According to an article published in the 7 January 2000 issue of Science magazine, researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the University of Nevada-Reno claim to have discovered crystalline water and ammonia ice on the surface of Pluto's moon Charon. This would be in agreement with data collected by Voyager surveys which have shown these ices to be components of a large number of similarly sized satellites in the outer solar system. The authors note that Charon is very similar in size to two moons circling Uranus - Ariel and Umbriel - both of which demonstrate clear evidence of geological activity at some point in their life histories.

Full Story ...

"The Warp and Woof of a Geomagnetic Storm: Using a team of three satellites, scientists are studying what happens when a solar coronal mass ejection strikes the Earth's magnetic field. This story includes a new Quicktime animation of a coronal mass ejection and the aurora borealis."

"Y2K Meteor Blast: One of the most intense and least observed annual meteor showers peaks on the morning of Jan. 4, 2000. The Quadrantids will be the first major meteor display of the New Year."

Researchers at NASA ARC announced that their Vulcan Camera Project has used transit photometry to confirm the existence of a previously identified planet orbiting the star HD209458. This planet was originally discovered at UCAR's High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado in November 1999. The planet was calculated to have a mass 1.3 times that of Jupiter in an orbit about its parent star that required only 3.52 days. This is typical of the so-called "hot Jupiters" that have been discovered thus far.

The technique of transit photometry involves measuring the change in a star's brightness as an orbiting planet moves across or 'transits' its face. Great care is needed so as to separate local atmospheric disturbances in a star's light from actual light level changes coming from the target star itself.

By coincidence, such a transit recently occured in our own solar system when Mercury transited the face of our local star ("Of Planetary Transits Near and Far"). Also, by coincidence, it was recently announced ("ESA's Hipparcos Satellite Observed an Extrasolar Planet 8 Years Ago.") that observing star light changes (in this case observations of the very same star HD 209548 - albeit 8 years after the fact) from satellites can also be used detect extra solar planets.

° Extrasolar Planets, SpaceRef Directory
° ExtraSolar Planets, The Astrobiology Web
° Press release, NASA ARC
° High Altitude Observatory UCAR
° Lick Observatory
° Vulcan Camera Project, NASA ARC

"The hunt is on. In the words of Lynn Harper from NASA's astrobiology programme: "If you're interested in life in the Universe, this is the time to be alive."

Editor's note: this phenomenal series by Timothy Ferris is airing once again on PBS. DO NOT MISS IT!

"An international team of scientists from NASA, the University of Florida at Gainesville, and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, observed the deflection of galactic dust grains by solar radiation (Science 17 December 1999). Galactic dust grains are very small, about four tenth of a micron in diameter. Due to their small mass their motion towards the sun is decelerated when the particle is hit by a solar photon."

"We're at the point of recognizing that microorganisms have remarkable abilities to colonize these environments and trying to understand the parameters that control that colonization," said INEEL microbiologist Rick Colwell, who presented a synthesis of recent findings in the Biogeoscience: Deep Biospheres: Where and How? poster session today at the American Geophysical Society meeting in San Francisco. "

"University of Iowa astronomy professor Robert Mutel announced today that an eight-month search using an Arizona-based telescope has failed to detect evidence supporting a 13-year-old theory that small comets composed of snow are continually bombarding the Earth. "

"Here we report the probable detection of Doppler-shifted starlight reflected from the planet known to orbit Boötis with a period of just a few days. We find that the orbital inclination is about i = 29°, from which we infer that the mass is about eight times that of Jupiter. The planet has the size and reflectivity expected for a gas-giant planet."

"First image of black hole's 'shadow' may be possible soon A "picture" of the massive black hole thought to be lurking at the heart of our home galaxy may be within astronomers' reach in the next few years, according to a report in the Jan. 1, 2000, edition of "Astrophysical Journal Letters." "

"The 1999 Geminids dazzled observers in North America, making up for a weak display of Leonids there one month earlier. Another meteor shower is just 3 weeks away."

"Astronomers have just realised that news of a planet orbiting a distant star came from ESA's Hipparcos satellite eight years ago, although no one noticed it until now. The first observation, on 17 April 1991, was made long before Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of the Observatoire de Genève astounded the world in 1995 with their discovery of a planet around the star 51 Pegasi. Since then the search for alien planets has become a highly competitive theme in astronomy, and the present tally of stars known to possess planets is 28. "

"The Geminids meteor shower is underway, with a strong peak expected on the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 14. Daily monitoring of the shower, 1999 predictions, observing tips and more are available at http://www.Geminids.com."

"As U.S astronauts and Russian cosmonauts build the International Space Station, NASA should consider taking further measures to limit their exposure to radiation that sporadically occurs in space, says a new National Research Council report."

"Scientists have discovered a microbial world hidden deep beneath the frozen Antarctic ice that could help them learn more about how life can survive under extreme conditions on other planets or moons."

