Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC               April 13, 1995
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Tammy Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone:  301/286-5566)

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
(Phone:  410/338-4514)


NOTE TO EDITORS:  N95-22

HUBBLE VIEWS PLANET NEPTUNE AND ASTEROID VESTA

       The latest surprising findings on the planet Neptune 
and the asteroid Vesta will be presented in the next Space 
Astronomy Update at 2 p.m. EDT, Wed., April 19, in the NASA 
Headquarters auditorium, 300 E St. SW, Washington, DC.

       Entitled, "Hubble Looks at the Outer Solar System", 
the event will feature panelists Dr. Heidi Hammel of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Ben Zellner 
of Georgia Southern University.

       Hubble images will show the new dark spot in the 
northern hemisphere of the distant planet Neptune.  Only 
last June Hubble revealed that a great dark spot in the 
southern hemisphere -- discovered by the Voyager 2 
spacecraft in 1989 -- had mysteriously disappeared.

       Hubble images of the asteroid Vesta will show a 
complex surface with a geology similar to that of 
terrestrial worlds such as Earth or Mars.  The battered 
ancient surface -- the oldest terrain ever seen in the 
Solar System -- allows astronomers to peer below the crust.  
Vesta is unique in being the only asteroid astronomers 
actually can study in a laboratory -- thanks to a collision 
blasting a piece of the asteroid's surface into space which 
eventually fell to Earth.  The fragment will be displayed 
at the event.

       The event will be carried live on NASA Television 
with questions and answers from participating NASA Centers.  
NASA Television is broadcast on Spacenet 2, transponder 5, 
channel 9, C-Band, located at 69 degrees West longitude, 
with horizontal polarization.  Frequency will be on 3880.0 
megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.
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