News Headlines for November 1999

Mars Polar Lander Nears Arrival NASA returns to the surface of Mars on December 3 with a spacecraft that will land on the frigid, windswept steppe near the edge of Mars' south polar cap. Piggybacking on the lander are two small probes that will smash into the Martian surface to test new technologies. Fly us to the moon? Forget the beaches, forget the slopes, forget the theme parks. At least a few starry-eyed vacation planners are betting that big-bucks retreats of the future will offer plenty of nothing - as in space. Mir Space Station Is Y2K Compliant A Russian space official said that the 13-year-old Mir orbital station would not suffer any computer failures from the Y2K bug. For Mars scientists, landing will be hallelujah or heartbreak Third of a four-part series: Bob Bonitz was standing in the open doorway of an airplane at 10,000 feet last January when NASA's Mars Polar Lander was flung into space off a Cape Canaveral launch pad. He had intended to jump, rushing down in freefall as the rocket that carried the probe thundered in the distance, but thick clouds thwarted his plans. Polar lander ready for Mars The Mars Polar Lander spacecraft will soon make the first-ever landing near the Martian pole, following an 11-month, 220-million-kilometre trip. Martian mysteries under the microscope Lasers, tiny ovens and cameras on board Mars Polar Lander will try and solve some of the red planet's ancient mysteries. Along for the ride: microprobes Some soaring NASA technological hopes will face a violent day of reckoning on December 3. A Six-Pack of New Planets See also: ...and then six come along at once and Six new planets discovered Six jumbo-sized planets have been detected orbiting stars outside our solar system, and five of the newly discovered objects are just the right distance from their suns to support life. Hopes are riding on Mars lander NASA’s Mars Polar Lander weighs in at just 639 pounds, but it’s carrying tons of hope to the Red Planet: Scientists are hoping to unlock millions of years’ worth of secrets about climate change on an alien world. Some of them are even hoping for new clues in the search for life on Mars. Internet users are hoping for a new wave of spectacular images. And NASA is hoping to redeem itself after a series of space setbacks. All this is riding on a relatively risky landing scheduled for Friday. Robotic Science Station Opens Dec 3 See also: Ballistic Science Hits Mars Days from now, scientists will witness their experiments complete an 11-month, 137-million-mile space trip to Mars. A World For A Breath of Air As atmospheres go, it has mostly gone. Admittedly, if you plough into the Martian atmosphere at the speed of a meteorite, as the misguided Mars Climate Observer did in September, there is still enough there to tear you apart. But where did the rest of it go? NASA's Mars Polar Lander mission to search for water on Red Planet Second of a four-part series: NASA's Mars Polar Lander spacecraft is bearing down for landing Friday at the Red Planet's south pole, which could be hoarding frozen water mixed among its dirt. The next chapter in the Mars quest The table in Sarah Gavit’s compact, sunny office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is strewn with a dozen bruised and battered hunks of metal, most of them shaped like big bullets. "You’re looking at a museum here," she says - a museum of one of the more audacious space experiments ever: two probes that will burrow into the surface of Mars at 400 miles per hour and sniff out hints of whether the planet could once have supported life. Robot joins the polar meteorite hunt A rock-hunting robot is being sent to Antarctica on a mission that will likely turn up the first meteorites discovered by a machine rather than a human. The project’s leaders hope the techniques will be put to use someday by free-thinking robots sent to other planets. Microphone on craft will capture sounds from Red Planet Mars Polar Lander is equipped with a tiny microphone that will try to capture the first sounds heard from another planet. Polar Lander will expand legacy of Viking, Pathfinder spacecraft First of a four-part series: If all goes as planned on Friday, a squatty, robotic spacecraft will land on a bitter cold plain near the edge of the Martian south pole. Hubble's greatest Hits We are living in the midst of a revolution in astronomy, with unprecedented images of the cosmos sent back from outer space. Explore the highlights in MSNBC’s Space Gallery. Lawn Darts on Mars Two little space probes heading for Mars this week won’t float beneath parachutes or bounce to a landing on cushions. Instead, they’ll smash into the planet at 400 mph, punching into the ground like interplanetary lawn darts. Government prepares for meteor strike The UK government is to establish a panel of experts to advise on the risk of the Earth being hit by a