"Across the country, dozens of universities, museums, and research organizations scored windfalls in NASA's 2000 budget in the form of unrequested spending, called earmarks, inserted by Congress. Although academic pork projects are nothing new in the federal budget, the dollar amounts at NASA are increasing dramatically, and space science's share has risen even more steeply. The specially designated projects are also beginning to pose a significant threat to established agency research programs and peer-reviewed science, say NASA officials. "

"Observations from the ground and the Galileo spacecraft suggest the existence of an ocean on the fiery Jovian satellite Io. But there are no tantalizing prospects for life in Io's proposed ocean. At something like 2000 Kelvin, the ocean seething beneath Io's volcanoes and lava lakes would vaporize the hardiest creature, for this ocean would consist of molten rock."

"Our Savage Sun" The sun. It's that nearby thermonuclear explosion responsible for the origin and continuity of life on our planet. It will also be the likely cause of its eventual extinction. It is there in the sky every day, yet we forget just how dependent we are upon it. After 5 billion years of steady operation, we've come to take it for granted.

° Full Review ....

"If We Had No Moon" It is bright, cold, constantly changing, and floats faithfully overhead in the sky. It is the basis for our calendar, age old myths, and for the life cycles of many divergent organisms. We can't imagine the sky without it - and yet, were it not there, we would not be here to mourn its absence. We're talking about the Moon, of course.

° Full Review ...

A team of astronomers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, University of California, Berkeley, the Carnegie Institution, and the University of Sussex, England, have discovered six new extrasolar planets using the Keck I telescope in Hawaii, outfitted with the "HIRES" spectrometer.

According to a NASA press release: "The six planets orbit stars that are similar in size, age, and brightness to the sun and are at distances ranging from 65 to 192 light years from earth. The planets themselves range in mass from slightly smaller to several times larger than the planet Jupiter. They are probably also similar to Jupiter in their compositions -- basically giant balls of hydrogen and helium gas, according to researcher Steven Vogt. Their orbits tend to be quite eccentric, tracing oval rather than circular paths."

Full Story ...

"Interested parties are invited to submit comments or environmental concerns on or before January 13, 2000, or 45 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's notice of availability of the MS 01 mission DEIS, whichever is later."

"How about a space hotel connected to Earth by elevator? Or a mining camp on the Moon? An adventurous approach to the final frontier needn't be confined to science fiction."

"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 project¹s leaders hope the techniques will be put to use someday by free-thinking robots sent to other planets."

"Continuing to explore the solar system nearly two years after the end of its primary mission, NASA's Galileo spacecraft made its closest-ever pass above the fiery moon of Io after surviving a crippling computer malfunction induced by Jupiter's intense radiation."

According to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) "The first, major astronomical instrument to be installed at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) was FORS1 (FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph) in September 1998. Immediately after being attached to the Cassegrain focus of the first 8.2-m Unit Telescope, ANTU, it produced a series of spectacular images, cf. ESO PR 14/98. Many important observations have since been made with this outstanding facility.

Now FORS2, its powerful twin, has been installed at the second VLT Unit Telescope, KUEYEN. It is the fourth major instrument at the VLT after FORS1, ISAAC and UVES.

The FORS2 Commissioning Team that is busy installing and testing this large and complex instrument reports that "First Light" was successfully achieved already on October 29, 1999, only two days after FORS2 was first mounted at the Cassegrain focus. Since then, various observation modes have been carefully tested, including normal and high-resolution imaging, echelle and multi-object spectroscopy, as well as fast photometry with millisecond time resolution. A number of fine images were obtained during this work".

° Press release and a collection of stunning images from ESO...

"Astronomers may have made the first-ever recording of a meteorite hitting the moon during last week¹s Leonids meteor shower, according to a NASA press release."

"A newly released series of Hubble Space Telescope photographs suggests that galaxies like the Milky Way formed out of the fragments of violent collisions of several smaller galaxies. "

"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, astronomers said Friday."

"The team used the William Herschel telescope in the Canary Islands to observe the relatively nearby star Tau Bootes. This star is slightly larger and brighter than our Sun and is 50 light years distant. "

"Astronomers combing the cosmos for extraterrestrial radio signals return to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on Monday to renew their long-term quest. "

In August 1996 David McKay and Everett Gibson from NASA JSC stunned the world by publishing a paper in Science magazine that reported evidence of fossilized microorganisms found within the ALH84001 meteorite that came to Earth from Mars. In the ensuing months and years, interest in life on Mars - and elsewhere - was rekindled.

The notion that rocks could be blasted off of one planet by an asteroid impact and land upon another was not exactly new. But could life be carried within a rock between planets and survive the trip to take root on another world? The trip would not necessarily be all that smooth.

Enter Deinococcus radiodurans. In an article in today's Science magazine, researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) report that they have determined the entire genetic sequence of this bacterium. D. radiodurans can survive gamma radiation exposures of 1.5 million rads which literally blast its DNA apart. It then reassembles its DNA all by itself with no apparent ill effects. This organism can also be completely dried out and then be revived and can survive doses of ultraviolet radiation that would kill most other forms of life. Sounds like the perfect organisms to send on a long trip inside a rock between planets! Indeed, it is so robust that it is being considered for use in cleaning up radioactive waste dumps.

