Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                       April 16, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone:  818/354-5011)

Andrew Perala
W. M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hawaii
(Phone:  808/885-7887)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N98-28

APRIL 21 SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE:  "PLANETS UNDER CONSTRUCTION"

       The next Space Science Update (SSU), set for 11 a.m. EDT, 
Tuesday, April 21, 1998, at NASA Headquarters, will feature the 
discovery astronomers are calling the clearest evidence yet of a 
solar system forming around a nearby star.  Two independent teams 
of astronomers used telescopes in Hawaii and Chile to image the 
region near the star where it appears planets may be forming, or 
may recently have formed, a 'missing link' of planetary formation 
between dust disks and systems with planets already formed.  

Panelists will be:
  *  Dr. Michael Werner, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, 
Pasadena, CA.
  *  Dr. David Koerner, JPL/University of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia.
  *  Dr. Michael Jura, University of California, Los Angeles.
  *  Dr. Lee Hartmann, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for 
Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA.
  *  Dr. Ed Weiler, Director of NASA's Origins Program, 
Washington, DC, panel moderator.

       The SSU will originate from NASA Headquarters Auditorium, 
300 E St., S.W., Washington, DC, and will be carried live on NASA 
TV with two-way question-and-answer capability for reporters 
covering the event from participating NASA centers.  

       NASA Television is broadcast on  the GE2 satellite which is 
located on Transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West longitude, frequency 
3880.0 Mhz, audio 6.8 MHz.  Audio of the broadcast will be 
available on voice circuit at the Kennedy Space Center on 407/867-
1220.

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