From: yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee)
Subject: NASA Daily News for 10/09/92 (Forwarded)
Apparently-To: sci-space-news@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Followup-To: sci.space
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 23:43:41 GMT

Daily                 News
    24-hour audio service at 202/755-1788

 % Ames to brief on Pioneer-Venus preliminary end-of- mission results today;
 % Administrator Goldin to present "State of Agency" next Tuesday at 9:30 am;
 % NASA to begin search for intelligence elsewhere on Columbus Day;
 % PBS airs first episode of new "Space Age" series this Monday, Oct. 12;
 % Hubble scientists discuss results of gravitational lens picture of
   distant galaxy.

NASA's Ames Research Center will hold a press briefing today at 1:00 pm
EDT on the impending entry of the Pioneer Venus orbiter into Venus'
atmosphere.  The Pioneer Venus orbiter ceased transmitting data to
Earth yesterday, probably as a result of frictional heating and burning
of its antenna and other extensible elements of the spacecraft as it
skimmed through the upper portion of the planet's thick atmosphere.
Spacecraft scientists and managers will report on the spacecraft's last
science measurements and will also review the 14-year accomplishments
of the orbiter and its four companion probes.  The briefing will be
aired live on NASA Select television.

Pioneer Venus orbiter was launched aboard an Atlas-Centaur in May 1978
and went into Venus orbit that December.  The four-probe spacecraft was
launched in August 1978 and entered Venus' atmosphere also that
December.  Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, manufactured the Venus
orbiter spacecraft with instruments coming from university, NASA center
and industry research laboratories.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Administrator Daniel Goldin will address NASA employees on the "state
of the agency" next Tuesday, October 13, at 9:30 am EDT in the Voice of
America auditorium at 300 Independence Avenue, SW, here in Washington.
The address will be shown live on NASA Select television and will be
repeated at 12:00 noon, 4:00 and 8:00 pm EDT and again at midnight.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Monday, NASA will begin the most comprehensive search ever conducted
for evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe.  The search
will begin at California's Goldstone Deep Space Network station and
also at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.  The project, the High
Resolution Microwave Survey, consists of two parts P the Targeted
Search, which will use the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center's
huge dish at Arecibo, and the Sky Survey, which will use the 34-meter
dish at Goldstone.  The searches will use radio telescope antennas to
"listen" to stars for non-random radio noise P much like someone tuning
a radio listens for a station between the static.  The Targeted Search
will be searching about 1,000 nearby stars similar to our Sun; the Sky
Survey will survey the entire sky.  The radio telescope signals will be
fed to highly sophisticated signal analyzer systems which can scan
frequencies from 1,000 to 10,000 megaHertz in seconds.  The program is
managed by the Ames Research Center with support from the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Solar System Exploration Division.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Also Monday, October 12, the Public Broadcasting System will air a new
weekly series P "Space Age " P which documents the first steps of
humans into space.  The program is in six parts, with each segment
covering a specific aspect of space exploration.  The first episode,
"Quest for Planet Mars," delves into the ages-old dream of exploring
the Red Planet.  The programs commemorate the International Space Year
and include extensive supporting materials for educational and public
outreach activities.  WQED, Pittsburgh, is the series producer, with
Japan's NHK, Sweden's SVT-1, and the Dutch TROS networks as
co-producers.  The series was produced in association with the National
Academy of Sciences, which provided scientific oversight.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hubble Space Telescope scientists yesterday presented the results of a
recent Wide Field/Planetary Camera image taken through a massive
cluster of galaxies which produced a striking mirror-image of an even
more distant galaxy through a technique known as "gravitational
lensing."  This effect was first proposed by Albert Einstein and has
been used by ground-based telescopes but never before by a space-based
telescope.  Richard Ellis of England's Durham University was the
investigator for these images and said "we already knew from
ground-based images that this cluster of galaxies could act as a
gravitational lens.  The remarkable feature of the new data is the
detail with which we can study background galaxies by combining the
lensing phenomenon with the excellent image quality possible with the
Hubble."

Because of the unique lensing and resolving capabilities presented by
this technique, the scientists can measure the bending power of the
gravitational lens and through analysis of that produce an estimate of
the mass and distribution of matter of the intervening galaxies.  Of
particular import is the fact that the intervening matter does not have
to emit light to be precisely measured using this new capability.
Consequently, the "dark matter" search will be aided significantly.
Ellis provided a model of the gravitational effects of this particular
gravitational lens, which agreed with previously-determined
gravitational analyses of the same galaxy cluster taken by measuring
the individual galaxy motions within the cluster.

The team will continue to use Hubble's cameras to photograph other
clusters located at differing distances and in that manner will be able
to probe the universe and dark matter at varying times in its
evolution.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
  
Here's the broadcast schedule for Public Affairs events on NASA Select
TV.  Note that all events and times may change without notice, and that
all times listed are Eastern.  Live indicates a program is transmitted
live.

  
     12:00 pm  Standard Parts.
     12:15 pm  Aeronautics & Space Report.
     12:30 pm  STARPAHC.
Live  1:00 pm  Pioneer Venus  entry into Venus' atmosphere press briefing from
               Ames Research Center.
      2:00 pm  Launch Box program #3.
      2:30 pm  Gemini Twins.
      3:00 pm  Total Quality Management program #43 in the 
               University of New Mexico series.
      4:00 pm  8:00 pm and 12:00 midnight P programming repeats.

Tuesday, October 13, 1992
Live  9:30 am  NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin gives "State of the Agency"
               address to employees.
  
This report is filed daily at noon, Monday through Friday.  It is a
service of NASA's Office of Public Affairs.  The editor is Charles
Redmond, 202/453-8425 or CREDMOND on NASAmail.  NASA Select TV is
carried on GE Satcom F2R, transponder 13, C-Band, 72 degrees West
Longitude, transponder frequency is 3960 MegaHertz, audio subcarrier is
6.8 MHz, polarization is vertical.
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