MARSBUGS: The Electronic Exobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 13, 11 May 1998. Editors: David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA, thoma457@uidaho.edu or Marsbugs@aol.com. Julian Hiscox, Division of Molecular Biology, IAH Compton Laboratory, Berkshire, RG20 7NN, UK. Julian.Hiscox@bbsrc.ac.uk or Marsbug@msn.com MARSBUGS is published on a weekly to quarterly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editors, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. E- mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting either of the editors. Article contributions are welcome, and should be submitted to either of the two editors. Contributions should include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along with the author(s)' correspondence address. Subscribers are advised to make appropriate inquiries before joining societies, ordering goods etc. Back issues and Word97 files suitable for printing may be obtained via anonymous FTP at: ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs. Also, an official web page is under construction. Currently it is part of http://members.aol.com/marsbugs/dave.html (right now, the page simply points to the FTP site). The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of information for scientists, educators and other persons interested in exobiology and related fields. This newsletter is not intended to replace peer-reviewed journals, but to supplement them. We, the editors, envision MARSBUGS as a medium in which people can informally present ideas for investigation, questions about exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events. Exobiology is still a relatively young field, and new ideas may come out of the most unexpected places. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: exobiology proper (life on other planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), ecopoeisis/ terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— INDEX 1) WHY STUDY COMETS? By Don Yeomans 2) SO YOU WANT TO "GET INTO" SETI By Larry Klaes 3) ALIEN SPACESHIPS, SETI, AND PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS By Larry Klaes 4) REVIEW OF SHARING THE UNIVERSE BY SETH SHOSTAK By Larry Klaes 5) REAL (NOT REEL) DEEP IMPACTS: SANDIA SCIENTISTS PREDICT WHAT AN ASTEROID STRIKE WOULD LOOK LIKE, REALLY Sandia National Laboratory release 6) INTERPLANETARY DUST MAY CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE, GRADUAL EXTINCTION By Kristen Vecellio 7) STUDY OF SULFIDES IN BACTERIA CASTS DOUBT ON EVIDENCE OF LIFE IN MARTIAN METEORITE ALH84001 Arizona State University release 8) NEW GALILEO IMAGES JPL release 9) JPL EVENING LECTURES HIGHLIGHT ICY AND FIERY SPACE DESTINATIONS JPL release 10) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 11) 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT By John McNamee —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— WHY STUDY COMETS? By Don Yeomans, Jet Propulsion Laboratory April 1998 Life on Earth began at the end of a period called the late heavy bombardment, some 3.8 billion years ago. Before this time, the influx of interplanetary debris that formed the Earth was so strong that the proto-Earth was far too hot for life to have formed. Under this heavy bombardment of asteroids and comets, the early Earth's oceans vaporized and the fragile carbon-based molecules, upon which life is based, could not have survived. The earliest known fossils on Earth date from 3.5 billion years ago and there is evidence that biological activity took place even earlier—just at the end of the period of late heavy bombardment. So the window when life began was very short. As soon as life could have formed on our planet, it did. But if life formed so quickly on Earth and there was little in the way of water and carbon-based molecules on the Earth's surface, then how were these building blocks of life delivered to the Earth's surface so quickly? The answer may involve the collision of comets with the Earth, since comets contain abundant supplies of both water and carbon-based molecules. As the primitive, leftover building blocks of the outer solar system formation process, comets offer clues to the chemical mixture from which the giant planets formed some 4.6 billion years ago. If we wish to know the composition of the primordial mixture from which the major planets formed, then we must determine the chemical constituents of the leftover debris from this formation process - the comets. Comets are composed of significant fractions of water ice, dust, and carbon-based compounds. Since their orbital paths often cross that of the Earth, cometary collisions with the Earth have occurred in the past and additional collisions are forthcoming. It is not a question of whether a comet will strike the Earth, it is a question of when the next one will hit. It now seems likely that a comet struck near the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico some 65 million years ago and caused a massive extinction of more than 75% of the Earth's living organisms, including the dinosaurs. Comets have this strange duality whereby they first brought the building blocks of life to Earth some 3.8 billion years ago and subsequent cometary collisions may have wiped out many of the developing life forms, allowing only the most adaptable species to evolve further. Indeed, we may owe our preeminence at the top of Earth's food chain to cometary collisions. A catastrophic cometary collision with the Earth is only likely to happen at several million year intervals on average, so we need not be overly concerned with a threat of this type. However, it is prudent to mount efforts to discover and study these objects, to characterize their sizes, compositions and structures and to keep an eye upon their future trajectories. As with asteroids, comets are both a potential threat and a potential resource for the colonization of the solar system in the twenty first century. Whereas asteroids are rich in the mineral raw materials required to build structures in space, the comets are rich resources for the water and carbon-based molecules necessary to sustain life. In addition, an abundant supply of cometary water ice can provide copious quantities of liquid hydrogen and oxygen, the two primary ingredients in rocket fuel. One day soon, comets may serve as fueling stations for interplanetary spacecraft. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— SO YOU WANT TO "GET INTO" SETI By Larry Klaes The Dream So you have spent your whole life hearing about, reading about, and seeing humanity's numerous interpretations of alien life beyond Earth. You look up at a clear night sky full of stars and wonder if someone else is also sitting on some alien world around one of those suns, pondering the same thoughts as you. Eventually, your intellectual curiosity builds to the point where you must do more than just read and think about alien beings: you want to see for yourself if they really are out there, somewhere in our vast universe. The Realities First you discover that, despite everything you see and read about traveling to other star systems in science fiction, in reality we are a long way off from reaching even the nearest of suns with any kind of actual vessel. Besides, with over 400 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, searching their countless worlds with star probes would take many generations of human lives to accomplish. One reason for this dramatically slow process—in addition to the huge number of previously mentioned star systems—is due, ironically enough, to the fastest achievable velocity in existence—the speed of light and radio waves. The universal speed limit is about 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second. To go any faster than this would require more energy than exists in the entire universe, and that just is not feasible. Granted, light speed is incredibly fast, but even if you had a starship which could achieve 99 percent of that velocity, it would still take you 100,000 years (measured in