first crude astronomical observations from its McDonald Obs., Texas, site. The HET is being hailed as the beginning of "a new era of big but inexpensive telescopes", is operated by a consortium of five universities and has cost a mere $ 13.5m. Its use will be primarily in spectroscopy - imaging is difficult when your focus is moving during the exposure and not the whole telescope. ( Press Release of Dec. 12, 1996)

SOFIA contract awarded!

NASA has now given $ 484m to a private consortium, Universities Space Research Association (USRA), to purchase an old Boeing 747 SP, put a 2.5 meter IR telescope (which Germany will provide) into it and operate it as a flying observatory for five years. SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, will have its first test flights in the year 2000 and will then perform up to 160 missions per year starting in 2001. (NASA News # 259 Dec. 16, 1996)

News capsules:

A meteorite reportedly caused a 50 meter crater in Honduras in November - and a major wildfire. (CNN)
The Geminid meteor shower was pretty good this year, with zenithal hourly rates of up to 140 around midnight CET in the night 13/14 Dec. (IMO)
Galileo's Europa encounter is over and seems to have gone well, according to the Doppler plot. One Europa image from the previous orbit and the first Callisto close-ups have been published as well. (JPL)
More doubts about the 'Martian fossils'have been voiced by Harry McSween et al. who always argued that the strange things inside meteorite ALH84001 were formed at very high temperatures. Now they show in an upcoming paper in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta that the 'fossils' could have been formed by the same processes... (Florida Today Dec. 18,1996)

Update # 25 of Dec. 12, 1996 at 19:20 UTC

The Future of NASA's Solar System Exploration

is being overhauled right now: Countless studies have been performed or are still under way, in order to define the future path of the American space program, and accordingly the one with the broadest scope is called "Roadmap". If your pet space mission fits under this header, your spacecraft might actually fly during your lifetime. The charter of the Roadmap program is to "develop a visionary but affordable mission and technology development Roadmap for the exploration of the Solar System in the 2000 to 2015 time frame. This should include the undertaking of the next evolutionary step of extensive in-situ exploration and sample return from accessible bodies, in addition to completion of the overall survey.

Therefore, emphasis should be placed on planetary mobility (local and global), in-situ studies (surface and atmosphere), and sample return. The Roadmap should define ground technology demos as well as flight demos that could be accomplished with presently planned U.S. mission/programs (New Millenium, Mars 2001/2003, Discovery, etc.) as well as with international missions. The team activity should involve a broad spectrum of the science community, the industrial community, as well as the interested public."

Both actual planetary missions and large sophisticated space observatories that could be used for the search for planets of other stars are covered by the Roadmap program which could thus have profound implications for space science in general. The same goes for the somewhat overlapping Origins program that is interested in other planets as well but also the very distant (and young) Universe. And then, of course, there is the Space Summit at the White House with various related workshops: The coming year should - hopefully - lead to a much better defined 'vision' than NASA had in recent years...

Briefly noted:

A loose screw blocked Columbia's hatch: A quarter-inch screw was found embedded in the teeth of the gear box mechanism that operates the latches of Columbia's airlock hatch! It had probably come loose during the vibration of launch. X-ray inspection of the gear box had revealed the problem soon after Columbia's return - now the question is: Are the hatches of the other shuttles' airlocks in better shape...? (Yahoo News Dec. 12, 1996)

The "Taurus Tunable Filter", now at work at the Anglo-Australian Observatory, is a remarkable astronomical instrument: It permits fully monochromatic narrowband imaging over an arbitrary bandpass. Already dramatic color pictures of Planetary Nebulae are available, in which the TTF can discern fine structure that hadn't been seen before.

"Exploration of the Moon and Mars - Prerequisite for Understanding Terrestrial Planets" is the title of a conference at the DLR in Berlin on June 11 and 12, 1997: The Moon is addressed both as a target of scientific investigation and as a laboratory for extraterrestrial research and technology, esp. robotics, while Mars also offers the opportunity for exobiological searches. The Preliminary Program is now available.