One of the more perplexing things about the large Jupiter-plus sized extrasolar planets discovered thus far is that many of them orbit their sun at very close distances taking only days to complete an orbit - much, much closer than Mercury orbits our sun. Given their composition, and the way solar nebulas are thought to condense into planets, much colder temperatures were needed for their formation. So what are they doing so close to their sun? Did they form further out and move inwards?

A key to this riddle has apparently been uncovered from the analysis of data sent back by the Galileo probe that dove into Jupiter's atmosphere in 1995 to be published in the 18 November edition of Nature Magazine.

As the Leonid meteor shower approaches, many satellite operators are rushing to be certain that they have taken all prudent measures to minimize the possibility that their satellites could be damaged by impacts with meteorites. Meanwhile, others are gearing up to study the scientific aspects of this phenomenon.

You can check up on the Leonids at NASA MSFC's "Leonids Live" and MSFC s Space Science News; at Leonid Mac'99 at NASA ARC, at ESA's Space Science website, Gary Kronk's Comets and Meteor Showers website, Sky & Telescope magazine, Leonid Storm, the North American Meteor Network, and at the Aerospace Corporation.

Press releases from ESA, the SOHO management team, and one from the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Technology in Canada describe safety precautions and scientific peparations currently underway.

Another press release from NASA Ames Research Center describes how astrobiologists will be flying over the Atlantic ocean studying the chemistry of Leonid meteors from an airborne observatory while a press release from ESA describes how one scientist will keep a diary of his observations of the Leonids from that observatory and a British scientist will do the same and report for the BBC.

"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. The briefing will be televised from NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, on Friday, Nov. 19, 1999, at 1 p.m."

EST.

Editor's note: One of HST's 3 remaining operational gyro's failed on Saturday 13 November. Three gyros is the minimum number required to operate and point the spacecraft. After the failure, HST went into safe mode, shut its door (aperature shade), and pointed its PV arrays at the sun. The STS-103 Hubble Space Telescope Mission is still scheduled for 6 December and will carry replacement gyros.

"The safe mode does not require gyros, so even if another gyro should fail in the next few weeks, HST will remain safe, according to project managers. The aperture door has been closed to protect the optics, and the spacecraft is aligned to the sun to ensure adequate power is received by Hubble's solar panels."

"This coming week (15 November) the planet Mercury will pass directly between our line of sight on Earth, and the sun. Transits of the sun's face by Mercury and Venus have long fascinated astronomers who have often gone to great lengths to observe them. Over the centuries, their value as astrometric tools has faded. Now, this old tool has found new uses - although this time the planets and stars are light years away. Just as the predicted transits of known planets helped us to further understand our local star, similar predictions of transits in other solar systems are of equal value - and have now resulted in the confirmation of a planet orbiting the sun-like star HD 209458."

"It seems that Lunar Prospector's violent collision with the Moon left no visible cloud of dust. Researchers will still analyse their images to see if they can find traces of water in a vapour plume possibly created by the impact. "

"This is the first independent confirmation of a planet," said Geoffrey Marcy, a professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley. "It also gives us the first-ever measure of the size of one of these planets."

"The first transit of an extrasolar planet across the disk of its star has been detected with the T8 0.80 meter Automatic Photoelectric Telescope (APT) operated by Tennessee State University in Nashville. For further information, see the links below. "

Describes the discovery in precise detail.

"A European Space Agency mission to discover exactly what the Moon is made of has been given the final go-ahead. Smart-1 will also test an ion propulsion engine, which fires out xenon atoms to drive the spacecraft. "

"The European Space Agency will send futuristic, unmanned spacecraft propelled by xenon gas on a lunar exploration mission in 2002 that will test new space technologies, the agency said Thursday. "

"Meeting in Paris 9 and 10 November the Agency's Science Programme Committee has finalised all aspects of the SMART-1 project. This small lunar orbiter is the first in a new line of Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology to demonstrate new key technologies for future deep space missions."

"The mirrors, each slightly larger than a cross section of a human hair, will be sensitive to infrared radiation and, as a result, will be able to detect faint signals from the first billion years after the Big Bang. This will help scientists better understand the origins of the universe"

"This symposium will inaugurate the NASA Center for Computational Astrobiology (NCCA) and will feature, among other speakers, three Nobel Prize winners. Five brief talks discussing computational astrobiology in a broad scientific context will be followed by four longer presentations addressing specific areas of astrobiology. The principal objective of NCCA at Ames Research Center is to advance our understanding of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the Universe, using theoretical and computational tools. NCCA, adopting the multidisciplinary spirit of astrobiology, will synthesize diverse research areas, methods and viewpoints. The Center will draw on scientists with different backgrounds and interests across different organizations at Ames and on an international community of researchers intrerested in computational astrobiology."

