Word: halley
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Halley's comet began its swing around the far side of the sun in early January, it disappeared from view, not to be visible from earth again until after it emerged from the sun's glare in mid-February. Unfortunately for earthbound observers, it was during that unseen passage that Halley's put on its most dramatic display so far. As the comet neared its Feb. 9 perihelion, its closest approach to the sun (about 55 million miles), the searing solar rays caused increasing amounts of material to evaporate from its icy surface. Eventually the comet's enveloping gas cloud...
...fact, Halley's spectacular show did not go entirely unobserved. Last week scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in California proudly displayed computercolored ultraviolet images of Halley's hydrogen coma as it appeared between Feb. 2 and 5, and described the changes in the comet during its most active period...
...member of either group to fly in space. Ellison Onizuka was a mission specialist on last year's classified military flight of Discovery, but he was perhaps most appreciated among colleagues for his gentle, unassuming manner. Describing one of the tasks he was to perform on Challenger, to film Halley's comet with a hand-held camera, he remarked with typical understatement, "I'll be looking at Halley's comet. They tell me I'll have one of the best views around...
...icons of his past. Before his first space flight, he presented the Mission Control staff with coffee beans and macadamia nuts from Hawaii. For last week's flight, he persuaded the staff to let him affix a University of Colorado emblem on a satellite that was to track Halley's comet. Onizuka also brought along his college ring. "He wears it whenever he flies," said his wife. Several years ago he visited his family's ancestral gravesite in Japan. The elderly priest of the Buddhist temple where the remains of Onizuka's ancestors are kept remembered saying goodbye to Onizuka...
...mission specialist on last week's flight, Resnik was supposed to help take photographs of Halley's comet, among other tasks. She was also carrying a signet ring for a nephew and a heart-shaped locket for a niece. "I think something is only dangerous if you are not prepared for it," she once said of space travel, "or if you don't have control over it or if you can't think through how to get yourself out of a problem." For Resnik, danger was simply another unknown to be mastered...