A rocket launched by ... hot water? It can be done and it has been done - by students in Berlin! How such a rocket works, what use it could have and how the launch campaigns are progressing can all be found on the homepage of this Aquarius project by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Thermische Wasserrakete.

Galactic center discoveries featured in Austrian TV: The recent determination of the mass of the center of our galaxy through the motions of stars (Nature Oct. 3, 1996, p.415-7) which yielded 2.4 million solar masses continues to cause media interest. The Austrian TV program "Modern Times" has now devoted a segment to it - and has made the manuscript available.

Update #24 of Dec. 9, 1996, at 16:30 UTC

"Mars Fossils" proven to be just Minerals?!

Planetary scientists at the University of California in San Diego claim that they have proof that the much-discussed "Martian fossils" in the meteorite ALH84001 are completely non-biological entities, just some funny-looking mineral texture. "I am convinced now beyond a shadow of a doubt that all the evidence presented has non-biological origins," one of the researchers, John Kerridge, has said - and the evidence will be detailled "soon." (Space News Dec. 2, 1996) The Cosmic Mirror wouldn't be too surprised: After all, hardly any direct evidence has been presented so far that the microstructures in the meteorite (or the associated chemical traces) are biogenic. Instead the researchers supporting their 'ancient Martian biota' claim have pointed out merely analogies with microfossils on Earth (some of which are controversial themselves). (see Update #4)

Columbia back after unplanned record mission

NASA's final Shuttle mission of 1996 concluded at dawn on Dec. 7th. The landing brought to an end a record-setting 18-day, seven million mile journey. Weather which had caused two landing waveoffs the past two days was not a player in Saturday's landing decision. A cold front which passed through the KSC area Friday night produced clear skies for Columbia's return home. The STS-80 mission is the longest Shuttle mission ever flown by NASA. The previous mark of 16 days, 21 hours, 48 minutes set in July by the STS-78 crew, was eclipsed late yesterday morning. The official mission duration for STS-80 is 17 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes. (Adapted from STS-80 Mission Control Status Report # 38 of Dec. 7, 1996)

Future of German space agencies remains uncertain

Starting next year the Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA) has to be reunited with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), the German Aerospace Research Establishment, from which it was separated in 1989. Back then more "efficiency" for Germany's space program had been promised - and now exactly the same argument is brought forward by the government to justify its surprise decision from this summer to abandon DARA as an independent agency. This has left many members of the Bildungs- und Forschungsausschuss (Committee for Education & Research) worried who would have preferred to learn about the plans upfront... (Woche im Bundestag # 17 and 20 of Oct. 16 and Nov. 20, 1996, p. 54/48)

Briefly noted:

Decision on Cluster replacement delayed: While the Science Programme Committee of ESA is supporting the complete resurrection of the Cluster program, it had to delay its final decision til next February. While the agency should be able to rebuild the 4 lost satellites, their instrumentation would have to be supplied by individual institutes (and paid for by the national governments): This money has still to be found. (Space News Dec. 2, 1996)

Update #23 of Dec. 5, 1996, at 22:00 UTC

Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner on their way!

Everything worked perfectly on the 3rd day of the launch period that would have ended on Dec. 31rd: On Dec. 4th at 6:58 UTC a Delta II rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, and 75 minutes later the Mars Pathfinder was on its way to Mars, carrying the little rover "Sojourner". Despite the 2 day launch delay because of bad weather on Dec. 2nd and a computer glitch on the 3rd, the arrival date is still Independence Day, July 4th, 1997. Because NASA likes historical dates, it deliberately choose to fly the Pathfinder on a trajectory with this arrival date and can adjust the in-flight trajectory corrections in a way that this date stays put. NASA had also wanted Viking 1 to land on a July 4th, but trouble finding a clean enough landing site had forced a delay to July 20th, 1976 - another historical day, of course (the 7th anniversary of Apollo 11)...

