2002 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
| |
Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| VAST SPACE BETWEEN STARS TO BE STUDIED BY NEW SATELITTE (CHIPS)
| G02-088A | 12/10/02 | 00:010:39 | In our galaxy alone, there are several hundred billion stars. Nearby stars are easy to see, although most of the stars in the Milky Way are so distant that their combined light appears as a fuzzy band stretching across the sky on a clear night. Equally easy to see is the space between the stars -- but how often do you wonder about this space? Most of us have an idea that these vast spaces are empty, a perfect vacuum. In fact these space are filled with a very thin gas and microscopic grains of dust. The material between the stars is known as the Interstellar Medium, or ISM, and contains important clues about the formation and evolution of galaxies. The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite will give scientists invaluable information on the origin, physical processes and properties of the hot gas in the nearby interstellar medium. CHIPS is scheduled to launch as a secondary payload to ICESAT aboard a Delta II rocket on December 19.
|
TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): CHIPS Beauty Passes (three versions)
- The CHIPS satellite will examine the "empty" space between stars called the interstellar medium. This empty space is filled with gas and dust. CHIPS is the first mission to use end-to-end satellite operations via the Internet.
Courtesy: NASA
|
| ITEM (2): Processing B-Roll of CHIPS at Vandenberg AFB, CA
Courtesy: Air Force Space Command
|
| ITEM (3): Stars of Wonder
- These images of supernovae were taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Our solar system is located in an unusual region of space called the Local Bubble. This area is called the Local Bubble because the ISM in this area is much less dense than the ISM surrounding it. The gas is also extremely hot - about one million degrees, or almost 200 times as hot as the surface of the sun! Scientists believe that this bubble may have been created by a star that exploded. These huge explosions - called supernovae - happen when very large stars run out of energy and die. Supernovae send huge amounts of stuff out into space in all directions - this stuff becomes part of the ISM. Many billions of years later, this stuff can clump together, cool off, and become a new star - and the cycle starts all over again. The CHIPS mission is going to study the ISM in the Local Bubble, in the hopes that it will tell us something about how stars form in our Universe.
Courtesy: NASA
|
ITEM (4): Interstellar Medium (ISM) Images - These images of the Interstellar Medium were taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and are used to demonstrate the type of science that CHIPS will study .
a) Horsehead Nebula - The dark area in the center of the image is a thick cloud of interstellar dust blocking the light. Thinner clouds of interstellar dust may dim the light passing through, without completely blocking it.
b) Sher 25, NGC 3603 - The upper left center of the image is the evolved blue supergiant called Sher 25. Near the center is a starburst cluster dominated by young, hot stars. Dark clouds at the upper right are so-called Bok globules, which are probably in an earlier stage of star formation. The gold colored clouds are ionized hydrogen gas in the ISM.
c) NGC 1999 Nebula in the Constellation Orion - Light from nearby stars can be reflected from interstellar dust, similar to the way light from a car's headlights can reflect off fog. This Hubble image shows a reflection nebula - a cloud of interstellar gas and dust illuminated by and reflected light from the star it surrounds.
d) Stellar Nursery in Spiral Galaxy M33 - The hydrogen gas in the ISM can form relatively cool clouds that emit light in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum. -These cool clouds of hydrogen can collapse - it is here, in these dense collapsed clouds known as stellar nurseries, that new stars are born.
Courtesy: NASA
|
| ITEM (5): Interview Excerpts With Dr. Mark Hurwitz, CHIPS Principal Investigator, University of California at Berkeley
Courtesy: NASA
|
Space Science Gallery