Earth time, but not allowing for the accelerating and decelerating phases of the trip) just to go from one end of the galaxy to the other. As for the various faster-than-light (FTL) proposals, such as cosmic wormholes and warp drives, they are still very much in the realm of theory. Conversely, this also means that—despite the endless reports of alien spaceships landing on Earth with crews of strange beings who slice up our cattle and abduct numerous members of our population for bizarre medical experiments—the sheer volume of Milky Way star systems and the incredible amounts of space between them make the chances that so many alien races would construct large fleets of starships, find Earth, journey many light years to our planet, and then spend so much time here engaged in the aforementioned activities quite slim and even absurd. Most often these reports of alien visitors turn out to be hoaxes or misinterpretations of natural and human-made phenomenon. If anything, UFOs and abduction stories tell us far more about human psychology and culture than about anything or anyone from other worlds. Then you learn that some genuine scientific methods for finding extraterrestrial life actually exist. Some astronomers and engineers are using giant radio telescopes (and in a few cases so far, optical ones) to listen and look for signals from alien civilizations which may be trying to let the galaxy know that they exist and want to make contact with their celestial neighbors. Other scientists hope to find less advanced—but no less interesting—life forms on various planets and moons in our own solar system. You are overjoyed that not everything about the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is either just science fiction or destined for some future era. You might actually be able to personally satisfy your desire to know if we are not alone. Maybe you can even be sitting at the controls of the telescope when that first message from the stars reaches our blue planet, forever changing the course of human history and our place in the cosmos! More Realities: Can You "Do" SETI? In an ideal world, the search for life beyond Earth would be one of the highest priorities for humanity. To know if other beings— especially intelligent ones—exist with us in the cosmos, to contact them and hopefully learn something of their perspectives on reality, and perhaps even more. Large amounts of resources, time, and humanpower would be devoted to this ultimate quest for knowledge. To anyone who knows how vast the universe is in terms of its size and quantities of celestial bodies, it should be the goal of every intelligence such as ours to seek out others in space to learn from them and find our true place in existence. To quote from Carl Sagan: "In a very real sense this search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for a cosmic context for mankind, a search for who we are, where we have come from, and what possibilities there are for our future—in a universe vaster both in extent and duration than our forefathers ever dreamed of." (Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI), Carl Sagan, Editor, 1973, MIT Press, "Introduction", pp. ix-x) But noble intentions and plans do not always occur as hoped for in reality. The concept of extraterrestrial life and the quest for it has been on a long and obstacle-laden road ever since the idea first appeared among a few brilliant thinkers in ancient Greece over two thousand years ago. For millennia after, however, even thinking that intelligent beings could exist beyond Earth was considered blasphemy! After all, we appeared to be at the Center of the universe, where everything literally revolved around us. Existence was made just for humanity by the gods—to think that it could be shared by anyone else was considered an absurd idea. Once we began to enlighten ourselves with science, philosophy, and technology, such attitudes began to shed away in favor of freely thinking about such possibilities. We were no longer the Center of Everything, but rather Earth was just one of several planets orbiting what turns out to be an average yellow star among hundreds of billions of other suns in what turns out to be an average spiral galaxy in a universe with hundreds of billions of such star islands scattered throughout the vastness. Of course with this freedom of thought and expression, some people went too far with the idea of extraterrestrial life and intelligence. Percival Lowell stands out as a prime example here. In the 1890s, Lowell considered the straight lines perceived on the planet Mars to be a huge system of canals constructed by an advanced race of Martians to bring water from the planet's polar caps to their great cities along the equator. The only evidence Lowell had for this was his imaginative speculation. Lowell supported and promoted this idea with great gusto and publicity. Many astronomers, however, felt Lowell was assuming a great deal from such scant and uncertain evidence. When it finally became generally accepted that the "canals" were really just optical illusions created by the human eye and mind trying to make patterns out of the indistinct natural surface features on Mars, professional attitudes towards alien life turned negative. Add to this the growing popularity of science fiction with its bug-eyed monster portrayals of ravenous, conquering aliens, and then the business of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) as alien spaceships doing all sorts of strange things to the populace, and astrobiology was given a major setback from which it is still recovering today. It has taken a long time, but we are finally at a stage where searching for extraterrestrial intelligence is no longer completely considered a crazy or foolish idea. The human race is finally beginning to grow up and expand its mental and physical horizons. SETI is becoming accepted, especially once the scientist pioneers showed that it could be done, even though no definite signal of alien origin has yet been proven. Your Choices Now that you are riding in the wake of those who paved the way for you to make even considering doing SETI possible, which route do you want to take? And what do you need to follow your plans? The Professional Route Before we go any further here, the first item I want to make clear is that at present, almost no one who is conducting professional SETI started out doing SETI in their careers. Very few places conduct professional SETI—The SETI Institute (http://www.seti- inst.edu) being among the most notable exceptions—and the majority of their employees came from careers in astronomy and engineering. Most other SETI projects, such as BETA (http://mc.harvard.edu/seti/) and SERENDIP (http://albert.ssl.berkeley.edu:80/serendip/), are run primarily by skilled volunteers with donated funds. So if you want to hunt for aliens, you have to learn more than just how to sit at a monitor and wait for a needle to jump. And don't expect to get paid as much as other professions in terms of financial rewards, if at all. But usually one does not get into this field just for the material benefits. Getting a degree in astronomy is my first recommendation. You have to understand the fundamentals of the universe before you can truly begin to comprehend what life forms might be out there and why. If you don't even have an idea of where to look for them, the search will be essentially a waste of time for you and everyone else. The same applies to my recommendation of studying physics. Knowledge of computers and radio technology is highly recommended, as conducting SETI takes up massive amounts of computer data crunching power. SETI sifts through literally millions and billions of data bits per second, and trying to find some faint artificial signals in a universe full of very noisy natural objects is a job for nothing less than advanced computers which can work fast and handle lots of information at once. Knowing how to work with such machines will be a big plus in SETI. I would also recommend learning biology and chemistry. The