Mike Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                     
October 8, 1992
(Phone:  202/358-0872)                                        
EMBARGOED UNTIL 1 P.M. EDT

Dolores Beasley
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone:  301/286-2806)

Dr. Bernhard Haisch
Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics
University of California, Berkeley
(Phone:  510/643-5639)

Release:  92-169

NASA SPACECRAFT "SEES" OBJECT 2 BILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY

     A powerful, exotic object 2 billion light-years beyond the 
Milky Way galaxy has been observed by astronomers using a new NASA 
spacecraft designed to detect radiation in the little-explored 
extreme ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

     "Twenty years ago no one would have believed you could see 
out of the solar system at EUV wavelengths.  But now -- for the 
first time -- we actually have obtained a EUV spectrum for an 
object beyond our galaxy," said Dr. Ed Weiler, Chief of NASA's 
Ultraviolet and Visible Astrophysics Branch.

     The radiation source was observed by the Extreme Ultraviolet 
Explorer (EUVE) Spacecraft, launched into Earth orbit on June 7 to 
search the spectrum between visible light and x-rays.

     Observation of the EUV spectrum both inside and out of the 
Milky Way galaxy is often blocked by gas and dust in interstellar 
space.  However, the distribution of the gas and dust is uneven 
which allows the EUVE telescopes to see distant sources of 
radiation. 

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     According to the EUVE science team, the object is a 
tremendously energetic elliptical galaxy that radiates as much 
energy as a trillion suns.  Some astrophysicists think such a 
galaxy, called a "BL Lac Object," may contain at its center a 
super-sized black hole with a mass of 100 million suns and may be 
a cousin to the even more mysterious quasars.  

     The science team is headed by Prof. Stuart Bowyer and Dr. 
Roger Malina at the University of California-Berkeley Center for 
Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics.  

     BL Lac Objects, like PKS 2155-304, vary dramatically in 
brightness in all other spectral regions.  Now scientists have 
discovered that it was rock steady in the EUV for a day and a 
half, according to Dr. Herman Marshall, EUVE astronomer. 

     "This result is extremely interesting, but we would like more 
observations to confirm this," said Goddard's Dr. Yoji Kondo, EUVE 
Project Scientist. 

     "But it might be that we have found the right window, as Dr. 
Marshall has indicated, to see the steady infall of material onto 
the giant black hole that the theorists think may be at the very 
center of  this object," said Dr. Kondo.

     The EUVE satellite is now 11 weeks into a survey of the 
entire sky.  It will provide astronomers with their first detailed 
maps in several EUV energy bands.  Radiation at these energies is 
emitted by multi-million degree coronae on stars, by giant 
eruptions on novae, by the hot surfaces of white dwarfs and by 
other exotic sources in the cosmos such as the BL Lac object.

Other Observations

     One of the new EUV sources detected by the satellite early in 
the mission was the corona of a star much like the sun, located 
about 16 light-years away from Earth.  A white dwarf companion 7 
arc-minutes away also appears in the EUV image. 

     On July 8-9, an outburst was observed from a cataclysmic 
variable, RE 1938-461, a closely orbiting pair of stars in which 
gravitational forces pull matter from the outermost layers of one 
star onto the surface of the other, a white dwarf companion.  The 
hot compressed stellar material generates an explosive burst of 
EUV radiation as it falls into the deep gravitational field of the 
white dwarf. 

     Other explosive events are flares on stars.  These are 
unpredictable, giant versions of eruptions known to occur on a 
much smaller scale on the sun.  The EUVE caught two such events on 
the red dwarf stars AT Mic and AU Mic.

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Spacecraft, Operations Performing Fine 

     All instruments are performing at or above expected levels, 
according to instrument Principal Investigator Roger Malina.  The 
EUVE Science Operations Center, based at CEA, operates around the 
clock, sending commands to point the instruments at selected 
astronomical sources and recording the findings of the satellite's 
four telescopes and three spectrometers. 

     A novel feature is that the staff includes more than two 
dozen undergraduate students who are getting a unique hands-on 
educational experience. 

     Researchers and engineers in Berkeley are pouring over the 
calibration and check-out data obtained during the first 6 weeks 
of the mission.  These data serve a dual purpose.  They verify the 
instrument performance and at the same time, give astronomers 
valuable, new measurements to test their models.

     The EUVE Project is managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, Md., for the Office of Space Science and 
Applications, Washington, D.C. 

                             - end -

NOTE TO EDITORS:  Three photographs are available to news media to 
accompany this release by calling the NASA Headquarters Broadcast 
and Imaging Branch at 202/453-8375:
                                        Color                    
B&W
  HR 6094                        92-HC-597           92-H-728

  EUV Spectrum of           (no color)              92-H-729
     AU Microscopii

  PKS 2155-304               92-HC-673            92-H-730

A videotape to accompany this release containing an interview with 
Dr. Stuart Bowyer and Local Bubble animation also is available at 
the Broadcast and Imaging Branch.