"The workshop will be structured around four basic astrobiology questions: Why do we search for life? What are the implications of human exploration? How should we respond to the possible discovery of life elsewhere? What is the evolutionary fate of human societies and cultures beyond the home planet?"

• The Board's report is available on-line at NASA at: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/reports/1999/MCO_report.pdf
• Charts used in the briefing today are available on-line at NASA at: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/reports/1999/MCO_charts.pdf

Root cause: Failure to use metric units in the coding of a ground software file, "Small Forces" used in trajectory models.

Contributing causes:

1. Undetected mismodeling of spacecraft velocity changes.
2. Navigation Team unfamiliar with spacecraft.
3. Trajectory correction maneuver number 5 not performed.
4. System engineering process did not adequately address transition from development to operations.
5. Inadequate communications between project elements.
6. Inadequate operations Navigation Team staffing.
7. Inadequate training.
8. Verification and validation process did not adequately address ground software.

"This two-hour special tells the story of humanity's search for extraterrestrial life. The program explains why many scientists believe that life is abundant in the universe and examines how a signal from aliens might change the course of civilization. This groundbreaking science special, created and hosted by science writer Timothy Ferris, takes a comprehensive look at the breakthroughs in technology that have permitted an accelerated search for extraterrestrials. "

"The mission of TPS/J is to provide the means for the citizens of Japan to share their interest in and support for promoting space exploration for peaceful purposes and to continue the search for extraterrestrial life. TPS/J will publish its own newsletter; establish a website linked to The Planetary Society's website; distribute the Society's magazine, The Planetary Report, with a Japanese translation; host public events in Japan; and will provide special programs for Japanese students to enhance their understanding of space exploration"

According to the Space Telescope Science Institute: "The Hubble image shows a small part of a dense cloud of dust and gas, a stellar nursery full of embryonic stars. This cloud is about 8 light-years away from the nebula's central star. Located about 9,000 light-years from Earth, the Trifid resides in the constellation Sagittarius."

Full story and pictures ....

"NASA Watch, an independent online publication, reported Sunday that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was looking into a potential problem with the lander's pyrotechnics, and that report may have prompted Monday's announcement about the descent engine. NASA spokeswoman Mary Hardin said the pyrotechnics were "not an issue."

"The 3 km diameter crater in the MOC image is three times wider than the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, USA. The high resolution image shows many small windblown drifts or dunes in the low areas both within the crater and outside on the surrounding terrain. Some portions of the crater's walls exhibit outcrops of bare, layered rock. Large boulders have been dislodged from the walls and have tumbled down the slopes to the crater floor. Many of these boulders are bigger than school buses and automobiles."

"Word has it that a potential problem has been discovered with the pyrotechnics aboard the Mars Polar Lander (MPL)."

"The European Space Agency plans to dispatch a small orbiter to the moon to demonstrate an array of new space technologies, including an innovative solar electric propulsion system. The spacecraft, called SMART-1, will launch in late 2002 on a European Ariane 5 rocket, the ESA announced late last week. "

"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. "

"Strong tidal forces from NGC 2207 have distorted the shape of IC 2163, flinging out stars and gas in long streamers into the vast wastes of intergalactic space, stretching a hundred thousand light-years toward the right-hand edge of the image."

"The report discusses the root cause of the mission failure and makes recommendations to help ensure a successful landing of the Mars Polar Lander mission on Dec. 3. A second report by the board, due by Feb. 1, 2000, will address lessons learned and recommendations to improve NASA processes to reduce the probability of similar incidents in the future. "

"A possible massive planet may be orbiting a pair of stars -- instead of just one -- and that could mean there are more planetary systems than scientists think, researchers reported Wednesday. "

"The Microlensing Planet Search (MPS) project, led by David Bennett and Sun Hong Rhie of the University of Notre Dame, used a technique called gravitational microlensing that may have revealed a planet about three times the mass of Jupiter orbiting a binary star system. The researchers, who are supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA and the Research Corporation, report their result in the November 4 issue of Nature."

According to NASA JPL "New images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft show shadows cast on Mars' surface by the Martian moon Phobos. Global Surveyor's wide-angle cameras, designed to monitor changes in Martian weather and surface conditions, are also proving to be a good way to spot the frequent solar eclipses that occur on Mars when Phobos passes between the red planet and the Sun. Phobos is a tiny, potato-shaped moon that is only about 13- by-11-by-9 kilometers (8-by-7-by-6 miles) in size."

Photos and additional information at Malin Space Science Systems

"After successfully passing both its Systems Engineering Review by ESA and its Preliminary Design Review by the ESA Technical Centre (ESTEC), recommendations made for "Beagle 2" will now go before ESA's Science Program Committee for endorsement on November 10, 1999. One step closer to Mars. Yet, with many of the technical and engineering hurdles now out of the way, the one daunting task still lying ahead is generating the money to make this all happen."