meteor. Lunar link to volcanic past French scientists have put forward an intriguing new theory for what caused catastrophic volcanic activity on our planet hundreds of millions of years ago, which led to the rise of the dinosaurs. G-modes detected in interplanetary magnetic field? New evidence that gravity waves originating in the Sun’s core may leave their imprint in the solar wind was presented to last month’s meeting of the Ulysses science working team. NASA’s Rapid Response See also: Galileo survives 'white knuckle' flyby of Io Jupiter’s intense radiation briefly crippled NASA’s Galileo spacecraft by resetting an onboard computer during the closest-ever pass above the fiery moon of Io. Gamma ray finding may open new window on universe NASA scientists say a new finding on the properties of gamma-ray bursts could open "a new window on the distant universe" and offer fresh insight into its beginnings -- and perhaps its eventual demise. We saw it too, say astronomers Another group of astronomers have come forward to say that they too have made observations of the planet seen orbiting the star HD 209458, which is 150 light-years from Earth. Return to Mars Less than three months after metrics and management doomed the Mars Climate Orbiter, NASA will attempt the trickier task of landing a probe on the Red Planet to search for water, study the climate and analyze the atmosphere. Lifting the veil on the X-ray universe ESA’s X-ray Multi Mirror mission - XMM - is the second Cornerstone in ESA's Long Term Scientific Programme (*). This new X-ray space telescope promises even more discoveries. With the large collecting area of its mirrors and the high sensitivity of its cameras, XMM is expected to increase radically our understanding of high-energy sources - clues to a mysterious past, and keys to understanding the future of the Universe. Scientists trace galactic clouds Massive clouds of gas, discovered long ago but only recently identified as being within the margins of the Milky Way, play a key role in the ability of the galaxy to churn out new stars by raining gas onto the plane of the galaxy, a new report suggests. BATSE finds most distant quasar yet seen in soft gamma rays Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, a supermassive black hole burped and sent a flash of gamma rays that arrived at Earth 11 billion years later. Observations by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment will help give insight into the birth and life of quasars. Dawn of a New Era in Space Transportation The leaders of NASA’s advanced space transportation activity have a vision for the opening century of the third millennium: human settlements on other planets within 100 years. Latest images from Mars show details of layers, craters See also: New Mars Global Surveyor Image Some of the latest images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, which has been mapping the red planet since earlier this year, reveal just how much work is ahead for the Mars Polar Lander. Gamma-Ray Bursts Light the Way to the Early Universe NASA astronomers say they have uncovered a specific property of gamma-ray bursts that will enable them to gauge the distances to thousands of these powerful explosions, many perhaps beyond the reach of all existing telescopes. Leonid strikes the Moon Astronomers think they have witnessed a meteor striking the Moon. Brian Cudnik from Houston, Texas, captured the event, which may be the first such confirmed observation. Mars Landing Events and Media Coverage Information NASA TV coverage of this event starts with a series of prelanding news briefings that begin on Tuesday, November 30, at 1 p.m. EST (6pm GMT). Daily coverage, including periods of live commentary, will be provided through Friday, December 10, if early mission events proceed as planned. Light detected from distant planet British astronomers may have detected light from a planet orbiting another star. If so, this is the first time this has ever been done and a major achievement. Multiple Galaxy Collisions Surprise Hubble Astronomers Hubble astronomers conducting research on a class of galaxies called ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRG) have discovered that over two dozen of these are found within "nests" of galaxies, apparently engaged in multiple collisions that lead to fiery pile-ups of three, four or even five galaxies smashing together. Discovery mission to Hubble could be facing delay Shuttle Discovery's flight to the Hubble Space Telescope could be delayed from its planned Dec. 6 launch if it takes NASA longer to repair damaged electrical wires. Astronomers to use new tool to search heavens in effort to prove Einstein theory Scientists are poised to gain important new insights into black holes, exploding stars and the birth of the universe by studying the very same phenomenon responsible for the soup stain in your lap: gravity. Probe Yields