NASA Daily News Summary
For Release: Jan. 6, 2000
Media Advisory m00-004


SUMMARY:


No News Releases Today

Note: 
These Releases were Sent Out Late Yesterday:

NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS IN MICROGRAVITY MATERIALS SCIENCE
NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS IN MICROGRAVITY FLUID PHYSICS

See Add to NASA News Summary for Jan. 5, 2000 for more 
information:  
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/media/2000/m00-003a.txt



Video File for Jan. 6, 2000

ITEM 1 - STAR FORMATION BUBBLES-UP IN NEARBY GALAXY

ITEM 2 - THICK HAZE COVERS SOUTHERN CHINA (replay)



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If NASA issues any news releases later today, we will e-
mail summaries and Internet URLs to this list.

Index of 2000 NASA News Releases:
http://www.nasa.gov/releases/2000/index.html

Index of 1999 NASA News Releases:
http://www.nasa.gov/releases/1999/index.html


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Video File for Jan. 6, 2000

ITEM 1 - STAR FORMATION BUBBLES-UP IN NEARBY GALAXY-------TRT  :15

Newly released images obtained with NASA'S Hubble Space Telescope 
show clusters of newly forming stars in various stages of 
evolution.  The images, taken in July 1997 with Hubble's Wide 
Field Planetary Camera 2, capture the "nearby" galaxy NGC 4214--
only 13 million light-years from Earth.  As hot, young stars 
develop, they blow bubbles in the stellar gas, such as the bluish 
heart-shaped bubble in the center of this image.  Hundreds of 
massive blue stars, each more than 10,000 times brighter than the 
Sun, inflated by stellar winds and radiation pressure, expand the 
bubble as the most massive stars in the center reach the ends of 
their lives and explode as supernovae. 

Contact at Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD:  Ray 
Villard (Phone 410/338-4707).
Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  Doug Isbell (Phone 
202/358-1753).


ITEM 2 - THICK HAZE COVERS SOUTHERN CHINA-(replay)--------TRT 1:30

Contact at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD:  Wade 
Sisler (Phone 301/286-6256).
Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC:  David E. Steitz 
(Phone 202/358-1730).

URL:  http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS.html


ITEM 2a - SOUTHERN CHINA HAZE 

On Jan. 2, 2000, the Sea Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor 
(SeaWiFS) observed a thick layer of haze over southern People's 
Republic of China, including the cities of Chengdu, Congqing, 
Wuhan, and the archaeologically important city of Xi'an.  
Researchers are unclear as to the source of the haze, but it is 
thick enough to obscure most of the natural colors reflected from 
the ground beneath.


ITEM 2b - SOUTHERN CHINA - CLEAR DAY COMPARISON

The thickness of the haze is made more apparent by comparing an 
image taken on a clear day, on Sept. 16, 1998 (first image), with 
the January 2 image (second image).  SeaWiFS was originally 
designed to monitor the color of oceans around the world.  Since 
its launch, SeaWiFS has proved valuable in its ability to monitor 
land color, too.  Color is an important indicator of life 
processes, from plankton growth to chlorophyll concentration.



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Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html


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end of daily news summary