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S&T News Bulletin - Mar 3
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SKY & TELESCOPE'S NEWS BULLETIN -- MARCH 3, 1995
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ASTRO TIDBIT
There was no new Moon in the entire month of February, and that won't
happen again until the year 2014.
CLEMENTINE UPDATE
Clementine officials have been encouraged that the spacecraft appears to
be alive, after contact with it was briefly reestablished on February 20th
using NASA's 70-meter tracking antenna in California. According to
participant Trevor Sorenson, Clementine is apparently just on the verge of
getting enough electricity from its solar cells to reboot its computer.
Another tracking pass is planned for March 12th, by which time the
spacecraft's solar-cell arrays will be more fully illuminated. Project
officials are hopeful that by then the spacecraft will be up and running.
ASTRO 2 UNDER WAY
The Space Shuttle *Endeavour* began a record-breaking 16-day astronomy
mission at 1:38 a.m. EST on March 2nd. The principal payload is Astro 2,
a suite of three telescopes optimized for studies at ultraviolet
wavelengths. These flew on the shuttle once before, in 1990, but the
mission was marred by numerous equipment glitches. This time observations
will include a search for intergalactic helium, one of the by-products
thought to have formed immediately after the Big Bang.
IO ERUPTS!
Last week astronomers on Mauna Kea were monitoring the Jovian moon Io as
part of educational program for young students called Project Jason. But
they got more than they bargained for. Observer John Spencer reports that
a major volcanic outburst took place on Io on March 2nd. The location,
though uncertain, does not obviously match any of the satellite's major
volcanic centers. However, it's the first eruption of this type for which
images were obtained in real time. Spencer and his colleagues used NASA's
Infrared Telescope Facility and recorded the event from 3.5 to 4.8
microns.
METEORITES 3, CARS 0
Japanese scientists report that yet another car has gotten conked by a
meteorite. This time a black, egg-shaped stone weighing 325 grams was
found atop the trunk of a retired high-school teacher in the town of
Neagari, in central Honshu. The precise time of the fall is unknown, but
neighbors reported hearing a loud noise on the prior evening, February
18th. So the known collisions of meteorites with cars may now stand at
three, counting the Peekskill, New York, fall in October 1992 and the
controversial claim of a meteorite hitting a moving car last June near
Madrid, Spain.
MORE TRANS-NEPTUNIANS
The observing team of Jane Luu and David Jewitt report their discovery of
three more objects beyond the orbit of Neptune. Preliminary calculations
suggest that the three objects, designated 1995 DA2, DB2, and DC2, are 34,
41, and 45 astronomical units from the Sun. That brings the tally of
trans-Neptunian objects to 21, not counting Pluto and its moon, Charon,
and all found within the last three years.
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| Stuart Goldman Internet: sgoldman@cfa.harvard.edu |
* Associate Editor mrastro@aol.com *
| Sky & Telescope |
* P. O. Box 9111 Sky & Telescope: The Essential *
| Belmont, MA 02178 Magazine of Astronomy |
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