VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special Englishprogram, EXPLORATIONS. Today we will tell about the spacecraft MarsOdyssey. We will tell about a storm on Mars. And we will tell aboutthe discovery of what may be a very early galaxy.
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VOICE ONE:
The American space agency has received the first picture of Marstaken by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. NASA officials received thepicture last week. It showed the areas of carbon dioxide ice at thesouthern end of the planet.
NASA official Ed Weiler says that after Odyssey gets into itsfinal orbit it will be much closer to Mars than when the firstpicture was taken. That picture was taken from about twenty-twothousand kilometers above the south pole of the planet.
VOICE TWO:
The Mars Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered into an orbitaround the planet Mars last month. It left Earth six months ago onApril Seventh. It flew four-hundred-sixty million kilometers toreach orbit around Mars. NASA officials said it reached its plannedorbit with no problems.
Odyssey received radio signals Tuesday, October twenty-third tofire its engines to reduce speed. That action permitted it to becaptured by the gravity of Mars.
The gravity caused the spacecraft to enter an orbit that isshaped like an egg. Mars Odyssey orbits the red planet everyeighteen and one-half hours.
VOICE ONE:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration AdministratorDaniel Goldin said all Americans should be extremely proud of theMars Odyssey. He said hundreds of things had to be done exactlyright for the Odyssey to reach an orbit around Mars. NASA tried twotimes in Nineteen-Ninety to put another spacecraft in orbit aroundMars. Both attempts failed.
For the next three months NASA officials will radio orders to theMars Odyssey to move it closer to the surface of the planet. Theywill use the atmosphere to slow the spacecraft and reduce itsdistance from the surface.
NASA officials will direct the spacecraft to circle the planetevery two hours, about four-hundred kilometers above the surface.
VOICE TWO:
Beginning in February, Odyssey will start a two and one-half yearscience project. The Odyssey spacecraft has several important tasks.
Odyssey does not carry instruments that can search for life onMars. Yet, it can search for information that will help researchersunderstand if the environment of Mars can support life now, or if itever could have supported life.
Evidence of water is extremely important for deciding if lifecould exist on Mars. Mars is too cold to permit liquid water toremain on the surface. However researchers say water on Mars may betrapped under the surface. It may be ice, or possibly a liquid.Instruments on Odyssey will let scientists measure any amount ofpermanent ice and how it changes with the seasons.
Odyssey’s instruments will also let NASA scientists search Marsfor chemical elements. These elements include carbon, silicon, andiron. Other instruments will help scientists understand how theMartian land developed over time.
VOICE ONE:
Learning what chemical elements are present on Mars will increaseunderstanding of the history of the geology and weather of theplanet. Researchers say this information will also help in findingevidence of past or present life on Mars.
Odyssey will seek evidence of radiation on Mars. It will look forpossible areas that may be dangerous to future astronaut crews. Thisinformation will help NASA know how to plan for a visit to Mars byhuman explorers.
The Odyssey spacecraft also will support other explorationflights to Mars. The spacecraft will act as a communications linkbetween the surface of Mars and Earth. Odyssey will serve as acommunications link between the two NASA Explorations Roverspacecraft that will land and explore Mars. The two Rovers are to belaunched a year and one-half from now. An important job for theTwo-Thousand-One Mars Odyssey is to search for safe landing areasfor future Mars flights.
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VOICE TWO:
The Mars Global Surveyor satellite and the Hubble Space Telescopehave provided scientists with close looks at a huge dust storm onMars. The storm covered the planet. Scientists say it continued forabout three months.
James Bell is a scientist who works with the space telescope forCornell University in Ithaca, New York. He says astronomers had anexciting chance to view an unusual event.
VOICE ONE:
Astronomers say the storm on Mars was much bigger than anythingever seen on Earth. They are studying the effects of the dust storm.One is a sharp increase in the temperature of the Martian atmosphere. This is caused by small pieces of dust that rise high into theair. The sunlight warms the dust, which in turn warms theatmosphere.
Both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Mars Surveyor saw thebeginning of the storm toward the end of June. One picture taken bythe space telescope shows all of the storm’s activity for one dayfrom sunrise to sunset.
Scientists used the Global Surveyor’s camera to take pictures ofthe complete planet every day. This permitted them to see where hugeamounts of dust had been raised and to see where the dust moved toon the surface of Mars. This series of pictures also permitted themto see how a storm begins and grows as it moves across the planet.
VOICE TWO:
Mike Malin of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego,California is the lead investigator for the Mars Global Surveyor.The Surveyor has been providing information and pictures of Marssince it began orbiting the planet in Nineteen-Ninety-Eight. It hasprovided a day-to-day record of climate changes on Mars.
Mister Malin says the two spacecraft have helped scientists learnthat the event was not just one continuing dust storm. Instead, itwas a planet-wide series of events that began in an area called theHellas basin.
Mister Malin says that what began as a local event caused otherstorms to begin and spread many thousands of kilometers away. Hesaid that in less than one week three separate storms were takingplace in three main areas of Mars.
The storms began to ease after three months. The dust cloudspermitted the surface of Mars to cool. This caused the fierce windsto lessen and the dust to settle back to the surface.
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VOICE ONE:
Scientists have observed light from a very small group of distantstars. They suspect the light may have come from a star system as itwas forming. They say the light was released during the firstfive-hundred-million years after the creation of the universe.
American and European scientists reported the discovery in thepublication, Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Richard Ellis of the California Institute of Technology led thestudy. He says the distant object could be an example of the starsand hot gas needed to make modern galaxies.
Galaxies are the largest gatherings of stars in the universe. Ina galaxy, thousands of millions of stars are held together by theforce of their gravity.
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The scientists made their discovery by examining small areas ofsky through a larger group of galaxies. The galaxies are believed tobe about two-thousand-million light years from Earth. A light yearis the distance light travels in one year.
The scientists say the galaxies helped the distant light appearbrighter than it is. To study the light, they used a process calledgravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing is an idea developed bythe physicist Albert Einstein.
Einstein said a massive object interferes with the normalmovement of light through space. A large mass will turn the lightfrom an object behind it. As a result, something behind the galaxiescan appear much brighter because the mass in the galaxies directsadditional photons toward Earth.
The scientists observed the distant object with the KeckTelescopes in Hawaii. They compared what they saw with two imagesmade by the Hubble Space Telescope.
VOICE ONE:
The effect of gravitational lensing made the light at leastthirty times brighter than if the galaxies were not present. Withoutthe increase, neither the Keck Telescopes nor the Hubble SpaceTelescope would have observed the light.
The scientists then used a spectroscope to measure the energyreleased. The instrument confirmed the light came from a smallgalaxy that is extremely distant and in the process of formation.
The scientists found that the system has about one-million starswhich are about thirteen-thousand-million light years from Earth.They hope studying it will help them understand the small groups ofstars that later helped form present-day galaxies.
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It wasproduced by Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Mick Shaw. This isShirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week at this time foranother EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.