"NASA's Mars Polar Lander spacecraft successfully fired its thrusters for 12 seconds this morning to fine-tune its flight path for arrival at the Martian south pole on December 3. "

"We will never see it but the Earth has at least one other natural satellite. In discovering several new types of orbital motion, a team of British scientists has shown that the gravitational forces of our planet and of the Sun allow our planet to capture passing asteroids. One of them is named 'Cruithne', and can be considered -- at least for the next 5000 years -- as 'Earth's second Moon'. "

"...now asteroids are tagged for earthlier luminaries: Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Michelangelo, DiMaggio, James Bond (rock number 9-007) and Attila."

"Increasing amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere could have triggered the first of three past episodes when the Earth became a giant snowball, covered from pole to pole by ice and frozen oceans, according to a Penn State researcher. "

"Iron-rich rock formations dating to 2.3 billion years ago suggest that the Earth's land masses were covered with living things at least a billion years earlier than previously thought, according to a Penn State geologist. "Until now, the earliest accepted date for land-based life was 1.2 billion years ago, but now we can push that back at least another billion years," says Dr. Hiroshi Ohmoto, professor of geosciences and director of the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center. "Of course, terrestrial life back then was more in the nature of bacterial mats than oak trees and mammals."

"NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has made an extraordinary image of Centaurus A, a nearby galaxy noted for its explosive activity. The image shows X-ray jets erupting from the center of the galaxy over a distance of 25,000 light years. Also detected are a group of X-ray sources clustered around the nucleus, which is believed to harbor a supermassive black hole. The X-ray jets and the cluster of sources may be a byproduct of a titanic collision between galaxies several hundred million years ago. "

"Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to resolve, for the first time, hot blue stars deep inside an elliptical galaxy, NASA said Tuesday. "

"Jim Lovell and Owen Garriott will be among 10 researchers who will camp in Antarctica about 10 days in January to gather microscopic organisms trapped in the continent's ice and permafrost for thousands or even millions of years. "

"While just 671 km above Io, Galileo snapped a high-resolution picture of a lava field near the center of an erupting volcano."

Editor's note: This is proof positive that JPL is still quite capable of threading a needle light-hours away while pushing a spacecraft well beyond its design limits to gain ever more amazing information and imagery.

"Reports of curious flashes and fleeting clouds on the Moon may not be figments of wild imaginations, astronomers say. A new look at observations by the American satellite Clementine show that a small area on the Moon's surface darkened and reddened in April 1994. Why this happened remains a mystery. "

"Many giant planets come to a fiery end when their parent stars swallow them whole, new observations suggest. "

"Is anyone out there? As the millennium approaches, we are closer to finding the answer."

Editor's note: A nicely done special on life in the universe. Well worth a visit.

"Well now, let's look to a more distant future. My colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and I have been working on an extension of the Internet to outer space. ..... We're designing an interplanetary backbone which we hope to be functioning between the Earth and Mars as early as 2008. NASA's Administrator, Dan Goldin, often speaks of Internet-enabled Mars, as a way of capturing this notion. And by 2040, we hope a stable interplanetary backbone can be established between the planets." [Vinton Cerf]

"No problems were reported after the closest-ever flyby of Jupiter's innermost large moon took place Sunday at 10:06 p.m. PDT, said project manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena."

Editor's note: I am glad to see JPL has not lost its ability to plot trajectories such that they can thread the eye of a needle on the other side of the solar system.

"Two teams of researchers have proposed the existence of an unseen planet or a failed star circling the sun at a distance of more than 2 trillion miles, far beyond the orbits of the nine known planets. The theory, which seeks to explain patterns in comets' paths, has been put forward in research accepted for publication in two separate journals."

"A British astronomer may have discovered a new and bizarre planet orbiting the Sun 1,000 times further away than the most distant known planet. Currently, Pluto is the furthermost planet that circles our Sun. But the new planet would be 30,000 times more distant from the Sun than the Earth, putting it a significant fraction of the distance to the nearest star."

"Earlier this year BBC News Online exclusively revealed that astronomers had discovered a moon orbiting an asteroid, only the second time one had been seen. Now astronomers have given further details about their discovery in the journal Nature. "

"The millions of stars bulging out amid the massive spiral galaxies whirling through space are beginning to reveal some details of how these star groups formed, NASA reported Wednesday."

"It is still unclear how much mercury from the New Zealand vents enters the food chain. But in the 1970s, Japanese fishermen abandoned tuna fishing in the region when fish there turned out to contain inexplicably high levels of mercury. The mercury probably came from the seafloor vents. "

"For the first time, researchers have proven that smoke from forest fires inhibits rainfall. The findings, to be published in the October 15 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, are based on an extensive analysis of data taken from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft. "

"The Bioreactor was developed by NASA to simulate the weightless environment of space by putting cells in a growth medium that constantly rotates and keeps the cells in endless free-fall."

"The study of organisms is of more than frivolous interest: It bears on theories about the cosmic pathways that life might follow, such as the possibility that it arose elsewhere and traveled to Earth in chunks of rubble. The topic has taken on added urgency for those who work in the exotic field of planetary protection--that is, preventing biological contamination of Earth by other planets and vice versa."

