people.missions.science
NASA Budget News: NASA fought and won $13.8 billion in the Senate
Appropriations bill. This is $127 million more than the House and $462 million
less than President Clinton requested. Recommendations in the bill include an
increase in the space science budget and a decrease of $97 million from the
space shuttle budget. Any differences between the Senate Bill and the House
version will be worked out in committee. Stay tuned for further info.
Pioneer 11: After 22 years, NASA will cease daily communications with the
Pioneer 11 spacecraft. The reason? Power levels have dropped to a level far
below what is required to power the instruments and return data. Pioneer 11 was
the second spacecraft to fly by Jupiter in 1974. It became the first spacecraft
to fly past Saturn in 1979. In 1990, it became the fourth spacecraft to leave
the known solar system, after Pioneer 10 and Voyagers 1 and 2.
Hubble Discoveries: The Hubble Space Telescope discovered trace quantities of
ozone on Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede. The amount is 1-10% less than the
amount of ozone destroyed over Antartica each winter. Unlike Earth, Ganymede's
ozone appears to be produced by interaction with Jupiter's powerful magnetic
field. Mounting evidence appears to suggest that Ganymede may have a thin
atmosphere of oxygen, similar to the one Hubble discovered around Jupiter's
moon Europa.
Galileo Glitch: A problem with a tape recorder on Galileo caused some to fear
the worst, but after investigation and testing, the problem was remedied. -See
article on front page
Saturn Moon Mystery: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected orbiting clumbs
of icy rubble that may be the remains of shattered moonlets orbiting near the
outer edge of Saturn's ring system. The latest HST pictures confirmed the
discovery of two new satellites first detected during the ring plane crossing
on May 22. Researchers plan to further observe Saturn's moons and rings during
the third ring plane crossing on November 21. -For further information, go to
the site listed as this month's URL of the Month
Hale-Bopp Update: Recent pictures from NASA's HST show material that may have
been ejected from the comet due to ice evaporation and the comet's rotation.
Ground-based observations have demonstrated similar findings over the past two
months. Late this month more detailed Hubble images will be taken with the
Planetary Camera for further study of the comet. -See article on Page 6
Interplanetary Magnetic Field: The first "snapshot" of the shape of the
interplanetary magnetic field was taken using an instrument aboard ESA's
Ulysses spacecraft. The image was obtained by tracking the path of the bright
spot of radio waves excited by moving electrons ejected from the Sun at speeds
of over 62 100 miles per second. The spot was caused by solar flares or other
explosive events on the Sun. The image is available at
http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/spacesci/pictures/spacepic.html.
-Compiled by Michael Koller
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