NASA's Top 10

NASA HQ has announced the most popular news stories of 1998. NASA/Marshall research highlights 3 of the 10 selections.

December 18, 1998: Science from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center tops the list of the 10 most popular NASA news stories for 1998. Highlights from around the space agency include the discovery of magnetars, the John Glenn shuttle mission, and the biggest cosmic explosion since the Big Bang. The top NASA stories for 1998:

Magnetars!
A neutron star, located 40,000 light years from Earth, is generating the most intense magnetic field yet observed in the Universe, according to an international team of astronomers led by scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.

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29 Sept. 1998: A crusty young star makes its presence felt A brilliant gamma ray burst zaps satellites, illuminates Earth, and sheds new light on magnetars.

9 July 1998: A whole lot of shakin' going on! Magnetar starquakes lead to the discovery of the first soft gamma ray repeater in 19 years.

See what a spinning, bursting magnetar might look like!

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See and hear John Glenn discuss aerogel as he prepares for an experiment on board shuttle Discovery.

Requires Realvideo player (version 5) from RealNetworks, Inc. Video produced by the American Institute of Physics "Inside Science."

John Glenn Returns to Space
Senator John Glenn was named as a payload specialist last Jan. 16, and assigned to the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery, which was launched Oct. 29, 1998, on a nine-day mission. Glenn's return to space was mainly intended to advance our understanding of the human body's reaction to weightlessless. Many of the effects of low-gravity are similar to the aging process. Glenn also participated in a lesser-known NASA/Marshall experiment involving aerogel, a lightweight space-age substance that could one day revolutionize the computer industry, lower home heating bills, and help preserve the environment. The aerogel experiment, along with astronomy, solar physics and fluid physics research, helped make the John Glenn shuttle flight one of the most productive science missions ever.

STS-95 Related Links:

26 Oct. 1998: Right Stuff for the Super Stuff - John Glenn will conduct tests with a space age super-substance called aerogel on STS-95.

29 Oct. 1998: Astronomy goes into orbit with John Glenn- Shuttle Discovery is carrying a battery of telescopes to study the sun, planets, and supernovae during the STS-95 mission.

3 Nov. 1998: The Physics of Orange Juice - Shuttle experiments target the behavior of fluid mixtures in microgravity.

Most Powerful Gamma Ray Burst since Big Bang
A cosmic gamma ray burst detected this year released a hundred times more energy than previously theorized, making it the most powerful explosion since the creation of the universe in the Big Bang. Researchers are baffled by the sheer magnitude of such explosions and are working to pinpoint the energy source. Possibilities include "hypernovae" (really big supernova explosions) and colliding neutron stars, but these ideas are controversial and the answer remains a mystery.

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13 Oct 1998: Gamma-ray Bursters cross the 'Line of Death' - A study of gamma ray burst spectra shows one more thing that these mysterious, cosmological gamma ray bursts are not.

21 Oct. 1998: When stars go hyper - Scientists thought they understood supernovae - the death throes of huge, exploding stars. However, a new kind of supernova, far too bright to be an "ordinary" supernova, confounds current theories.

Hubble Takes Image of a Possible Runaway Planet
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope gave astronomers their first direct look at what is possibly a planet outside our solar system -- one apparently that has been ejected into deep space by its parent stars.

Lunar Prospector Discovers Ice on Moon
There is a high probability that water ice exists at both the north and south poles of the Moon, according to initial scientific data returned by NASA's Lunar Prospector this year.

Antarctic Ozone Hole
In late 1997, larger levels of ozone depletion were observed over the Arctic than in any previous year on record. In 1998, using climate models, a team of scientists reported why this may be related to greenhouse gases. (Ozone animation.) Later in the year, NASA satellites showed that the geographic area covered by Antarctic ozone depletion was the largest ever.

NASA Studies La Niña
Research scientists using data from the SeaWiFS, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and TOPEX/POSEIDON satellites are shedding new light on the phenomenon known as La Niña. The images show the dissipation of El Niño through changes in sea-surface temperature and height, biological productivity and ocean current movement . While it is too early to draw definite conclusions, the results to date appear to confirm the onset of La Niña-type conditions.

For more of NASA's top 10 news stories, visit Today@NASA

Web Links
NASA's Office of Space Science - press releases and other news related to NASA and astrophysics	www.NASA.gov - NASA PAO home page

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Author: Dr. Tony Phillips
Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips
Curator: Bryan Walls
Responsible NASA official: John M. Horack