"A discovery of the fossilized remains of the Earth's oldest lifeforms will help NASA in its search for life on Mars, scientists said Thursday. "

"Observations of the gravity field of Mars reveal a planet that has responded differently in its northern and southern hemispheres to major impacts and volcanic processes. The rough, elevated southern hemisphere has a relatively featureless gravitational signature indicating a state of near-isostatic compensation, whereas the smooth, low northern plains display a wider range of gravitational anomalies that indicates a thinner but stronger surface layer than in the south. "

"Tectonics, volcanism, and climate on Venus may be strongly coupled. Large excursions in surface temperature predicted to follow a global or near-global volcanic event diffuse into the interior and introduce thermal stresses of a magnitude sufficient to influence widespread tectonic deformation. This sequence of events accounts for the timing and many of the characteristics of deformation in the ridged plains of Venus, the most widely preserved volcanic terrain on the planet. "

"The age of secondary carbonate mineralization in the martian meteorite ALH84001 was determined to be 3.90 ± 0.04 billion years by rubidium-strontium (Rb-Sr) dating and 4.04 ± 0.10 billion years by lead-lead (Pb-Pb) dating. The Rb-Sr and Pb-Pb isochrons are defined by leachates of a mixture of high-graded carbonate (visually estimated as ~5 percent), whitlockite (trace), and orthopyroxene (~95 percent). The carbonate formation age is contemporaneous with a period in martian history when the surface is thought to have had flowing water, but also was undergoing heavy bombardment by meteorites. Therefore, this age does not distinguish between aqueous and impact origins for the carbonates "

"A comparison of laboratory spectra with Galileo data indicates that hydrated sulfuric acid is present and is a major component of Europa's surface. In addition, this moon's visually dark surface material, which spatially correlates with the sulfuric acid concentration, is identified as radiolytically altered sulfur polymers."

"Experiments using laser-heated diamond anvil cells show that methane (CH₄ breaks down to form diamond at pressures between 10 and 50 gigapascals and temperatures of about 2000 to 3000 kelvin. Infrared absorption and Raman spectroscopy, along with x-ray diffraction, indicate the presence of polymeric hydrocarbons in addition to the diamond, which is in agreement with theoretical predictions. Dissociation of CH₄ at high pressures and temperatures can influence the energy budgets of planets containing substantial amounts of CH₄, water, and ammonia, such as Uranus and Neptune. "

""Although sulfur may seem like a harsh chemical, its presence on Europa doesn't in any way rule out the possibility of life," [Dr. Kenneth Nealson, head of JPL's astrobiology unit] said. "In fact, to make energy, which is essential to life, you need fuel and something with which to burn it. Sulfur and sulfuric acid are known oxidants, or energy sources, for living things on Earth. These new findings encourage us to hunt for any possible links between the sulfur oxidants on Europa's surface, and natural fuels produced from Europa's hot interior." "

"The peer review preliminary findings indicate that one team used English units (e.g., inches, feet and pounds) while the other used metric units for a key spacecraft operation. This information was critical to the maneuvers required to place the spacecraft in the proper Mars orbit."

"Our inability to recognize and correct this simple error has had major implications," said Dr. Edward Stone, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We have underway a thorough investigation to understand this issue."

"The same gravitational shoving match that swept dense swarms of comets and asteroids from our solar system long ago is apparently at work around dozens of nearby stars, astronomers say.The findings suggest there's a distinct timeline in the evolution of solar systems - at least in the violent "clean up'' stage believed to cap the planet-forming process."

"For the first time astronomers have seen a star move in the sky under the influence of the gravity of a planetary companion. The star is called Upsilon Andromedae, it is about 45 light years away and remarkably like our Sun. It hit the headlines earlier this year as being the first star, other than our Sun, to be known to have more than one planet orbiting it. It has three. "

"Scientists have discovered a new object orbiting the Sun after a spaceprobe was mysteriously knocked off course. Researchers have yet to identify the object, but they are confident it exists because of the way it appears to have deflected the tiny Pioneer 10 craft, which is hurtling out towards the stars. "

"Last Thursday, the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost as it attempted to slip into orbit around the Red Planet. To some, this might appear to be proof of folly; the failure of a $125 million scientific probe that, had it succeeded, might only have discovered an odd phenomenon or two. I saw it all rather differently: I believe that the orbiter's failure was just one of the inevitable casualties taken in the course of the scouting campaign that will set the stage for the opening of the solar system to humanity."

