NASA Daily News Summary For Release: Jan. 13, 2000 Media Advisory m00-009 SUMMARY: LONE BLACK HOLES DISCOVERED ADRIFT IN THE GALAXY CHANDRA RESOLVES X-RAY GLOW INTO MILLIONS OF OBJECTS Video File for Jan. 13, 2000 Live television: PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS FOR EARTH-MAPPING SHUTTLE MISSION SET FOR JAN. 21 **************************** LONE BLACK HOLES DISCOVERED ADRIFT IN THE GALAXY Two international teams of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes in Australia and Chile have discovered the first examples of isolated stellar-mass black holes adrift among the stars in our galaxy. Full text: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-004.txt NASA Headquarters contact: Donald Savage (Phone: 202/358-1547) Space Telescope Science Institute contact: Ray Villard (Phone: 410/338-4514) ------ CHANDRA RESOLVES X-RAY GLOW INTO MILLIONS OF OBJECTS While taking a giant leap toward solving one of the greatest mysteries of astronomy, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory also may have revealed the most distant objects ever seen in the Universe and discovered two puzzling new types of cosmic objects. Chandra has resolved most of the X-ray background, a pervasive glow of X-rays throughout the Universe, which was first discovered in the early days of space exploration. Before now, scientists have not been able to discern the origin of the hard, or high-energy, X-ray background, because until Chandra no telescope has had the technology to resolve it. Full text: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-010.txt NASA Headquarters contact: Donald Savage (Phone: 202/358-1547) Goddard Space Flight Center contact: Bill Steigerwald (Phone: 301/286-5017) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics contact: Dr. Wallace Tucker (Phone: 617/496-7998) --------- Video File for Jan. 13, 2000 Video File for Jan. 13, 2000 Item 1 - Black Hole Passes in front of Star Item 2 - An Expanding Bubble in Space Item 3 - Chandra Observations Explain X-Ray Glow Item 4 - STS-99 TCDT Pad Q&A (replay at 3 pm) Item 5- First images from FUSE satellite (GSFC) (replay) Item 6 - TRMM - Improving Tropical Rainfall Forecasts (GSFC) (replay) Item 7 - New Shuttle Stamp - KSC (replay) ********************************************************************** Item 1 - Black Hole Passes in front of Star Item 1a - Black Hole Two teams, using ground-based telescopes and HST, discovered the first examples of isolated stellar mass black holes in our galaxy. The black holes were detected indirectly by the way their gravity bends, or lenses, the light of a more distant star behind them. Hubble image taken on 6/15/99, right panel, pinpointed the lensed star from another star in the field. in the left panel are the ground-based observations. TRT - :20 Video Courtesy NASA Item 1b - Adrift in a sea of stars Lone black holes were discovered adrift in the galaxy. The following images show these discoveries. TRT - :20 Video Courtesy NASA Contacts: Don Savage and Ray Villard Item 2 - An Expanding Bubble in Space Astronomers, using a camera on the HST, now understand the complex geometry and dynamics of the Bubble Nebula, NGC7635 System. The spherical bubble is the boundary between an intense wind of particles from the star and the quieter interior of the nebula. Hubble captured the images in October and November 1997 and April 1999. TRT - :19 Video Courtesy NASA Contacts: Don Savage and Ray Villard Item 3 - Chandra Observations Explain X-Ray Glow Synopsis: While taking a giant leap towards solving the greatest mystery of X-ray astronomy, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory also may have revealed the most distant objects ever seen in the Universe and discovered two puzzling new types of cosmic objects. TRT - 8:25 ITEM 3a THE 37-YEAR MYSTERY OF THE X-RAY GLOW - ANIMATION Scientists have known about the X-ray glow, called the X-ray background, since the dawn of X-ray astronomy in the early 1960s. For the first time, scientists have been able to unravel a key mystery of whether the X-ray background came from distinct objects or was diffuse radiation from hot, intergalactic gas. The spaceborne Chandra X-ray telescope has resolved that the glow is made up of millions of discrete sources stretched across the sky. ITEM 3b TWO NEW TYPES OF OBJECTS DISCOVERED - ANIMATION Observations showed that nearly one third of the sources are galaxies whose cores are very bright in X rays yet emit virtually no optical light from the core. The observation suggests that these "veiled galactic nuclei" galaxies may number in the tens of millions over the whole sky. They almost certainly harbor a massive black hole at their core that produces X rays as the gas is pulled toward it at nearly the speed of light. ITEM 3c FARTHEST OBJECTS EVER OBSERVED? (HST DEEP FIELD) A second new class of objects, comprising approximately one-third of the background, is assumed to be "ultra-faint" galaxies. These sources may emit little or no optical light, either because the dust around the galaxy blocks the light totally or because the optical light is eventually absorbed during its long