Planetary Clues and A Volcanic Flashback New information gathered from a probe that plunged into Jupiter four years ago is raising fundamental questions about how planets form. A Glimpse of a Young Earth See also: Volcanic moon resembles Earth's past New images of monster volcanoes and lava lakes on Jupiter's moon Io could help scientists look back in time to Earth's younger, more volcanic days. Mars Team Continues To Train For Landing JPL reports that NASA's Mars Polar Lander is healthy and on target for a landing this December 3. The beefed up MPL team has spent this week testing and training for the entry, descent and landing operations of the mission. Living the Leonids with ESA Science "From here the peak was around 2 200 meteors at 02:13", reported an excited Michael Schmidhuber, ESA's man from aboard the international plane at 03:08 UT, calling in from somewhere over Greece to the waiting scientists gathered at the forum desk at ESTEC. Leonids Rain in Spain An outburst of over 1500 Leonid meteors per hour dazzled observers in Europe and the Middle East. Sound of a Shooting Star? Scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, launched a balloon 17 miles into the atmosphere to look -- and listen -- for stray meteors. Listen to a sound recording, made by a very low-frequency radio receiver. Leonids Give Some Skywatchers A Spectacular Display A flurry of Leonid meteors bombarded Earth's atmosphere early Thursday morning, giving observers a dazzling skyshow and meeting scientists' expectations of a better display than last year. World marvels at meteors The Leonids return, bringing a colourful shower of shooting stars unlikely to be matched for decades. In the Leonids' lair BBC Science's Dr Chris Riley reports on an unforgettable experience watching the Leonid meteor storm from on board Nasa's Leonid mission jet. Leonids Light Up the Sky Waves of fireballs brightened the skies like lightning Wednesday night over the sands of Arabia as the much-heralded Leonid meteor shower swelled into the heaviest storm of shooting stars in 33 years. Wish Upon A Star In Deep Space Deep Space 1 has suffered a significant failure with its star tracker with repeated attempts to fix the problem proving difficult. The spacecraft is now in protective mode as the small DS1 team works the problem. Space ventures struggling in a dot-com world “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.” Twenty years after that observation on the realities underlying space flight first surfaced in “The Right Stuff,” rocket entrepreneur Gary Hudson quotes it anew to explain why it’s harder for space ventures to get off the ground in an Internet age. Huge Fireball Dazzles Midwest Tuesday night an unusual Earth-grazing fireball attracted stares in over a half-dozen US states. Could it be a taste of things to come when the Leonids peak Thursday morning? Watch passage of Mercury before Sun on web On Nov.15th, a rare astronomical phenomenon occurred when Mercury passed directly between the Earth and the Sun for the final time this century. This particular Mercury transit was of a particular type that has not occurred since the invention of the telescope, and is not expected again at least through the 23rd century. The Fear Of A 'Non-Upright Touchdown' Given the embarrassing failure of the Mars Climate Orbiter, there is a good deal of nervousness -- both inside and outside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, that its companion spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander, might also fail during landing this Dec. 3. Astronomers take to the sky to chase spectacular meteor storm What may be the heavens' last major meteor storm for a century has attracted astronomers from six nations to study the spectacular trail of ''shooting stars'' aboard a pair of U.S. jets loaded with scientific instruments. Leonid meteor shower starts slow, could be most spectacular in 33 years Professional and amateur star watchers worldwide early Wednesday were viewing the annual Leonid meteor shower, which is predicted to put on its best show since 1966. Celestial Light Show Thirty-three Novembers ago, Joe Rao stood in his Bronx backyard, cursing the heavens. Clouds covered the midnight sky like a fresh coat of plaster, smearing the 10-year old’s view of the annual Leonid meteor shower. The Leonids are back: is a storm brewing? Will the night sky be illuminated with thousands of ‘shooting stars’ - known to scientists as the Leonid meteors - on the night of 17 - 18 November? No-one knows for sure, but some experts are predicting a dramatic display over Western Europe which will rival any millennium celebrations. Meteor-watchers on the move The year’s most anticipated meteor shower has begun, and researchers around the world are chasing swarms of shooting stars known as the Leonids. Meanwhile, satellite operators are taking evasive measures to keep cosmic grit