Word: quasars
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Horrid quasar Near...
...that poses a dilemma for physicists. If quasars are really so far away, yet bright enough to be detected through ordinary optical and radio telescopes, they must be radiating more energy than 50 to 100 galaxies, each of which contains hundreds of billions of stars. Yet careful measurements by radio telescopes indicate that a quasar is much smaller than a galaxy and perhaps no bigger than a solar system. The problem: no physical process yet known to scientists can generate such incredible energy in so tiny a volume...
J.P.L. scientists are trying a different technique: they tune in to the signals from the same quasar with two different antennas located many miles apart. Because of their separation, one antenna will pick up the signal slightly ahead of the other. The time difference is infinitesimally small-perhaps only a ten-billionth of a second. Yet it can be measured with the help of atomic clocks and computers. Once the difference in the signal's arrival time is known, the distance between the two antennas as well as their elevation can be calculated with an accuracy of an inch...
...giving it a North American manufacturing base far larger than that of Sony, which became the first Japanese TV company to manufacture in the U.S. by building a plant in 1972 in San Diego. Further, the buy-out nullifies a deal that Motorola had made to market large-screen Quasar color TVs in Japan through a Sony subsidiary (TIME, Sept. 10). Luxury color-TV sets have begun to show signs of catching on with the Japanese consumer, and the benefits of Motorola's technological expertise in making them will now go to Matsushita rather than Sony...
Similar price raises on Quasar sets made in the U.S. will be unnecessary, whatever happens to the yen. Motorola Chairman Robert W. Galvin says that Matsushita will be able to put more money, effort and energy into the TV business than Motorola could have, and adds: "It will be able to turn our people on as a new coach does...