The Pathfinder is on a pretty fast trajectory to Mars, in contrast to the Mars Global Surveyor: The latter has to approach Mars at lower speed so it can brake itself into an orbit; the Pathfinder, however, will land right away. Here is the "flight plan" right to arrival. Soon after the unusual airbag-cushioned landing it will start taking pictures with the Imager (IMP): Some test images taken with the IMP demonstrate the high quality of the data we can hope for. Then the Sojourner rolls off a little ramp: the first rover on the Red Planet! Finally three Mars-related Notes:

Water ice on the Moon: Background of a Discovery

It was reported in a scientific journal already last Friday, but only when the Pentagon held a news conference about it on Tuesday, Dec. 3rd, the media took note: The Clementine spacecraft has discovered ice in a crater on the South pole of the Moon. Speculations about its possible use for lunar colonists followed immediately, and even a representative of the German space agency publicly dreamt about lunar agriculture. This is a bit far-fetched: All we're talking about is a sheet of water ice on the bottom of a crater near the Moon's South pole which is never reached by the sun and thus acts as a perfect cold trap. Apparently water (and possibly other volatiles) from comets have accumulated here over the eons.

The actual observations had already been made in 1994 and were completely improvised: This BMDO spacecraft had been launched to the Moon (and an asteroid which it never reached, though) solely to take millions of images (which it did) and to try out lots of lightweight space technologies. Only after its launch the idea came up to use its radio carrier as a radar beam and to look for ice with it. Giant antennas on the ground were listening for the exceedingly faint echoes (thus this technique is a "bistatic radar"): It took two years to be sure that there was really a different coming from one eternally shadowed crater on the South pole than came from others.

The full scientific story can be found in the - still - freely available online edition of Science magazine: After more than 2 years of rumors the discovery has finally cleared the hurdle of scientific peer review. Related references are here. Based on earlier rumors students had already worked out plans for lunar missions based on Clementine's water discovery at an ESA-sponsored summer school this summer. And even before Clementine was launched, by the way, water in cold traps on the moon had been predicted in a Dutch lunar "travel guide" first published in 1993 (and now available in an English translation).

Astronomical Radio Programme celebrates 5th anniversary

Since December 1991 a small but determined group of amateur astronomers, based in the area around the former German capital Bonn and held together by Paul Hombach ever since, started to produce a monthly radio show for the local radio station that had just gone on the air a few months earlier. The highly complicated media laws of Germany (are you really interested? Click here...) had finally permitted private radio stations in our state as well - but only when they devoted several hours daily to community access programming, here called Buergerfunk. It is in this slot that we (Paul, myself and recently Georg Dittie) run our monthly "Sternstunde" program - which, unfortunately can still only be heard in the Bonn - Siegburg - Cologne area on Radio Bonn-Rhein Sieg. Once broadband internet radio is a possibility, we are determined to change that! By the way: This Friday, Dec. 6th, at 20:04 MEZ our first special will air, on Dark Matter in the Universe.

Update #22.1 of Dec. 2, 1996, at 17:30 (15:45) UTC

It's not all over yet for German space science institute...

The plan by the German Max Planck Society (MPG) to close one of the most important space science institutes of Europe, the MPI for Aeronomy (see Update #2), is neither final nor would it mean the total destruction of the prestigious institution: Many questions were asked about this institute (which documents the fight for its survival on a special homepage) at the annual news conference of the MPG this morning in Bonn - and some answers were given.

Despite an increase of funding from the German state by 5% next year (which was just confirmed by the German parliament), the MPG must follow the Foederales Konsolidierungsprogramm in the wake of Germany's reunification which forces it to cut its staff by 100's of employees til the year 2000. Instead of simply stopping the hiring of scientists in all institutes (which would be a devastating signal for young scientists everywhere) the hard decision was made to kill selected institutes instead. All current professors will keep their jobs (and their people) but will simply not be replaced when they retire - thus the disappearance of the doomed institutes will take place gradually over almost a decade.