from damaging their multimillion-dollar investments. A day before the expected peak, monitoring stations were recording more than 40 meteors per hour. Meteor Storm Science: A 301 Explantion Leonid meteor storms, particles from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, reach a peak every 33 years. In Novembers near this peak, the meteoroids threaten satellites. New predictions can pinpoint the storms to five minutes; they will help agencies protect their satellites. Old and new messages for E.T. It’s been 25 years since humanity first sent a signal intended for civilizations on other planets. In that time, the message has traveled only a thousandth of the way toward its intended target, but other efforts are afoot to transmit signals - and this time they’re toll calls. Space Science Update: 'Volcanic Moon Io Mirrors Earth's Past' New images and animation showing volcanic activity on Jupiter's moon Io, similar to that which occurred on Earth eons ago, will be unveiled at a Space Science Update featuring findings from NASA's Galileo spacecraft. See an X-ray view of a galactic pain A giant distant galaxy had a very human reaction to getting dumped on, NASA scientists say: It blew up and then got a big knot in its belly. Planet Outside Solar System See also: Extrasolar planet detected and It's Real! A startling image of a planet passing in front of a bright star has confirmed what scientists before only could deduce with math - there are planets beyond our solar system. Mars Penetrator Probes Named for Pioneering Polar Explorers NASA's Deep Space 2 microprobes, due to smash into the surface of Mars near the planet's south pole on Dec. 3, have been named Amundsen and Scott in honor of the first explorers to reach the South Pole of Earth. Travel agents plot to ship the rich into space If you've had enough of life on earth and want to get away from it all, start saving now. Hubble Halts, Awaiting Repairs See also: Hubble Space Telescope into safe hold as gyroscope fails The Hubble Space Telescope went into hibernation over the weekend, its astronomical observations halted, when one of its gyroscopes failed. Robot Astronomer Discovers Supernova A supernova dubbed 1999em, recently discovered at Lick Observatory, may become one of the century's best observed supernovae, according to Alexei Filippenko, the University of California, Berkeley, astronomer whose group found the exploding star. Japan's rocket hopes explode Japanese space officials deliberately exploded a 24 billion yen ($229 m) rocket on and its cargo after it veered off course on Monday, just moments after lift-off. Deep Space 1 Technology Analysis Continues Deep Space 1 has spent most of the last three weeks engaged in activities to prepare for its encounters with two comets in 2001. Meanwhile, it has continued coasting in its orbit around the Sun, with its ion propulsion system turned off. Sandia micromirrors may be part of Next Generation Space Telescope Micromirrors being developed by the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories may one day be part of the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), the successor to the Hubble that will peruse the universe looking for remnants from the period in which the first stars and galaxies formed. When Stars Cause Indigestion Planets are tiny, insignificant things compared with their parent stars -- little more than moths fluttering around the stellar camp fire. You might think that they could have no discernible effect on their stars and, until recently, astronomers would have agreed with you. Look at that Sunspot Go! On Monday afternoon, November 15, the planet Mercury will pass in front of the Sun creating a speedy dark spot on our star that can be seen through properly filtered telescopes. Blue fireball over Florida probably a meteor A blue ball of fire that streaked across the sky above Volusia County has residents wondering whether the sight was something out of this world. Green light for XMM launch on 10 December All lights are green to launch ESA's X-ray Space Observatory on 10 December with a launch window starting at 14:32 GMT. Do-it-yourself Leonids You don't have to be a rocket scientist to observe the 1999 Leonid meteor shower, but you can help out scientists by sending your observations to NASA. This article includes observing tips and instructions for meteor counting. Here come the Leonids ... again The year’s most anticipated meteor shower is less than a week away — and experts are preparing for a display that should outshine last year’s show. Satellite operators are getting ready as well, taking evasive measures to keep cosmic grit from damaging their multimillion-dollar investments. Look out for the Leonid Meteor Shower The 1999 Leonid meteor shower should produce a fine display in the early hours of the 18th of November, Professor Mark Bailey of Armagh Observatory will tell the Royal