NASA Daily News Summary For Release: June 6, 2000 Media Advisory m00-111 SUMMARY NEWS RELEASES SPECTACULAR X-RAY JET POINTS TOWARD COSMIC ENERGY BOOSTER NASA ROBONAUT DEMONSTRATION SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 8 AT JSC VIDEO ***ALL TIMES EASTERN*** VIDEO FILE FOR JUNE 6, 2000 ITEM 1 - ROBONAUT - JSC ITEM 2 - BLACK HOLE SHEDS LIGHT ON GALAXY FORMATION - STI ITEM 3 - ELECTRONIC NOSE - JPL ITEM 4 - BLUE MARBLE 2000 (REPLAY FROM 4/17/00) - GSFC UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS ***************************** NEWS RELEASES SPECTACULAR X-RAY JET POINTS TOWARD COSMIC ENERGY BOOSTER NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a spectacular luminous spike of X-rays that emanates from the vicinity of a giant black hole in the center of the radio galaxy Pictor A. The spike, or jet, is due to a beam of particles streaking across hundreds of thousands of light-years of intergalactic space toward a brilliant X-ray hot spot that marks its end point. The hot spot is at least 800 thousand light-years (eight times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy) away from where the jet originates. It is thought to represent the advancing head of the jet, which brightens conspicuously where it plows into the tenuous gas of intergalactic space. The jet, powered by the giant black hole, originates from a region of space no bigger than the solar system. For full text, see: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2000/00-089.txt Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Dolores Beasley (Phone: 202/358-1753). Contact at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL: Steve Roy (Phone: 256/544-6535). Contact at University of Maryland, College Park, MD: Leon J. Tune (Phone: 301/405-4679). Contact at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA: Dr. Wallace Tucker (Phone: 617/496-7998). ---------------------------- NASA ROBONAUT DEMONSTRATION SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 8 AT JSC Robonaut, a robotic system that may perform future space- walking tasks using an advanced mechanical hand, will be demonstrated for news media representatives at 1 p.m. CDT Thursday, June 8, at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. With a hand much like a humanıs, Robonaut is capable of actions as delicate as lifting small objects with tweezers. It is powerful enough to lift a 21-pound weight on the Earthıs surface -- giving it considerable capabilities in the weightless environment of space. The robotic system is designed to use the same tools used by astronauts in spacesuits. The technology is expected to have numerous uses on Earth as well as in space. In addition to demonstrating the Robonaut, which could be used in assembly of the International Space Station, members of the robotics team will be available for interviews. For full text, see: ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/note2edt/2000/n00-025.txt Contact at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Michael Braukus (Phone: 202/358-1979). Contact at Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX: John Ira Petty (Phone: 281/483-5111). ---------------------------- 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 ***************************** UPCOMING TELEVISION EVENTS June 7, Wednesday - 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. - Urban Heat Island Live News Interviews with Jeff Luvall - MSFC June 8, Thursday - 6:00 - 10:00 a.m. - Lightning Research Live News Interviews - MSFC - 4:30 - 9:00 p.m. - Electronic Nose Live News Interview - JPL For a complete list of upcoming live television events, see http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/breaking.html ----------------------------- Unless otherwise noted, ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN. ANY CHANGES TO THE VIDEO LINE-UP WILL APPEAR ON THE NASA VIDEO FILE ADVISORY ON THE WEB AT ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt WE UPDATE THE ADVISORY THROUGHOUT THE DAY. The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time. NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz. Refer general questions about the video file to NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or Fred Brown, 202/358-0713, fred.brown@hq.nasa.gov During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will continue to be posted at: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html For general information about NASA TV see: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/ ***************************** Contract Awards Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition information Service Web site: http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html ***************************** The NASA Daily News Summary is issued each business day at approximately 2 p.m. Eastern time. 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