journey across the Universe. In the latter scenario, these sources would be well over 14 billion light years away and thus the earliest, most distant objects ever identified. The sources would even farther away than the galaxies captured in this "Deep Field" sequence by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. ITEM 3d CHANDRA X-RAY DATA Stretched across the entire sky, this would account for approximately 70 million sources, most of which would be identified with galaxies. Their analysis confirms that a significant fraction of the X-ray background cannot be due to diffuse radiation from hot, intergalactic gas. ITEM 3e THE HUNT FOR OPTICAL SOURCES (B-ROLL AND ANIMATION) Scientists are searching for the optical counterparts to the newly discovered X-ray sources with the powerful Keck telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and the Hubble Space Telescope in hopes of determining their distance. ITEM 3f CHANDRA ANIMATION Animation of the spaceborne Chandra X-ray Telescope. ITEM 3g INTERVIEW EXCERPTS Richard Mushotzky Astronomer NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD Item 4 - STS-99 TCDT Pad Q&A (replay at 3 pm) HQ Contact: Dwayne Brown 202/358-1726 Center Contact: Joel Wells 321/867-2468 ITEM 5 - First Images From The FUSE Satellite (GSFC) TRT 10:00 The FUSE spacecraft is observing the intestellar lifeblood of galaxies. The extended halo of half-million-degree gas that surrounds the Milky Way was generated by thousands of exploding stars, or supernovae, as our galaxy evolved, according to new observations by NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft. Since stars destined to explode don't live long, compared to stars like our Sun, star explosions are actually a record of star formation. By comparing supernova generated halos among galaxies, researchers hope to be able to compare their star formation histories. Video shows the extended halo of gas created by these explosions. HQ Contact: Don Savage 202/358-1727 Center Contact: Wade Sisler 310/286-6256 ITEM 6 - TRMM - Improving Tropical Rainfall Forecasts (GSFC) TRT 2:00 New research shows that the accuracy of tropical three-day rainfall forecasts can be improved as much as 100% by combining existing forecast models with satellite rainfall data. The research could be particularly valuable in the prediction of hurricane behavior and rain accumulation. Video shows, Hurricanes Floyd and Irene (September 1999) and TRM animation. Using the new "super-ensemble" forecasting techniques, the following visualizations compare September's collected one-day forecasts to the collected daily observations of actual rainfall. This new forecasting technique is a major improvement over earlier methods. The tropics are notoriously hard for daily precipitation predictions; in this representation the overall forecasting trend through time is more significant than precise matching of the rainfall areas depicted by the color map shown. HQ Contact: Dave Steitz 202/358-1730 Center Contact: Wade Sisler 310/286-6256 ITEM 7 - New Shuttle Stamp - KSC TRT TBD Video of the new stamp which the Post Office and NASA unveiled at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center, FL at 11 a.m. eastern time on 1/1/00. HQ Contact: Kirsten Williams 202/358-0243 Center Contact: Lisa Malone 321/867-2468 **************************** Live Television: PREFLIGHT BRIEFINGS FOR EARTH-MAPPING SHUTTLE MISSION SET FOR JAN. 21 A series of background briefings on the upcoming Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, designed to map up to 80% of the Earth's populated surface in 11 days, will be held on Friday, Jan. 21, at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. The mission, designated STS-99, also is designed to produce unrivaled three-dimensional images of the world. Full text: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/note2edt/2000/n00-001.txt Headquarters contact: Kirsten Williams (Phone: 202/358-0243) Johnson Space Center contact: Eileen Hawley (Phone: 281/483-5111) **************************** Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN. ANY CHANGES TO THE LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA VIDEO FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY. The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time. NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz. Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Elvia Thompson, 202/358-1696, elvia.thompson@hq.nasa.gov During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will continue to be posted at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html For general information about NASA TV see: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ ***************************** Contract Awards Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html ***************************** The NASA Daily News Summary is issued each business day at approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time. Members of the media who wish to subscribe or unsubscribe from this list, please send e-mail message to: Brian.Dunbar@hq.nasa.gov ***************************** end of daily news summary