baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Ron Baalke) (11/08/90)
USA Today -- 11/7/90
"Hubble To Take Look at Monster Saturn Storm"
By Paul Hoversten
"NASA's Hubble Space Telescope this week zeroes in on a rare
giant storm above Saturn. Photos may help scientists better
understand the unusually spectacular phenomenon."
The paper quotes Hubble astronomer Dr. James Westphal, of
the California Institute of Technology, as saying "we really
don't know what we're going to see, but it's going to be very
interesting."
The report says, that despite the flawed mirror, the Hubble
telescope should be able to see the storm up to three times better
than ground-based telescopes.
The story says the storm is believed to be caused by the welling
up of hot ammonia gas from inside Saturn's mostly hydrogen
atmosphere. The report quotes another astronomer, Dr. Reta
Beebe of New Mexico State University, as saying "you can get
some very large bubbles and every now and then you get a
super bubble. This is a big bubble that punched its way
through and carried warmer ammonia gas that turned to
dazzling white ice."
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Washington Post -- 11/7/90
"Sky Watch: Mars vs. Saturn"
By Blaine Friedlander Jr.
"The planet Saturn does its best to thwart the attention being
paid to that red object in the East, Mars, which hasn't been this
bright in two years."
The astronomy sky watcher's special report says that Saturn is
upstaging Mars because of the recently discovered giant storm
raging in Saturn's cold but fast moving atmosphere.
The article calls out viewing opportunities for Saturn and says
to look for Saturn moderately high in the west immediately
after sundown.
Mars, though, should be the stellar star, according to the story.
The report says that those who reside in the Northern
Hemisphere do not get a chance to see Mars this bright for
another 11 years and says the Red Planet will be a minus two
magnitude (normal for Venus, and very very bright) sight until
the middle of December. The story also says that another bright
object to the right of Mars is the Taurus constellation star Aldebaran.
The report says that Earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun and
Mars takes 687 days so it would seem the close proximity of the
two planets to each other would occur every two years. But, the
story continues, Mars' inclination to the ecliptic plane is
different from Earth's and the "stutter-step" of celestial
mechanics prevents the two planets from being in the same
close space any more frequently than once in eleven years.
The article says that Mars will be closest to Earth on Tuesday,
Nov. 20, at which time the two will be 47 million miles apart.
The story says that Mars will be so bright that no light-polluted
urban spot in the Northern Hemisphere could prevent someone
from seeing the Red Planet. The date to view Mars at its
brightest, according to the article, will be at midnight on
Tuesday, Nov. 27 when the Earth-Mars and Mars-Sun angles
will be optimum.
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| | | | __ \ /| | | | Ron Baalke | baalke@mars.jpl.nasa.gov
___| | | | |__) |/ | | |___ Jet Propulsion Lab | baalke@jems.jpl.nasa.gov
/___| | | | ___/ | |/__ /| M/S 301-355 |
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