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Wednesday, July 20, 1994
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Comet blasts Jupiter's surface
Steve Maran, an astronomer at the Goddard Space Flight Center, said a check of historical records dating back to 1610 showed there were no previous recording of Jovian features as large as the scars left by the comet pieces.
Collisions leave deep, dark scar on planet's face
GREENBELT, Md. — The mark left on Jupiter's clouds by fragments of a comet was the most prominent feature ever observed on the face of the solar system's largest planet, an astronomer said yesterday.
The Associated Press
Maran said the black scar left by fragment G of the Shoemaker-Lev 9
comet was visually the most prominent spot seen on Jupiter ever.
Jupiter has been observed since 1610, early in the history of telescopes, and never before has a feature been seen that was as vivid as the "black eye" created by fragment G.
The impact of fragment H yesterday created a fireball that appeared, to one observer, to be 50 times brighter than jupiter and a portion of the infrared light spectrum. The observation was made by a telescope in Chile.
Though this appears to be brighter than the signal produced by the larger fragment G, which hit earlier, Maran said that the relative brightness was deceptive because the readings were taken with different instruments.
Astronomers were puzzled today by their failure to find the chemical signature of water in the clouds created by the comet's impacts on Jupiter.
Jupiter is 74 percent hydrogen, and
experts had expected that the comet would bring oxygen to the planet. The combination of the two would make water, but none had been detected.
"It's puzzling, but we will continue to look for water," said Lucy McPadden, astronomer at the University of Maryland.
Chemical analysis of light signals from Jupiter showed evidence of ammonia boiling up from the Jovian clouds. Other analyses were still under way, McFadden said.
Scientists said Monday that three fragments from the comet would hit Jupiter 10 hours apart at approximately the same location.
"You'll have three — boom, boom,
boom" said Heidi Hammel of the Space Telescope Science Institute.
"You are going to have one heck of a mess."
The first of the three fragments, Q,
was expected to hit just before 3 a.m.
today. Fragment R should follow 10 hours later, and S should hit 10 hours after that. The Jovian rotation is 10 hours, which means the fragments should hit at nearly the same location on the planet.
Two fragments, K and L, were expected to impact yesterday. They were the eighth and ninth fragments to hit the gas clouds of Jupiter since the cosmic bombardment started Saturday. The last comet shard is expected to smash the planet Friday.
Hammel said Jupiter was hit Monday by fragment G, the largest yet of the 21 chunks of ice and rock from the broken-up comet. The impact and massive explosion left a distinctive mark in the planetary cloud tops.
"There is now a black eye on Jupiter," said Hammel. Pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope showed a circle, with a black center and a smear of gray, resembling a bruise.
THE NEWS in brief
Breyer recommended to Supreme Court seat with unanimous vote
WASHINGTON — Stephen G. Breyer won "a fine vote of confidence" yesterday as the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved his Supreme Court nomination.
The committee's 10 Democrats and eight Republicans recommended Breyer, who was nominated by President Clinton to succeed retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun.
The longtime federal judge from Boston appears a sure bet to win confirmation by the Senate this week or early next week.
R-Utah, as a "moderate pragmatist."
Committee leader Joseph Biden, D-Del., said he hoped yesterday's vote would be greyer his nomination before the Senate on Friday. If not, he said, the vote would come early next week.
Breyer, told by telephone about the vote by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said, "I'm absolutely delighted. It's a fine vote of confidence."
Breyer was praised by Sen. Howell Heflin, D-Ala, as a "principled moderate." and by Sen. Orrin Hatch,
Metzenbaum said he was worried about the nominee's lacking dedication to "the little guy ... the ordinary American."
But two senators — Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, — voiced reservations.
Grassley said Breyer's testimony indicated too expansive a view of the individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
N. Korea to resume talks
Meanwhile, a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States believed Kim Jong Il "has clearly succeeded" in taking power.
WASHINGTON — North Korea reaffirmed its intention to resume negotiations with the United States, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake said yesterday.
Lake said assurances came this past week. "I take it as a good sign that the North Koreans went out of their way to assure us of that point."
U. S. officials have watched events in the closed North Korean society for signs of whether Kim Jong II would succeed his father, Kim Il Sung as leader.
Kim Il Sung's funeral was held yesterday in Pyongyang, 11 days after his death from a reported heart attack.
Astronauts grow in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Columbia's astronauts measured their spines yesterday to understand the effects of space travel and logged time on an exercise bike as the shuttle's two-week mission began to wind down.
Richard Hieb and Dr. Chiaki Mukai measured each other's backbone with an ultrasound-imaging machine.
Hieb and Mukai have grown in space because the spine stretches in zero gravity.
They've measured their heights every day in orbit — yesterday was the 11th day of a 14-day flight — and kept a record of back pain, a common ailment among astronauts in orbit.
Flabby muscles also are a side effect of space travel, and that's the reason for all the cycling.
"I plan to ride for about 8,000 miles," Hieb said, referring to the distance covered by Columbia, not his feet.
Compiled from The Associated Press.
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