2000 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| FUSE SPACECRAFT OBSERVES INTERSTELLAR LIFEBLOOD OF GALAXIES | G00-002 | 01/12/00 | 00:10:00 | The extended halo of half-million-degree gas that surrounds the Milky Way was generated by thousands of exploding stars, or supernovae, as our galaxy evolved, according to new observations by NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft. |
TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): HOT GAS FROM EXPLODING STARS - The extended halo of half-million-degree gas that surrounds the Milky Way was generated by thousands of exploding stars, or supernovae, as our galaxy evolved, according to new observations by NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft. The roughly football-shaped hot gas halo which surrounds our galaxy extends about 5,000 -10,000 light years above and below the galactic plane and thins with distance.
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| ITEM (2): OBSERVING THE GAS CLOUDS - FUSE is able to detect interstellar gas and determine its composition, velocity and distance by viewing bright celestial objects further away. The intervening gas selectively absorbs the light from these objects in a unique pattern of colors, depending on the composition of the gas. The spectrograph on FUSE separates the light into its component colors, similar to the way a prism separates white light into a rainbow. The resulting patterns identify the gas like optical fingerprints. When the patterns shift to different colors, velocity and distance measurements can be inferred.
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| ITEM (3): DUST AND GAS CLOUDS- B-roll - B-roll of gas and dust clouds in the Milky Way as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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| ITEM (4): FUSE ANIMATION - The on-orbit checkout and debugging period completed, FUSE is now performing observations on a routine basis. FUSE's primary mission is to help scientists better understand the structure and evolution of our universe and to search for the "fossil record" of the Big Bang.
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| ITEM (5): FUSE INSTRUMENTS - The FUSE science instrument consists of telescope mirrors, a spectrograph, which breaks ultraviolet light into its component colors for study, and an electronic guide camera. Johns Hopkins built the FUSE instrument in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency, which provided the camera. Johns Hopkins has primary responsibility for the FUSE mission.
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| ITEM (6): FUSE SPECTRA - The FUSE spectrograph is at least 100 times more powerful than previous instruments, helping it reveal a large number of new atomic and molecular features in interstellar gas that could only be guessed at before.
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| ITEM (7): FUSE B-ROLL - FUSE is assembled in a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
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| ITEM (8): FUSE LAUNCH - FUSE was launched aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket, and lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida on June 24, 1999.
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| ITEM (9): INTERVIEW EXCERPTS WITH DR. GEORGE SONNEBORN, FUSE PROJECT SCIENTIST, NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER
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