Word: solarity
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Battered and pitted from its encounter with the rings of Saturn, the Pioneer 11 spacecraft headed into deep space last week, its mission accomplished. In its sweep past Saturn, it had provided the best look yet at the solar system's second largest planet, discovered what is probably an eleventh Saturnian moon and two more rings. It also confirmed the existence of another ring and a magnetic field, and dimmed hopes that Titan, Saturn's largest moon, might harbor some form of life...
...guillotine," says Physicist James Van Allen of the University of Iowa. The radiation had apparently been blocked by the icy particles in the rings. Says Van Allen, discoverer of the earth's own radiation belts: "As far as we know, this is the best shielded place in the solar system...
...early last week Pioneer scientists announced that interference from solar storms, occurring just as Pioneer was transmitting Titan temperature readings, had obliterated the data. Two days later, NASA explained that signals from a Soviet earth satellite, not solar storms, had. caused the interference (NASA took the blame, explaining that it had failed to notify the Soviets, who would have cooperated by silencing their satellite's radio at the crucial time...
Finally, the Pioneer scientists shamefacedly confessed that they had found in their recordings some Titan temperature data that were partially garbled - not because of satellite signals but because of interference from solar storms and communications problems between a tracking antenna in Spam and the Ames control center. Still, enough information was retrieved to confirm that the temperature at Titan's cloud tops was a frigid -200° C (-328° F). That seemed to rule out surface temperatures warm enough to allow the formation of amino acids, the building blocks of life. But scientists were withholding final judgment until...
...systems, sustained by a tiny nuclear power source, were still operating; but other than to record an occasional micrometeorite hit, there was little for Pioneer to do. Yet the little spaceship is destined for even greater adventures. Some time in 1993, Pioneer will pass beyond Pluto, leave the solar system and head for the stars...