"In a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, they conclude that a planet caused a 2.5-hour-long blip in the brightness of a star near the centre of our Galaxy. From the size and timing of the blip, they calculate that the planet may be as light as a few Earths, and orbits its star in the inner zone where rocky planets are likely to form. "

"If the Yale astronomers are right, most Sun-like stars with giant planets orbiting close-in should create superflares, and this could help us pick them out. Rubenstein speculates that superflares could provide the energy to spur the development of life on any rocky planets in these systems. "This is fertile ground for where extraterrestrial life might be found," he says. "

"Last week, a Senate panel granted NASA its full $13.6 billion request for 2000, but voted only $2.08 billion for space science in 2000, $43 million less than this year's budget and a hefty $120 million shy of what was requested. The cut was especially painful because the committee granted both NASA and the National Science Foundation the overall amounts the White House asked for--thanks to a critical decision by Senate Republican leaders to break strict budget caps."

"The Pathfinder landing site on Mars has boulders that may be cratered (Stimpy), split (Chimp), fragmented (Book End and Flat Top), or otherwise partly destroyed (Yogi and Frog) by collisional processes."

"NASA's decade-long program to explore Mars likely suffered a major setback today with the loss of the Climate Orbiter spacecraft dispatched to understand the Red Planet's weather. Space agency officials just announced at a news conference that the satellite may have plunged into the Martian atmosphere due to a catastrophic navigation error. "

"This morning, the Mars Climate Orbiter fired its main engine as planned for orbit insertion around Mars. The burn proceeded normally for about 5 minutes before the spacecraft passed behind Mars (occultation) and contact was lost, as planned. Contact was expected to be reestablished about 20 minutes later when the spacecraft came out from behind Mars and became visible to Earth. However, no downlink signal was received from the spacecraft. It is believed the spacecraft is in orbit around Mars, and attempts are now underway to reestablish communications with the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft. "

The spacecraft will fire its main engine at about 1:50 a.m. PDT 23 September 1999 to place the spacecraft in an elliptical capture orbit. Aerobraking begins on the first close approach to Mars and continues over the next 2 months so as to circularize its orbit. The spacecraft will arrive in its final, near sun- synchronous mapping orbit prior to the Mars Polar Lander touchdown on 3 December 1999. In addition to its own mapping mission, the orbiter will act as a communication relay for the Mars Polar Lander. See "Mars Climate Orbiter - Mission Overview" for more information.

"Superflares" that are thousands of times more powerful than those we see on the Sun may help us spot distant solar systems. American astronomers suggest these searing flares are produced when a star and one of its planets get their magnetic fields in a tangle. "

"Bradley Schaefer of Yale University, along with Jeremy King of the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute and Constantine Deliyannis of Indiana University, have documented nine cases of other stars, seemingly well-behaved like our Sun, that have suddenly erupted superflares. Two events, seen on the stars K Ceti and pi-Uma, are especially significant because these two stars have been called solar analogues, that is they are almost exactly identical to our Sun. "

"A telescope in Hawaii spotted three new, distant, weirdly orbiting moons around Uranus, bringing that planet's satellite total to 21, the most in our solar system."

"More than 130 ocean scientists from the U.S. and overseas will meet in Newport, Oregon, September 22-24, to plan a new decade of research into the geology, chemistry and biology of Earth's mid-ocean ridge system. "

"An analysis of striking scalloped fracture lines in the frozen surface of Jupiter's moon Europa has yielded the strongest evidence yet that a global ocean of liquid water once lay beneath the thick crust of ice, and may still be there."

"Today at 10:26 am PDT, NASA's Galileo spacecraft begins a daring new phase of its mission when it passes less than 670 km above Jupiter's moon Callisto. The "daring" part isn't the close flyby of Callisto.....

.... Galileo's current mission is scheduled to end later this year on December 31, but depending on funding and other factors it could be extended to further study the relationship between Jupiter's magnetosphere and the Sun. Scientists would like to keep the spacecraft viable for at least another year. That's because in December 2000 the Cassini spacecraft will pass by Jupiter, providing a rare opportunity for coordinated observations of the giant planet from two spacecraft. By joining forces, Galileo and Cassini could also help researchers understand how the solar wind billows away from the sun and propagates into the outer solar system. "

"A chance alignment between two stars may have allowed astronomers to detect the first Earth-sized planet found outside our solar system. "

"It's a simple but haunting question: Can microgravity influence gene expression? Yes, according to a recent study of human cells conducted aboard NASA's space shuttle. In fact, the results are so promising that the investigators believe their continuing research could lead to better toxicology tests, key elements of tissue engineering, and new treatments for various diseases--while broadening the scope of scientific experimentation. "

"This image is the first view of Mars taken by the Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) Mars Color Imager (MARCI). It was acquired on 7 September 1999 at about 16:30 UTC (9:30 AM PDT), when the spacecraft was approximately 4.5 million kilometers (2.8 million miles) from the planet. The Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft will reach Mars on September 23, 1999. The Mars orbit insertion (MOI) will be immediately followed by a period of aerobraking (into November 1999). The orbiter will then function as a relay and communication satellite for data from the Mars Polar Lander through February 2000 before beginning its Mars-year-long mapping mission."

