The NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center program in gamma-ray burst astronomy

The research program in gamma-ray burst astronomy at the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center is described. Large-area scintillation detector arrays have been flown on high-altitude balloons, and an array is being developed for the Gamma-Ray Observatory. The design of these detectors is described along with results obtained from previous balloon flights.Paper presented at the International Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium, Toulouse, France, 26–28 November, 1979.     

The NASA Lunar Impact Monitoring Program

NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office has implemented a program to monitor the Moon for meteoroid impacts from the Marshall Space Flight Center. Using off-the-shelf telescopes and video equipment, the Moon is monitored for as many as 10 nights per month, depending on weather. Custom software automatically detects flashes which are confirmed by a second telescope, photometrically calibrated using background stars, and published on a website for correlation with other observations. Hypervelocity impact tests at the Ames Vertical Gun Range facility have begun to determine the luminous efficiency and ejecta characteristics. The purpose of this research is to define the impact ejecta environment for use by lunar spacecraft designers of the Constellation manned lunar program. The observational techniques and preliminary results will be discussed. The U.S. Government's right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty-free license in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

Some properties of solar magnetic fields as deduced from NSO/KP data and from calculations

Solar Physics - In this paper we carry out a correlative analysis of the measurements of the photospheric magnetic field B d (the magnetic component along the line of sight) from NSO/KP, and of the...     

The Comet Nucleus Tour (Contour); A NASA Discovery Mission

In 1997, the COmet Nucleus TOUR (CONTOUR) was selected byNASA for a new start as part of the Discovery line. In this paper, we review the status of the mission, the mission timeline and the instruments to be flown. Detail is given of the science goals and how they are to be accomplished.     

Reanalysis of four NASA stratospheric particles

Four stratospheric contaminants catalogued in the Cosmic Dust Catalogs published by the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston were reanalysed. The results are compatible with those obtained in JSC, however additional features have occurred in our chemical analyses and their interpretation is also discussed.     

Determination of origin of NASA stratospheric particles

Paper presents a reanalysis of four stratospheric particles registered in the Cosmic Dust Catalogs (CDC). Two particles have been classifed in the NASA Johnson Space Centre (JSC) in Houston as natural, terrestrial contaminants and the origin of the other two particles was found questionable, probably cosmic. Present study has confirmed these conclusions; however some new additional features in the chemical analysis have been found which can finally determine the classification of the particles with unclear origin.     

NASA and the Search for Extrasolar Planets

Earth, Moon, and Planets -     

Helium and neon in comet 81P/Wild 2 samples from the NASA Stardust mission

Helium and neon distributions are reported for a variety of Stardust comet 81P/Wild 2 samples, including particle tracks and terminal particles, cell surface and subsurface slices from the comet coma and interstellar particle collection trays, and numerous small aerogel blocks extracted from comet cells C2044 and C2086. Discussions and conclusions in several abstracts published during the course of the investigation are included, along with the relevant data. Measured isotope ratios span a broad range, implying a similar range for noble gas carriers in the Wild 2 coma. The meteoritic phase Q‐²⁰Ne/²²Ne ratio was observed in several samples. Some of these, and others, exhibit ²¹Ne excesses too large for attribution to spallation by galactic cosmic ray irradiation, suggesting exposure to a solar proton flux greatly enhanced above current levels in an early near‐Sun environment. Still others display evidence for a solar wind component, particularly one C2086 block with large abundances of isotopically solar‐like helium and neon. Eighty‐nine small aerogel samples were cut from depths up to several millimeters below the cell C2044 surface and several millimeters away from the axis of major track T41. A fraction of these yielded measurable and variable helium and neon abundances and isotope ratios, although none contained visible tracks or carrier particle fragments and their locations were beyond estimated penetration ranges for small particles or ions incident on the cell surface, or for lateral ejecta from T41. Finding plausible emplacement mechanisms and sources for these gases is a significant challenge raised by this study.     

The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Free Access to the Astronomical Literature On-line and through Email

The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) provides access to the astronomical literature through the World Wide Web. It is a NASA funded project and access to all the ADS services is free to everybody world-wide. The ADS Abstract Service allows the searching of four databases with abstracts in Astronomy, Instrumentation, Physics/Geophysics, and the LANL Preprints with a total of over 2.2 million references. The system also provides access to reference and citation information, links to on-line data, electronic journal articles, and other on-line information. The ADS Article Service contains the full articles for most of the astronomical literature back to volume 1. It contains the scanned pages of all the major journals (Astrophysical Journal, Astronomical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Solar Physics), as well as most smaller journals back to volume 1.The ADS can be accessed through any web browser without signup or login. Alternatively an email interface is available that allows our users to execute queries via email and to retrieve scanned articles via email. This might be interesting for users on slow or unreliable links, since the email system will retry sending information automatically until the transfer is complete. There are now 9 mirror sites of the ADS available in different parts of the world to improve access. The ADS is available at: http://ads.harvard.edu This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Flare research with the NASA/MSFC vector magnetograph: Observed characteristics of sheared magnetic fields that produce flares

The present MSFC Vector Magnetograph has sufficient spatial resolution (2.7 arcsec pixels) and sensitivity to the transverse field (the noise level is about 100 gauss) to map the transverse field in active regions accurately enough to reveal key aspects of the sheared magnetic fields commonly found at flare sites. From the measured shear angle along the polarity inversion line in sites that flared and in other shear sites that didn't flare, we find evidence that a sufficient condition for a flare to occur in 1000 gauss fields in and near sunspots is that both (1) the maximum shear angle exceed 85 degrees and (2) the extent of strong shear (shear angle > 80 degrees) exceed 10,000 km.     

Flare research with the NASA/MSFC vector magnetograph: Observed characteristics of sheared magnetic fields that produce flares

Solar Physics - The present MSFC Vector Magnetograph has sufficient spatial resolution (2.7 arcsec pixels) and sensitivity to the transverse field (the noise level is about 100 gauss) to map the...     

A powerful new infrared array camera for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility

We have just finished building a 1.0–5.5 m infrared array camera for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility based upon the SBRC 256×256 InSb array. After a brief overview of the capabilities of the camera (named NSFCAM), we present some of the first images obtained with this new camera, including results obtained with our realtime shift & add speckle imaging mode.     

The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) Mission for the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS)

The NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) is an advanced study of Earth's long-term global changes of solid Earth, its atmosphere, and oceans and includes a coordinated collection of satellites, data systems, and modeling. The EOS program was conceived in the 1980s as part of NASA's Earth System Enterprise (ESE). The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) is one of about 20 missions planned for the EOS program, and the SORCE measurement objectives include the total solar irradiance (TSI) and solar spectral irradiance (SSI) that are two of the 24 key measurement parameters defined for the EOS program. The SORCE satellite was launched in January 2003, and its observations are improving the understanding and generating new inquiry regarding how and why solar variability occurs and how it affects Earth's energy balance, atmosphere, and long-term climate changes.