MPG president H. Markl explained that it was not their lower scientific standard that had led to their selection: "We just do not have any bad institutes!" So the MPG president and vice presidents went after the institutes that did work which was not unique to them - after all the original idea behind the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (the precursor of the MPG earlier this century) was to perform tasks in the institutes that no other institution took care of. Thus the bad luck of the MPAe: Its support of space science missions is remotely mirrored by work at the German Aerospace Research Establishment - and Markl actually hopes that the DLR will somehow absorb about half of the MPAe program's. That is, if the institute will actually have to close.

Nothing is certain at this point: The MPG sections, bodies of scientists in the various disciplines, have been given time til next February to come up with alternatives to the institute closures planned for their specific fields. They have been warned: "Do not cut anything from us" is not a valid answer. Only in March a final decision will then have to be made whether the four institutes selected now will have to close, or whether one can be saved - or different ones are to be sacrificed instead. The job of the sections must be one of the most unpleasant in German research policy these days... (DF at the MPG news conference today)

Briefly noted:

Toutatis visited the Earth: On Nov. 29th the Near Earth Asteroid 4179 Toutatis passed our planet once more, approaching up to 5.3 million kms. During the last visit 4 years ago, spectacular radar data were obtained; JPL's Steven Ostro was watching again. He will report on his latest successes at the 3rd MEPCO in Bavaria next February! Meanwhile the best observing conditions for amateurs are coming up in a few days: A detailled finder chart can be found in the Astro FAX Zirkular # 460, which can be ordered from Jost Jahn.

The first test data from the Mars Global Surveyor have been returned by the TES instrument. Meanwhile the launch of the Mars Pathfinder has been delayed by bad weather to 7:02 UT on the morning of Dec. 3rd. Amateur astronomers can watch the ascent of the spacecraft! And the fate of Mars'96 is becoming clearer, too: Contrary to initial reports, the unlucky spacecraft had separated from the malfunctioning 4th stage of the Proton and was followed by ground control for 2 orbits before contact was lost. It already crashed to Earth a few hours after launch (probably onto or near Chile), while it was the upper stage that reentered over the Pacific one day later. Incomplete radar coverage by the U.S. Space Command and communications problems with the Russians had led to the confusion. (ASTRONET Headlines Nov. 19, AW&ST Nov. 25, CNN Nov. 28, 1996)

Why did the air lock hatch jam on Columbia? From a debris particle in an unlucky position to a misalignment of the whole door mechanism range the speculations - but before Columbia returns, no firm answers are likely. Given the risks in pushing the door open and then perhaps failing to close it again, NASA decided to cancel both planned EVA's - which were only for practicing purposes, fortunately. Imagine the mishap had taken place during the Hubble Servicing Mission... Meanwhile the mission has been extended by one day, to give the ORFEUS freeflyer more observing time. More than 300 observations have already been made. (CNN Dec. 2, 1996)

Update #21 of Nov. 25, 1996, at 17:00 UTC

The Millimeter Array: Green Light expected for major radio telescope

The early 21st century will witness the construction of one and possibly several more amazing radio telescope arrays that their supporters hail as equal in importance to Hubble and the Very Large Telescope. One project is significantly more advanced than the others: the Millimeter Array, which will consist of 40 dishes 8 meters in diameter and most likely find a home at 5000 meters elevation in the Chilean Andes. There the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory has found a flat area where the telescopes could be placed for baselines between 80 meters and 10 kilometers: The spot is near San Pedro de Atacama (famous for its mummy museum), and there is even a possibility to link up the array with the Japanese Large Millimeter and Submillimeter Array that will be built nearby.

The cost of the MMA will be $ U.S. 200M for the construction and then $ U.S. 10M p.a. for its operations. If the NRAO can find partners, in the U.S. or elsewhere, who together pay between 25 and 50%, the National Science Foundation will offer to come up with the difference - a final decision will be made shortly, and if then the U.S. Office of Management and Budget clears the project as well, the current timetable could be fulfilled. Development and prototyping would take place from 1998 to 2000 and construction from 2000 to 2005, with limited observations possible in 2003 and full operations in 2006. The MMA was given the highest priority for any new groundbased project in the Bahcall Report from 1991, "The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics", and its capabilities would be revolutionary indeed.