"Infrared spectral properties of silicate grains in interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) were compared with those of astronomical silicates. The ~10-micrometer silicon-oxygen stretch bands of IDPs containing enstatite (MgSiO₃), forsterite (Mg₂SiO₄), and glass with embedded metal and sulfides (GEMS) exhibit fine structure and bandwidths similar to those of solar system comets and some pre-main sequence Herbig Ae/Be stars. Some GEMS exhibit a broad, featureless silicon-oxygen stretch band similar to those observed in interstellar molecular clouds and young stellar objects. These GEMS provide a spectral match to astronomical "amorphous" silicates, one of the fundamental building blocks from which the solar system is presumed to have formed. "

"Circumstantial evidence for water on Europa mounts as JPL scientists try an ingenious experiment to find hexagonal water-ice crystals on the frigid surface of Jupiter's iciest moon."

"NASA/KSC is hereby soliciting information for potential sources for the Mars Ascent Vehicle Booster System acquisition. "

"NASA scientists have found water preserved from the birth of our solar system in a second meteorite, suggesting that it may be common in the space rocks that fall to Earth. "

"This amendment has two specific parts: (1) The program element A.3.8, entitled "Lunar Data Analysis," for which proposals were due by December 12, 1999, is hereby canceled from this NRA; and (2) the budget available for the program element A.3.9, entitled "Mars Data Analysis," has been increased from approximately $2.3M to approximately $4.3M, and the due date for proposals have been changed from September 8, 1999, to October 27, 1999. All other aspects of the Mars Data Analysis program element, whose objectives are to enhance the scientific return from the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor Missions, remain unchanged, although additional, specific high priority objectives are now also identified with regard to characterization of Mars in support of NASA's Mars Exploration program."

"If life ever existed on Mars, it may have left behind a massive calling card in the shape of a white rock mound covering over 200 square kilometres. According to a team of researchers in Scotland and Turkey, the mound looks very like those built by bacteria over 3 billion years ago here on Earth. "

"Prehistoric viruses are lying dormant in the polar ice caps--and a bout of warm weather could release them into the atmosphere, sparking new epidemics. This chilling warning follows the discovery, for the first time, of an ancient virus in Arctic ice. "

"A whole-genome restriction map of Deinococcus radiodurans, a radiation-resistant bacterium able to survive up to 15,000 grays of ionizing radiation, was constructed without using DNA libraries, the polymerase chain reaction, or electrophoresis."

"Dark objects each the size of a dozen Jupiters could lurk in nearby space, a new discovery suggests. Maria Zapatero Osorio of the Canaries' Institute of Astrophysics in La Laguna, Tenerife, along with colleagues there and at the University of California, Berkeley, has found a mysterious object, dubbed S Ori 47, which defies easy classification: It may be too light to be a brown dwarf, the smallest kind of star, and could even be a giant planet drifting alone through space."

"Fossil evidence of what is believed to be the world¹s earliest ecosystems has been found and retrieved from the Western Australian outback and was today handed over to the Western Australian Museum for safekeeping. The structures, which look like egg cartons, represent a small area of exceptionally well-preserved fossil stromatolites (structures built by microbes) that existed around 3.46 billion years ago. The stromatolites probably existed in a volcanic environment at a time when the red and dusty Pilbara looked more like the hot-spring environment of the North American Yellowstone National Park."

"The discovery of the first virus preserved in the Arctic ice has prompted a warning that there may be more, and that warm weather may release them to start epidemics. "

"Moviemakers have begun working on the $100 million Mission to Mars film in Vancouver, British Columbia. Among a cast of Hollywood actors-turned-astronauts on a 55- acre plot of sand dunes converted to red planet terra firma, are ex- space walkers, a Mars Pathfinder geologist, and NASA's chief scientist for the International Space Station".

"Berkeley Lab scientists have shown that underground microbes can transform toxic pollutants into less toxic compounds. What's more, the process may be accelerated by the presence of volatile organic wastes, compounds often found at contaminated sites. These findings point the way toward benign new techniques for cleaning up mixed waste sites."

"Like a cosmic message in a bottle, the microscopic bubbles of primordial water are locked inside crystals of halite, the mineral that makes up table salt, but in this case has been turned blue and purple by radiation. The crystals and their liquid cargo appear to date from the dawn of the solar system about 4.5 billion years ago."

The closest pictures ever taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io will be unveiled Friday, August 27, at 8 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time, at the following Internet addresses:

• http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov
• http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo
• http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo
• http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

"Packed full of sensors, lasers and communications transceivers, particles of "smart dust" are being designed to communicate with each other. Developed at the University of California, these tiny devices could be used for a range of applications from weather monitoring to spying. "

"Evolution, until now the unchallenged domain of living organisms, may soon become possible for robots as well. So say computer scientists at Brandeis University, where a simple computer-based form of evolution has succeeded in designing LEGO structures without assistance from humans. It's also the first leap from computer-aided design into the futuristic realm of fully automated design."

The Mars Polar Lander is going to land at 76 degrees South latitude, 195 degrees West longitude near the northern edge of the south pole's layered terrain. The back-up landing site is at 75 degrees South latitude, 180 degrees West longitude.