beings you hope to pursue may be quite different from anything you might find on Earth, but understanding the fundamentals of how life forms on this planet exist and function will give you a good base to work from. Since you will be searching for intelligent beings who will have some form of advanced technological civilization (otherwise we won't be able to detect ETI from Earth with our current radio and optical telescopes), I would suggest studying sociology to learn about how cultures develop and function with themselves and others. There certainly are a wide variety of human societies to study which will give you at least some ideas for what alien cultures just might be like and their motivations and methods for reaching out to the galaxy at large. Plus all of this is good for you to know for your own intellectual benefit and personal growth. Yes, this is my "it builds character" statement. All Creatures Great and Small: Becoming an Exobiologist Of course the alien life you can search for does not necessarily have to be intelligent, at least on the technological civilization level. NASA and many universities are developing very nice programs on searching for extraterrestrials of the much simpler kind. Our latest journeys into the solar system with planetary probes have shown that some of our neighboring worlds might not be as hostile as once thought to microbes and other hardy and relatively unsophisticated creatures. For example, NASA is quite interested in finding either fossils of Mars life that lived there several billion years ago, or microbial life that still thrives on the Red Planet, perhaps dwelling under the surface where conditions are a bit wetter, warmer, and safer than above ground. Jupiter's smallest Galilean moon, Europa, appears to have a liquid ocean underneath its incredible ice crust. Some scientists are speculating that conditions in those alien seas might be just right for harboring some aquatic Europans. These are just two possibilities you could end up researching if you decide to become an exobiologist—a career that didn't even exist in any true form until well after the advent of the Space Age. Much of the learning tools that applied to professional SETI also apply here, though with added emphasis on biology and chemistry. You may initially think that finding an alien microbe won't be as thrilling as detecting a whole civilization of very intelligent beings. But just look at the wonder and excitement generated by the possible microfossils found in Martian meteorite ALH84001 when their discovery was announced in 1996. It is most important to realize that finding any kind of life form that did not originate on planet Earth will be the key evidence humanity needs to let us know that we are not alone in the universe. And finding organisms in our solar system could happen long before we come upon beings from other planetary systems. The Amateur Route While you probably won't make a living at doing SETI the amateur way, the wonderful thing about living in this era is that the search technology has reached the point where any serious amateur astronomer (non-Ph.D.) with a few thousand dollars (or equivalent currency) for the right equipment can actually conduct a serious search for other galactic civilizations. You can actually possess the technological ability to scan the skies with devices that would have been the envy of most professional institutions just a decade or two ago. The extra beauty of doing your own SETI project is that you can essentially be your own boss as to how things are run. SETI does not have to belong only to the "big" boys and girls. Naturally, to conduct amateur SETI, it will help to have a more than casual interest in astronomy, a working knowledge of telescopes—radio and optical, depending on which type of amateur SETI you want to pursue (more on that later)—a working knowledge of computers, a good place to set up your observatory, plenty of free time, and some extra spending cash. Yes, if you want to do serious astronomy and/or SETI, it can't be done properly as a weekend hobby. Of course you can do this any way you want, but since we do not know who may be sending signals from out there by what methods, when, or where, a near-constant vigilance is the only way to be sure of catching their call when it comes. And since it is likely that such signals will not be very powerful, especially to amateur equipment, it will also make a major difference as to how "serious" your equipment is as well. Amateur SETI Organizations: The Microwave Approach Another nice thing in this era of computers and the Internet is that you don't have to be alone in pursuing your personal SETI dream. There are some actual amateur SETI organizations which can help you with all aspects of your search plans. If you want to find alien intelligences in the microwave (radio) realm, the most common pursuit at present, check in with The SETI League. The League was founded by Richard Factor and Paul Shuch in 1995, in response to the United States' Government cutting all funds for NASA's SETI program, called the High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS), and the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in the early 1990s. They felt that between the advancements in computer technology and the vast numbers of actual and potential radio astronomers around the world, a serious amateur effort could be mounted to have a constant global coverage of the sky, free from the budget-cutting politicians and scant time on the professionals' giant radio telescopes. The SETI League's Web site (http::/www.setileague.org) contains just about everything you need to know about setting up your own radio telescope for the search. They can also postal mail you the same information if need be. There is also loads of information on SETI in general. The Optical Approach There is another way one can look for ETI transmissions that briefly gained prominence in the early 1960s, only to be overshadowed by the microwave field until just recently—the optical spectrum. While not as popular or well known to those with a casual knowledge of SETI due to microwave's dominance for the past three decades, optical SETI seeks to detect pulsed and continuous wave laser beacons signals in the visible and infrared spectrum. To truly advanced societies, laser communications offer a way to transmit large amounts of audiovisual information over vast distances. Seeing as we do not exactly know how ETI might communicate, looking for them in both the microwave and optical spectrums seems the only logical way to cover all the bases. For the past several years, Dr. Stuart Kingsley of Ohio, who has often referred to himself as a "frustrated astronaut", has led the effort to promote optical SETI for both amateurs and professionals. He has designed his own system called the Columbus Optical SETI Observatory. At first glance, it looks like the typical kind of observatory you would find in a serious amateur astronomer's back yard. But Dr. Kingsley's choice of targets goes beyond planets and stars to the very beings which may dwell in other star systems. Seeing as more amateurs have optical telescopes than radio ones, it can be relatively easy to adapt your system to conduct this kind of SETI. Dr. Kingsley has provided a great deal of information on how to do this in his Web site at: http://www.coseti.org. As with microwave, while you won't need a large radio dish, you will still require a dedication and seriousness to astronomy, a working knowledge of telescopes and computers, a good place to set up your observatory, plenty of free time, and some extra spending cash. There is also "Retrospective Optical SETI", which does not require the availability of a telescope, but rather seeks to search through the existing historical record and database of stellar spectrographic plates that have accumulated over the past century, looking for anomalous spectral lines. Such lines might indicate the presence of a laser beacon signal not previously noted, or was dismissed by an astronomer as a "glitch" or otherwise natural phenomenon in his or her equipment! Beyond Radio and Lasers Of course ETI might be sending messages through the Milky Way using techniques which are neither radio nor optical, but most of these methods are far beyond current amateur—and in some cases professional—capabilities. Thus they will remain out of the main scope of this article. You can read about these alternate signaling methods for your own intellectual curiosity in the following article at this Web site URL: http://www.setiquest.com/lemav/lemav0n0.htm Beyond the Observatory If you prefer or decide not to become an active SETI scientist, but still want to make some kind of a living in the field, you can always pursue other avenues that while they may not allow you to find ETI in person, they can go a long way towards making those discoveries possible. One avenue is to write about extraterrestrial life for periodicals and Web sites. Though it sometimes helps, you do not have to be a professional exobiologist to get published on the subject matter in the popular science magazines. Your research into alien life and its possible ways of being could go far in making breakthroughs in a field that still has so many unknowns to answer. You can also write about astrobiology and SETI to explain its intricacies to the general public, a valuable service in its own right. Just think, your work could inspire others to become scientists in the SETI field and elsewhere, just as you were probably once inspired by similar circumstances. Most importantly, don't ever forget in your pursuit of alien life to enjoy what you are doing. SETI and its related fields should always retain at least some of the wonder and excitement that drew you to it in the first place. Never forget to keep reading, thinking, and speculating about life out there, whether you pursue this as a profession or just an "armchair" enthusiast. You will do yourself and the field a great deal of good with this one basic point. The Choice is Yours Despite how it might seem at first glance, my goal with this article is not to discourage you from "doing" SETI. Rather, I am presenting to you up front the realities of what is involved as the field stands now. It would be worse for you to get all worked up and make elaborate plans about SETI, only to be shot down in midstream. If exploring the stars is your dream, learn how to do it realistically, rather than be defeated out of lack of knowledge on the subject. If you discover that you do not really want to pursue SETI beyond reading and thinking about it, then at least I hope I saved you some time and energy on the matter so that you can still enjoy the subject. Remember, you do not have to make your own SETI station to participate in this great endeavor. Thoughtful speculation can be just as helpful with so many unknown factors out there that have yet to be found. However, if everything I have said has made you still determined to pursue either a professional career or serious amateur goal to do SETI, then more power to you! At the very least, you will be well rewarded in terms of what you will discover about yourself and the universe as a whole. And who knows, maybe someday you will be the one sitting at the observatory controls when the signal of a lifetime comes drifting in from deep space. With a cosmos as large as ours, the possibilities are truly astronomical. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ALIEN SPACESHIPS, SETI, AND PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS By Larry Klaes In late March of 1997, the Heaven's Gate cult in California committed mass suicide due in part to their belief that an alien spaceship was in our solar system riding behind Comet Hale-Bopp. This alleged star vessel supposedly contained intelligent beings superior to humanity both technologically and spiritually. The cult believed these beings were going to "save" selected members of the human race—such as themselves—and bring them to a "higher level", wherever and whatever that might be. In the end, though, the spaceship never existed and the cult members only ended up decaying in a large suburban mansion. While the cult's behavior is a rather extreme example, it showcases what many in the general public think about intelligent life beyond Earth—that "they" are superior to us in every way and have fleets of crewed starships constantly coming here to prepare us for salvation from our primitive and ultimately destructive ways. Of course many others think that aliens are actually here for our chunk of the celestial real estate and to turn us into food and/or slaves. When one looks at the realities of the universe and biological evolution, however, the truth is probably quite different. Most folks know little about how vast our cosmos is or even how it is set up. We live on a rather small rock circling a small yellow star that is one of 400 billion in a huge collection of such luminous gas balls called the Milky Way galaxy. Most of these stars average several light years apart, a distance which would take our first interstellar space probes, Pioneer and Voyager, tens of thousands of years to reach the realms of even the nearest stars. In other words, we live in a galaxy that is so large and so populated with natural objects, it is ludicrous to imagine that beings of other star systems would know about us unless they were very nearby on a cosmic scale. And what would we have to offer these beings that can cross interstellar distances, assuming such advanced intelligences exist and would want to make the journey? A sort of primitive anthropological study, perhaps. However, this kind of exploration would probably keep the ETI from interacting us for a long time. This is not to say that there are not ETI who explore other star systems, but many scientists find it doubtful that they are here in the numbers that the public reports every day, if there are even any ETI here at all! Star travel is an expensive way to explore other systems, and you had better be darn sure that there is something (or someone) of interest to find before you send out your mission on a journey that could take years to centuries, depending upon the target and disavowing any faster-than-light drives or methods. There is an easier way to explore and possibly communicate with beings on other worlds—the use of microwave and optical telescopes as supported by those who conduct the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). While a starship might take a lot to build and then risk much in the long journey from one world to the next, a radio or light beam can carry lots of information cheaply and almost certainly survive the voyage intact. That is what the members of current SETI projects and others who support them think is the way we will first meet our extraterrestrial neighbors. Granted this research may not have the glamour and drama of an alien craft hovering over a major city, but it seems more likely at this point. It also does not require us to do more than build some rather inexpensive devices to listen and look for "them". Scanning the whole sky also increases the chances of finding ETI, rather than searching a few star systems at a time, as would be necessary with artificial star probes. The SETI community's task at hand in part is to help the public understand how the universe is truly laid out and what would be required of any ETI to send starships rather than communicate through the ether. If the public keeps thinking "they" are here, they will not support and fund efforts such scientific efforts to conduct the most likely way of ever knowing if we are not alone in the universe. We must show them that not only are we not the physical center of the cosmos as once believed, but we are likely just one of many voices in the galactic chorus. ETI may indeed "save" us, but it can happen only by our efforts to find and understand them first. In this way, humanity will grow up on a celestial scale. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— REVIEW OF SHARING THE UNIVERSE BY SETH SHOSTAK By Larry Klaes In our current cultural fascination with the idea of alien beings from other worlds, most of it hokey at best and just plain wrong at worst, there is a definite need for some popular-level literature which helps to sort the rational wheat from the pseudoscience and Hollywood chaff. Seth Shostak, Public Program Scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California—where they conduct Project Phoenix—has created such a book. Titled Sharing the Universe, Shostak gives a comprehensive and most readable survey of what we do (and especially do not) know about life beyond the planet Earth, and how we are going about searching for our fellow inhabitants of the universe. Whether realized or not, most of the general public gets its "education" on science, history, and foreign cultures from the films and television programs they watch. This is why physicists such as Lawrence M. Krauss write popular books using the series Star Trek and other science fiction programs to explain why most of the "science" and technology they present is either physically impossible or unobtainable for the foreseeable future. Many people do come away from science fictions films thinking that evil alien monsters are waiting to pounce on Earth or that starships equipped with "warp" drives will be zipping us around the Milky Way galaxy in the next few centuries. As for the latter, I do hope we are exploring the interstellar realm by the era Star Trek is set in. However, unless there is some major breakthrough in physics and technology, I do not think Scotty will be fixing the mythical dilithium crystals on the Enterprise to give us Warp 8 to Alpha Centauri any time soon. In each chapter of Sharing the Universe, Shostak usually starts off by presenting some relevant aspect of a popular science fiction film or series and then showing why it probably would not happen that way in reality. I was pleased to see that Shostak did his homework when describing his representative science fiction. While some scientists may prefer that these forms of entertainment were not interwoven with serious science, Shostak realized that the public generally does not discriminate between what Hollywood puts on the screen and what biological evolution could actually produce on worlds circling distant suns. For those who are concerned that Sharing the Universe is little more than knocking down bad Hollywood aliens and science, put those fears aside. Shostak gives clear and interesting explanations on the latest data we have about astrobiology in all its forms. He starts off with our current understanding about possible life havens in our own solar system, then works his way into the galaxy with the new planets being discovered around other stars. Current thinking is that since we developed on a planet circling a sun, then other life forms may have done the same. Finding other solar systems (though so far none quite like ours) is a hopeful step in the right direction. The next chapters explore how alien life forms, especially the intelligent ones, might be created and evolve, and their possible behaviors. Shostak focuses on the public's major fascination with aliens who want to find and interact with us. The author deftly shows how most of the aliens portrayed in our entertainment are far more mundane and human than they may first appear to be, no matter how many tentacles or other appendages they might have. Real ETI may be very different from us in almost every way. Evolution does not always role the same dice twice, especially on worlds in distant star systems. The aliens from Hollywood and abduction reports also show just how socially egocentric humans can be, probably because we have been isolated on just one planet for most of our existence with no other intelligent species to compare ourselves to. They assume that every star-faring race in the galaxy thinks that Earth is the hottest spot to visit in the heavens, either to save humanity from its primitive ways or to knock us out of the competition for survival of the galactic fittest. More than likely, if ETI do exist, they are completely unaware of humanity and Earth, as the Milky Way galaxy is so vast and abundant with billions of stars, planets, nebulae, and other celestial objects. Even if they do know about us, why would they want to expend so much of the time, energy, and resources necessary to mount a long and dangerous interstellar expedition to gather information and materials from Earth? They can probably find almost anything they want in major abundance throughout the rest of our vast galaxy, much of it likely without any current inhabitants. Of course if ETI want to find and learn about humanity through interstellar means of communication, that is another matter. Sending messages through the galaxy is a practical and inexpensive endeavor. Best of all, we can actually search for these signals right from our own planet with current technology! The final chapters discuss how real SETI programs are conducted, what we may expect if ETI are trying to signal us, how humanity might react to the discovery, and what kind of responses we should send. Though the main focus is on Microwave (radio) SETI, other methods, such as Optical SETI (detecting laser and infrared transmission beams) are discussed. Since we do not know how ETI might communicate with each other or us, it is only prudent to utilize all the practical detection means at our disposal to ensure success. Shostak answers the people who think that the government or various SETI programs have already found that ETI exist and are hiding evidence of these aliens from the public to avoid a cultural shock and panic. Shostak relates the story of how one perceived detection incident with Project Phoenix in June of 1997— which turned out to be the signal from the SOHO solar satellite— was unintentionally leaked to the press within twelve hours after the signal was first found. People just could not keep their mouths shut about what might have been the most important event in human history. If a genuine ETI message had been discovered, no doubt by now human nature would have spread the word across our planet, regardless of any restriction attempts. And considering how a real first find would boost the professional and personal lives of the folks who found it, why would they want to sit on such a gold mine once its authenticity had been determined? In summation, I highly recommend Shostak's Sharing the Universe to anyone who wants the clear and exciting scientific picture of our long search for other minds in the cosmos. I also recommend this book for those who are familiar with the subject, as it can serve as both a refresher and a guide when someone asks about the latest UFO report or if a certain alien species on Star Trek could really exist. My only recommendation for the next edition (and I will presume this event, as new knowledge in the field keeps growing by leaps and bounds), is the addition of more photographs and diagrams to accompany the text, especially in color. Perhaps by the next edition of Sharing the Universe, Seth Shostak won't have to fall back on explaining why aliens probably will not want to steal Earth's water or try to stop us from destroying the rain forests. Because if the public reads this book, they will be ready to explore the real possibilities of extraterrestrial life through science, our best tool and hope if we are ever to learn the answers to all our questions about who and what is "out there". The following is a Web site with ordering information for Sharing the Universe: http://www.seti-inst.edu/books.html#sharing Sharing the Universe, by Seth Shostak Paperback, 216 pages Published by Berkeley Hills Books Publication date: January 1998 Dimensions (in inches): 0.63 x 9.01 x 5.90 ISBN: 0965377431 —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— REAL (NOT REEL) DEEP IMPACTS: SANDIA SCIENTISTS PREDICT WHAT AN ASTEROID STRIKE WOULD LOOK LIKE, REALLY Sandia National Laboratory release 5 May 1998 Steven Spielberg's new blockbuster movie—with its computer- animated interpretation