The millimeter wavelength range is ideal e.g. for the study of extremely distant galaxies: Their spectral maxima are just in this realm when their redshift is 10 to 20. Nobody knows if there are galaxies that far away at all, but the MMA could see them - and image them with sub-arcsec resolution. With long exposure there should be always more than one distant galaxy in the synthesized beam, so the MMA would have no "Olbers' Paradoxon": Its sky would be bright everywhere. The sky as a whole would look for the MMA almost like the night sky to the human eye because it could detect the photospheric emmission from 1000's of stars. And in the solar system it would see and resolve every planet, even Pluto would be 4 pixels in diameter. On Io, the plumes of active volcanoes would be resolved - there are science highlights everywhere in the Universe. Meanwhile other and even bigger radio arrays for short wavelengths are in early planning stages, e.g. a Large Southern Array (under European leadership) and a Dutch-led "1 square km Array". (DF at the Symposium "Future Large Projects of Radio Astronomy", Bonn, Nov. 25, 1996)

Briefly noted:

Wake Shield Facility to be retrieved - ORFEUS mission continues: Tonight at around 2:10 UTC (Nov. 26 for Europe) the Columbia astronauts will snatch the WSF from space - a few hours early because the satellite and the other free-flyer, the Astro-SPAS, had surprisingly started to move closer together than planned. NASA had expected that their distance would be about 50 km during the whole mission, but when the retrieval takes place it will be only about 20 km. (Florida Today Nov. 25, 1996) Meanwhile a major educational effort in Germany is using actual ORFEUS data coming in: Details can be found on the "Spacecampus" and the DARA special pages (in German). Also for education: the Space Experiment Module.

Mars Global Surveyor radio relay test underway! The test of the relay for future Mars landers has now started, and one of the participating radio observatories is even publishing the results live on the web: SRI International with its 150-ft parabolic antenna. (SRI Media Advisory Nov. 22, 1996) Meanwhile on board the spacecraft a latch valve was closed to shut off the flow of high-pressure helium to Surveyor's propellant tanks. This activity was performed as a safety precaution against leakage from the pressure regulator that moderates the flow of high-pressure helium into the propellant tanks. Undesired leakage would cause an over-pressure condition in the propellant tanks. ( Flight Status Report Nov. 22, 1996)

Hubble photographs the landing site of the Mars Pathfinder: O.k., the resolution is not great, but then again Mars ist just coming out of solar conjunction and had an angular diameter of 5". But the Oct.9, 1996, image was still useful for the planning of the daring landing operation that awaits the Pathfinder. And if you think that amateurs can't do useful things when Mars is so small, look at Don Parker's results from Nov.8th: The amount of detail is unbelievable...

Enthusiasm for the Leonid meteors in the next few years can be found in large, yellow letters on a NASA-owned website at the Ames Research Center: "It is now certain: The Storms are coming!", we are told by P. Jenniskens on the basis of the increased rates that were observed in Europe this year (see Update #20). Lots of observing reports and even a few scientific papers can be found here.

Breakthroughs in astronomical infrared imaging! With state-of-the-art thermographical equipment, G. Dittie has succeded in measuring the temperature variations of the lunar surface during the lunar cycle and during the last lunar eclipse. And he could also show that the creator of The Cosmic Mirror has a temperature significantly above the cosmic background level. None of these results require the introduction of New Physics for their explanation... Meanwhile a lighter side of The Cosmic Mirror has opened - and for a real-life amateur astronomical sitcom turn to The Saturn Like Object homepage. No joke: An conspiracy-minded amateur astrophotographer mistook a bright star next Hale-Bopp for a spaceship in pursuit of the comet - and "published" that finding right away on a U.S. fringe radio show...

Go to the preceding issues. Other historical issues can be found in the Archive.

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