Astronomical Society's meeting on Friday 12th November. Research done at Armagh, and by other experts around the world, suggests that an unusually strong shower is on the cards this year when Earth passes through streams of dust that have been shed by Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Moon mission targets mystery See also: Europe is going to the moon and Europe aims for the moon A European Space Agency mission to discover exactly what the Moon is made of has been given the final go-ahead. An active Sun As it approaches the peak of its 11-year cycle of activity, the Sun is putting on a magnificent display of sunspots on its surface. The maximum activity is expected in the middle of next year. Some asteroids may be like celestial sponges All asteroids may not be solid lumps of rock and minerals, according to U.S. researchers. Some have porous structures that would be compacted if they collided with another heavenly body. Big Little Impacts To understand what happens when two asteroids collide, scientists at Boeing and the University of Washington have been creating their own miniature versions of Deep Impact. The payload of Mars Express re-confirmed The Science Programme Committee of the European Space Agency at its meeting on 9-10 November 1999 re-confirmed the payload of the Mars Express mission as approved in May 1998, with two important additions. Scientists 'create' a neutron star Laboratory physicists have simulated some of the effects found around one of the strangest and most dangerous objects in the known universe. Mercury pass in front of Sun will get SOHO even better data The celestial encounter between Mercury and the Sun on 15 November could help scientists gather more accurate information on the solar atmosphere than ever before. This type of planetary transit is a rather uncommon event that happens at intervals of 7, 13, or 33 years. A new life for Liberty Bell 7: Piece by piece, heartland team restoring Grissom's capsule In the heart of Kansas, about as far as you can get from the launch pads of Florida and the astronauts in Houston, the greatest archaeological dig of the space age is in high gear. NASA chief nears a milestone By Thanksgiving, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin will break what astronauts might call a long-duration record: He’ll become the longest continuously serving NASA head in the agency’s history, surpassing the record set by Apollo-era leader James Webb. New scales rate space storms See also: Solar Explosions With the sun nearing the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the federal agency that monitors “space weather” has introduced three new scales to measure the severity of solar storms. Such outbursts can endanger astronauts in space — or disrupt communications and electrical power grids here on Earth. Metrics Blamed in Probe Crash See also: Human error caused loss of Mars orbiter and Loss of Mars orbiter Failure to convert English measures to metric values caused the loss of the Mars planet orbiter, a spacecraft that smashed into the planet instead of reaching a safe orbit, a NASA investigation concluded today. Flying pumpkin to provide NASA with data from space NASA has successfully tested the flight of a giant pumpkin-shaped balloon that spans half a football field. Although this might sound massive, this prototype is only one-tenth the volume of the Ultra Long Duration Balloon. Star Birth in the Trifid Nebula See also: Hubble sees stellar birth, destruction in Trifid Nebula A newly released image of the Trifid Nebula provides a glimpse into the life cycle of stars like our sun. Hubble's house call Nasa has outlined its plans for the mission to repair and service the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) next month. Another wire problem discovered on shuttle Look towards the northern horizon on the night of 11 November and you might just see a meteor shower that nobody has ever seen before. Most distant Solar System object detected Astronomers have observed an object orbiting the Sun that is more distant than anything yet discovered. Surprise meteor shower possible NASA said today it's still aiming for a Dec. 6 launch of space shuttle Discovery to the Hubble Space Telescope, despite another wiring problem found on the ship. Highway Through Space Using Less Than a Tenth the Fuel of a Chemical-Based Engine, Plasma Propulsion Promises to Open Up the Solar System. A Viking galaxy found by Hipparcos shows how the Milky Way grew A dozen ancient stars, scattered all over the sky, are survivors from a small galaxy that invaded the Milky Way like a shipload of Vikings. The European Space Agency's Hipparcos satellite, which measured the motions of many thousands of stars, enabled astronomers from Leiden in the Netherlands and Garching in Germany to make this astonishing discovery. It provides clear evidence in favour of the theory that great assemblies