of a comet striking Earth—promises to be a big hit at the box office this summer. But computer scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are creating some big hits of their own these days that they think may better approximate a real asteroid catastrophe. Using virtual reality techniques, decades of experience in shock physics, advanced computer programs, and the world's fastest computer, the scientists have completed in recent weeks one of the largest hypervelocity impact physics calculations ever performed. In the latest computing scenario, an asteroid 1.4 kilometers in diameter strikes the Atlantic Ocean 25 miles south of Brooklyn, N.Y. To model the event the scientists broke up a 120-square-mile space that roughly approximates the New York City metropolitan area, the air above, and the water and earth below, into 100 million separate cubes, or grids. Sandia's teraflops supercomputer then calculated what happened inside each cube as the asteroid splashed down. The cubes were reassembled to produce a three-dimensional moving picture of the collision. The teraflops, currently the world's fastest computer, performs more than one trillion mathematical operations per second. The simulation is no video game; the calculations take into account the real- world laws of physics governing time, temperature, pressure, gravity, the densities of water and earth, and hundreds of other considerations to create an accurate prediction. What's more, the resulting computer simulation can be explored using interactive virtual reality techniques. For instance, scientists can "fly through" the 3-D movie to get a better idea of what's happening on Coney Island if they want. The work supports Sandia's Department of Energy mission to use the world's highest-performance computers to develop computer codes that can one day model the extremely complex physics that occur during a nuclear weapon blast. In the absence of real-world nuclear testing, DOE and the weapons labs are developing continually more powerful supercomputers and computer codes to simulate the complex 3-D physics involved in nuclear-weapon performance and to accurately predict the degradation of nuclear weapon components as they age in the stockpile. Simulating comet impacts provides an opportunity to test and improve the codes. How did Spielberg do? So what would happen during such an impact, really? According to the simulation, the impact would vaporize the asteroid, deform the ocean floor, and eject hundreds of cubic miles of superheated water vapor, melted rock, and other debris into the upper atmosphere and back into space. Much of the debris would then rain down over the world for the next several hours and also form a high global cloud, says David Crawford of Sandia's Computational Physics and Mechanics Department. The shock wave from the impact would level much of the New England region. The heat would incinerate cities and forests there instantaneously. The global cloud would then lower temperatures worldwide, and a global snowstorm likely would ensue and last several days to several weeks, initiating a "nuclear winter" that would create more hardships for earth's inhabitants. An impact of this magnitude can be expected to occur on Earth about once every 300,000 years and approximates what scientists consider to be the "global catastrophe threshold," he says. So how close is Spielberg's interpretation of the event to the teraflops' virtual predictions? "The movie makers didn't have the benefit of the world's fastest computer, but they produced superior visuals that appear remarkably realistic," says Arthurine Breckenridge of Sandia's Computer Architectures Department. In the movie preview, the comet strikes at an angle and raises a symmetrical steam cloud, she says, which probably wouldn't happen. "We now know that the vapor cloud produced by an impact is initially asymmetric, sending more material in the direction of the ricochet." The movie does realistically depict a tsunami that would surely follow an ocean impact, she says. Spielberg's Deep Impact opens this Friday, May 8. Another movie, Armageddon, which depicts an asteroid "the size of Texas" threatening to strike Earth, opens July 1. An experiment you would never want to do The teraflops simulations employ "massively parallel computing," a computing approach pioneered by Sandia in the late 1980s. In massively parallel computing, thousands of discrete computing tasks are assigned to several hundred separate computing "processors" inside the supercomputer. The computing tasks are accomplished simultaneously and their results reassembled. All of today's high performance supercomputing employs a massively parallel approach. In the most recent 100-million-cell calculation, the teraflops used 8,192 of its 9,000 processors. The entire calculation lasted 18 hours. Sandia has done similar calculations on its high performance computers, including a 54-million- cell simulation of a comet striking the ocean. In 1994, Crawford and Sandia scientist Mark Boslough accurately simulated what would happen when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere. Months later, the world's astronomers watched the Sandia-predicted event unfold in real life through the Hubble space telescope. "A lot of major breakthroughs in science are going to come from these kinds of calculations," Boslough says. He notes that the impact simulations are something that can't be done any other way. "It's almost like doing an experiment—one you could never do. One you would never want to do." Sandia's teraflops computer is a joint development of DOE, Sandia, and Intel. It represents the initial goal of DOE's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, a ten-year program designed to move nuclear weapons design and maintenance from a test-based to simulation-based engineering approach. Sandia is a multiprogram Department of Energy laboratory operated by Lockheed Martin Corp. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has research and development programs contributing to national defense, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness. The simulations in Quick Time format, other illustrations, and links to information about other Sandia comet modeling work are available at http://sherpa.sandia.gov/asteroid/ A video tape containing the simulation and other Sandia comet- modeling work is available from Sandia's media relations office; call (505) 844-5199. Photo Captions: [http://www.sandia.gov/media/comethit.htm] [Comet hit simulation image 1] This computer-generated image by Sandia National Laboratories' scientists shows the impact of a 1-km comet (or asteroid) hitting in the open ocean. The comet and 300 to 500 cubic kilometers of ocean water would be vaporized nearly instantaneously by the tremendous energy of the impact. The impact energy of about 300 gigatons of TNT would be equivalent to about 10 times the explosive power of all the nuclear weapons in existence in the 1960s at the height of the Cold War. [Comet hit simulation image 2] Five seconds after a 1.4 kilometer-wide asteroid crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New York, an impact plume containing superheated water, earth, and other debris blankets major portions of Long Island. The viewpoint is from orbital altitude from a location about 100 kilometers west of New York City looking east. Long Island trails off in the distance. Manhattan and Staten Islands are in the foreground. [Comet hit simulation image 3] Eleven seconds after impact, Long Island and the New York shoreline are engulfed in debris and superheated steam, and much of the material in the upper portions of the impact plume is on suborbital trajectories. In both images, water is blue, land is brown, water vapor is white, and hot material (greater than 5,000 Celsius) is orange. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— INTERPLANETARY DUST MAY CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE, GRADUAL EXTINCTION By Kristen Vecellio, University of Florida 7 May 1998 Space dust in the earth's atmosphere and changes in the planet's orbit may have started the gradual extinction of dinosaurs and other life thousands of years before a massive asteroid collision dealt the final blow, according to research from the University of Florida and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The dust build-up, which rises and falls on about a 100,000-year cycle, also may answer some big questions researchers have about the history of earth's climate, said Stanley Dermott, chairman of UF's astronomy department. "A major, outstanding problem in present day geophysics is understanding the history of earth's climate," said Dermott. The research will be published in the Friday (5/8) issue of the journal Science. The earth's climate varies on a 100,000 year scale, and during that time the earth's eccentricity changes causing the earth to move closer or farther away from the sun. Current scientific thinking says this variation in the amount of sunlight reaching the earth, known as the Milankovich Effect, changed the earth's climate. But Dermott and Stephen Kortenkamp, a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institution, both felt this assumption was unlikely. "The amount of variation is extremely small," Dermott said. Dermott and Kortenkamp did calculations spanning 1.2 million years to prove the amount of dust in the atmosphere did vary and that the eccentricity of Earth's orbit can make dust accumulation rates vary by a factor of 2 or 3. Dermott said the earth gains nearly 30 million kilograms of dust a year, and the amount of dust in the atmosphere could effect earth's climate. "However," Dermott said, "even that amount of dust is relatively small, so scientists still aren't sure exactly how much it could influence the climate." Earth accumulates dust through gravitational focusing, an effect that causes the earth to pull dust particles toward it. To gather information on dust levels, NASA launched a craft the size of a school bus into the earth's atmosphere and counted the number of particle impacts on the side of the craft over several years. "It was a good record of the impact of dust striking earth," said Dermott. Kortenkamp, a UF graduate, said that the effects of interplanetary dust on the climate will be similar to the effects of volcanic dust in the atmosphere. Past volcanic eruptions have caused a detectable cooling of the earth's surface. Volcanic dust settles in a couple of months and the cooling effect is short-term. But the effects of space dust on the atmosphere can last much longer. "The influx of interplanetary dust could remain at high levels for extended periods several hundred thousand years and therefore any associated cooling would also persist for this length of time," said Kortenkamp. The researchers also examined the possibility that if the amount of dust in earth's atmosphere altered the climate, the change could cause gradual extinctions. Dermott said every 100 million years the majority life on earth is destroyed by a catastrophic event, such as an asteroid striking Earth's surface, but history doesn't show an exact moment or date in time for the extinction of life. Dermott and Kortenkamp are investigating the idea that if atmospheric dust effects the climate, then the dust may effect life on earth as well. For example, an asteroid collision creates a dust wave that reaches earth 1 million years before the asteroid. The dust may alter the climate enough to cause a gradual extinction before the asteroid hits earth's surface and causes a catastrophic event. "While the issue is controversial, there are groups of paleontologists who have found evidence suggesting some mass extinctions were gradual, lasting for hundreds of thousands of years," Kortenkamp said. To prove their theory, Kortenkamp said, a detailed analysis must be done of geological records looking for enhanced dust accumulation connected with gradual mass extinctions. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— STUDY OF SULFIDES IN BACTERIA CASTS DOUBT ON EVIDENCE OF LIFE IN MARTIAN METEORITE ALH84001 Arizona State University release The Martian meteorite ALH84001 gave people hope that it was evidence for extraterrestrial life because minerals found in it resembled minerals created by some unusual earthly bacteria. Now it appears that the bacteria themselves contradict that claim. In an article appearing in the May 8, 1998 issue of Science, a team led by two scientists from Arizona State University reports finding evidence for as many as three different iron sulfide minerals in two different bacteria known for generating magnetic compounds but not other iron sulfides normally found with them. Using transmission electron microscope observations, the team, which includes ASU Geology and Chemistry/Biochemistry faculty members Mihaly Posfai and Peter R. Buseck, Iowa State University microbiologist Dennis A. Bazylinski, and California Polytechnic physicist Richard B. Frankel, found clear evidence of mackinawite and greigite and, possibly, cubic iron sulfide. One of the iron sulfides they did not detect is pyrrhotite, a mineral that has been found in the now-famous Martian meteorite ALH84001 and that frequently occurs as a breakdown product of the other sulfides. Though pyrrhotite's presence in the meteorite has been cited as possible evidence of past Martian bacterial life, the study's evidence suggests that the bacteria may actually prevent its formation. The study found evidence that the bacteria first produce mackinawite, a nonmagnetic iron sulfide, which then naturally converts to the magnetic greigite. It also suggests that this process may actually begin with cubic iron sulfide, which is unstable and rapidly becomes mackinawite. In the geological environment the bacteria are found in, the reaction sequence would also eventually lead to greigite breaking down into pyrite and pyrrhotite, but that reaction does not occur when the bacteria are present. The team's research finding contradicts an earlier study that found pyrite and pyrrhotite present in the bacteria. As no subsequent study has been able to duplicate this result, the current team posits that earlier researchers may have confused cubic iron sulfide with these minerals, which give similar selected area electron diffraction patterns. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— NEW GALILEO IMAGES JPL release 8 May 1998 The following images taken by the Galileo spacecraft have been released on the Galileo home page: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo * Europa Global Views in Natural and Enhanced Colors * Europa "Ice Rafts" in local and color context * View of Callisto at Increasing Resolutions * Global Color Variations on Callisto * The Galilean Satellites —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— JPL EVENING LECTURES HIGHLIGHT ICY AND FIERY SPACE DESTINATIONS JPL release 5 May 1998 Three varied solar system locations—the Sun, Pluto and Jupiter's moon Europa—will be featured in two free public lectures on Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, and on Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in The Forum at Pasadena City College. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The lectures, entitled "Ice & Fire: Traveling to Difficult Solar System Destinations," will feature the three planned missions of the Outer Planets/Solar Probe project. The three are Europa Orbiter, a mission to look for evidence of liquid oceans on Jupiter's icy moon, Europa; Solar Probe, which will travel closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft; and Pluto-Kuiper Express, which will fly by Pluto and its moon Charon, and possibly into the Kuiper Disk, the cold, dark outer fringes of our solar system. The three missions are tentatively scheduled for launch between 2003 and 2007 The lectures will be presented by Robert Staehle, deputy manager for the Outer Planets/Solar Probe project. Staehle previously served as Ice and Fire Preprojects manager. His space exploration career began when his student experiment "Bacteria Aboard Skylab" flew on the first American space station. With his aeronautical and astronautical engineering background, Staehle worked on the Voyager mission and contributed to lunar and planetary exploration studies. He learned from a variety of industries how to cut mission development costs and lead time dramatically, knowledge well-suited to the goals of the Outer Planets/Solar Probe missions. Please note that the lectures on Deep Space 1, originally scheduled for May 14 and 15, have been rescheduled for August 20 at JPL and August 21 at PCC. The speaker will be Dr. Marc Rayman, chief mission engineer and deputy mission manager. This lecture is part of the von Karman Lecture Series sponsored monthly by the JPL Media Relations Office. A web site on the lecture series is located at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture. For directions and other information, call the Media Relations Office at (818) 354-5011. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 11-17 May, 1998 Galileo spends most of the week processing and transmitting to Earth science information stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder. All of the data on this week's schedule contains information describing Jupiter's icy moon Europa. The data set returned this week was gathered by the spacecraft's camera, near- infrared spectrometer and suite of fields and particles instruments during the spacecraft's close flyby of the moon, just over 6 weeks ago. Some data from last week's schedule slipped into this week when Galileo released antenna time at the Deep Space Network's 70-meter antenna in Canberra, Australia. The antenna time was released to support radio frequency observations of the newly identified gamma ray burst you may have heard about in the news. The burst was located in a relatively close galaxy and the Canberra antenna was considered a key part for very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations required to study the event. Last week's efforts to change the attitude control computer's onboard software have encountered a glitch. It appears that the onboard software was successfully modified, but the effect on the gyroscopic data is not as expected. The flight team will continue to gather and analyze spacecraft engineering data to determine what went wrong. Another gyroscope performance test is scheduled this Friday. This week's information processing and transmission activities continue to retrieve data from a section of the onboard tape recorder that has already been accessed once this orbit. This second processing and transmission opportunity allows data gaps to be filled, re-processing of data with different parameters, or selection of entirely new data. On the data return schedule we find two observations by the spacecraft's camera of a region of Europa characterized by dark spots. Together they will provide a stereo topographic view of the area. The camera team also returns an observation of a region containing characteristic triple bands. Finally, the camera team returns an observation designed to provide photometric measurements of Europa's surface. Photometry is the measurement of light intensities, which can then be used to help identify the different materials on the surface of Europa. The near-infrared spectrometer team contributes to this week's schedule by scheduling the return of an observation of a region of Europa containing dark spots and pull-apart wedges. The observation is expected to provide more information on the materials that make up this region of Europa. Finally, the fields and particles instruments return measurements that will add to the repository of information describing the interaction of Jupiter's magnetic and electric fields with Europa. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor 98 project manager 8 May 1998 Orbiter integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule with a major system test of the mapping mission scheduled for next week. Troubleshooting of the various Pressure Modulator InfraRed Radiometer (PMIRR) anomalies is in progress. Lander integration and test activities are proceeding on schedule. The lander will be moved into the thermal vacuum chamber on May 11 and chamber pump down for cruise configuration thermal vacuum testing is scheduled for May 15. For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit this website: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/ —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— STARDUST Status Reports By Ken Atkins, STARDUST project manager 1 May 1998 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations activities this week continued installation & testing of the Command and Data Handling unit, the Dust Flux Monitor sensor, the Medium Gain Antenna, the first Inertial Measurement Unit , and continuing interface work on the Navigation Camera. The Sample Return Capsule spin balance testing was initiated and will continue through next week. The project announced a second opportunity for the public to participate in the Stardust mission through its program to collect names that will be inscribed on a microchip and flown on a round- trip to comet Wild 2 onboard the Stardust Sample Return Capsule. The name collection home page is at: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/microchip/signup.html 8 May 1998 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO) activities: ATLO this week involved installation of the Solar Array Switching Unit (SASU), the test battery, and making harness modifications for the Navigation Camera. The Sample Return Capsule (SRC) spin balance testing and ballasting was successfully completed. The total SRC mass is about 46 kg (101 lbs). Outreach: The Project in collaboration the National Space Society, along with Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures, today announced a joint online campaign to collect one million names to be flown round-trip to comet Wild 2 onboard the Stardust Sample Return Capsule. The campaign, "Make an IMPACT," is being launched in time for todays's nationwide release of the film, "DEEP IMPACT," and will continue through the summer. The names will be printed onto a microchip to be placed aboard the craft later this year. Already collected are the names of every member of the cast and crew of "DEEP IMPACT." Names can be submitted by going to the National Space Society website at http://nss.org/impact, the film's website at http://deep- impact.com, or the signup page on the Stardust website: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/microchip/signup.html. The Stardust Educator Fellowship Workshop was held this week at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA) in Denver. This workshop involved the initial 10 Stardust Fellowship winners from 10 states. They were exposed to three days of intensive training on the mission and its science. The Principal Investigator, Project Manager, LMA's Flight System Manager, and LMA's VP for Flight Systems participated along with a number of the Stardust team scientists and engineers. The training is central to Stardust's nationwide teacher training initiative aimed at grades 4-8 and focused on teaching students about small solar system bodies such as comets and the engineering adventures to explore them. The core Educator Fellows will return to their districts with materials and curricula to use with their own students and to provide training for other teachers. An additional 15 Fellows will be chosen in the fall. Stardust's Fellows Program is part of an educational outreach partnership between the Project, the Virginia-based Challenger Center for Space Science Education; the JASON Foundation for Education headquartered in Waltham, Mass.; and Omniplex Science Museum, Oklahoma City, OK. The list of fellows and their affiliations is at: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fellows.html For more information on the STARDUST mission—the first ever comet sample return mission—please visit the STARDUST home page: http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— End Marsbugs, Vol. 5, No. 13