of stars, like the Milky Way Galaxy where we live, grew by the amalgamation of smaller galaxies. The Mystery of Planet X Dutch astronomer Johannes van Paradijs dies at 53 Johannes van Paradijs, whose observations helped crack a mystery about massive bursts of gamma rays in outer space, has died. He was 53. A Hawaiian-Style Volcano on Io See also: Hawaii Volcano Twin on Io and Volcano on Io producing lava flows, tubes New images from Galileo reveal unexpected details of the Prometheus volcano on Io including a caldera and lava flowing through fields of sulfur dioxide snow. ISO sees the golden age of galaxy formation The Milky Way is a fairly quiet galaxy now, but some thousands of millions years ago it was quite a different story. ESA's infrared space observatory, ISO, has taken pictures of the 'golden age' of galaxy formation, the epoch when galaxies were taking the shape we see now, and has unveiled more than a thousand very active young galaxies in which non-stop star-formation machines are at work. Viper telescope probes Big Bang 'echo' The Viper microwave telescope situated at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole base has detected ripples in the so-called microwave background radiation - the "echo" from the Big Bang. A surprise November meteor shower? On November 11, 1999 Earth will pass close to the orbit of newly-discovered Comet LINEAR C/1999J3. The result could be a new meteor shower -- the Linearids. Ham operators will get to help NASA with space experiment Ham radio operators can help NASA collect and analyze data from a satellite scheduled for launch Dec 2. Data from the Plasma Experiment Satellite Test will be used in designing an advanced propulsion system that plugs into the Earth's magnetosphere. Mars tales spin in different orbits When scheduling their big-event pictures for the year 2000, Warner Bros. and Disney are choosing different Mars attacks. A Grazing Encounter Between Two Spiral Galaxies See also: Dance of the galaxies and Astronomers find debris of shattered galaxy In the direction of the constellation Canis Major, two spiral galaxies pass by each other like majestic ships in the night. The near-collision has been caught in images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 . Astronomers find evidence of first planet orbiting a pair of stars See also: Planet May Orbit Star Pair Astronomers have found evidence of the first known planet orbiting a pair of stars. Previously, planets have been found circling only single stars. Leonids on the Moon When the Leonid meteor shower strikes on November 18, Earth won't be the only place in the cross hairs. The Moon will also pass very close to the debris stream of comet Tempel-Tuttle. Leonid meteorite impacts on the Moon might be visible from Earth and provide a means for long-distance lunar prospecting. Taking a ringside seat for a gamma-ray burst Supercomputers are giving scientists a ringside seat for one of the most violent events in nature, the heart of a gamma ray burst. The 'collapsar' model simulates a star that is too heavy to go supernova, and thus turns itself inside out. Challenger tile seller wants to end flap An online seller says he had no idea owning a tile from the space shuttle Challenger posed legal problems and would gladly return it to the proper authorities. An auction of the tile was shut down Monday night after NASA and the Coast Guard said they were investigating the case. VLBA Reveals Formation Region Of Giant Cosmic Jet Near A Black Hole Space Telescope Science Institute astronomers and their co-investigators have gained their first glimpse of the mysterious region near a black hole at the heart of a distant galaxy, where a powerful stream of subatomic particles spewing outward at nearly the speed of light is formed into a beam, or jet, that then goes nearly straight for thousands of light-years. Catch a moon shadow on Mars See also: MOC Views of Martian Solar Eclipses New images from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft show shadows cast on Mars’ surface by the Martian moon Phobos. NASA Meteor Balloon Rises Again NASA scientists and ham radio amateurs are teaming up for a weather balloon flight to the stratosphere during the Leonid meteor shower on November 18, 1999. The balloon will transmit a live webcast of the shower from an altitude of 100,000 ft or more, far above any bad weather or obscuring clouds. Lander to listen for the sounds of Mars An idea first proposed by the late Carl Sagan will finally come to fruition in December, when NASA and the Planetary Society conduct an unusual experiment aboard the Mars Polar Lander. Glenn Comes Clean John Glenn suggests in his new autobiography that a dressing-down he once gave his fellow Mercury astronauts about their skirt-chasing ways may have prevented him from becoming the first American in space.

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