CONTACT INFORMATION and AFFILIATION

Impact Field Studies Group
ISFG Field Research Member-ASIA Since 2005
http://web.eps.utk.edu/~faculty/ifsg.htm

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IYA 2009 International Year of Astronomy





















Astronomers Without Borders
Regional Coordinator- Southeast Asia Since 2008

Japan Chapter: Japan Planetary Data- Japan Sky Watch
Astronomers Without Borders is dedicated to fostering understanding and goodwill across national and cultural boundaries by creating relationships through the universal appeal of astronomy. Astronomers Without Borders projects promote sharing. Sharing resources. Sharing knowledge. Sharing inspiration. All through a common interest in something basic and universal. Sharing the sky.
http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planetary Data Japan- Japan Sky Watch
For More Information Contact:
Dirk Ross @ drtanukiATgmail.com

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IMCA

International Meteorite Collectors Association

Member #5677

Since 2000

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Cross-Links:

Meteorobs · Amateur Meteor Astronomy

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/meteorobs/

Institut de Mecanique Celeste et de Calcul des Ephemerides-France

http://www.imcce.fr/imcce.php?lang=en (english version)

Polish Fireball Network

http://www.pkim.org/

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updated 29AUG09 7SEP09

2001 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Sugar compounds found in meteorites; bolsters theory that ingredients of life came from outer space
Author: ALEX DOMINGUEZ Associated Press Writer Date: December 19, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive Sugar compounds, an indispensable ingredient for life today, have been found in meteorites, bolstering the theory that chunks of rock from outer space delivered the materials that gave rise to life in Earth. Another key ingredient, amino acids, has already been found in meteorites. George Cooper of NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., said that while it has not been proved that meteorites delivered the materials that led to life, the discovery means... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Researchers says NASA's Mars researchers have failed to prove case for bacteria fossils in Martian meteorite
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: November 20, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive A group of researchers say NASA scientists have failed to prove their contention that a Mars meteorite contains evidence of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet. A group led by Peter R. Buseck of Arizona State University said that the NASA researchers have inadequate evidence showing that tiny crystalline structures in Mars meteorite ALH84001 were formed by bacteria billions of years ago as the rock was sitting on the Martian surface. A study with Buseck as the first author appears... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Asteroid photos show complex surface with dust 'ponds' likely formed after impacts, researchers say
Author: WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press Writer Date: September 26, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive Photos taken by the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid show a landscape littered with boulders, small rocks and other debris that appear to have partly eroded and settled into mysterious "ponds" of thick dust, researchers say. The photos taken by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft, called NEAR, add evidence to the theory that even the weak gravity of an asteroid can hold on to much of the flying debris created when struck by another object such as... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

Geologists scour Colorado countryside for remnants of meteor seen from Idaho to New Mexico
Author: JUDITH KOHLER Associated Press Writer Date: August 30, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive Geologist Jack Murphy is in hot pursuit of remnants of a fireball spotted in the Western skies. Murphy heads a team of meteor hunters at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science that is chasing reports of a white ball described as up to 40 times brighter than the moon. Data from an acoustic tracking system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico suggest the meteor weighed roughly a ton and plummeted toward earth at 11.25 miles a second on Aug. 17. ... Click here for complete article ($1.50)


Newly discovered Mars meteorite could be window into Red Planet
Author: ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS Associated Press Writer Date: June 16, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A fist-sized meteorite, one of only 18 rocks on Earth known to have come from Mars, has been found by Swiss scientists in the Oman desert -- a prize discovery that could help determine if the planet ever sustained life.
Scientists at the University of Bern announced the find Friday and said they are just beginning to examine the meteorite. Most of the other 17 Martian rocks have been snapped up by collectors, they said, so few are fully available for study. "I suspected from...
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Meteorites from moon, Mars found
Date: April 8, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Researchers have discovered two new examples of the rarest space rocks found on Earth: meteorites from the moon and Mars.
The two rocks are the 15th and 17th meteorites to be found from the moon and Mars, respectively, making them the least common among the estimated 22,000 meteorites discovered on this planet. News of the discoveries was announced this month and will be reported in the July 2001 bulletin of the Meteoritical Society, an international organization devoted to the study of...
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Meteorite disappoints scientists after a year-long study
Author: The Associated Press Date: April 6, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
To scientists' disappointment, a meteorite that fell on a frozen Canadian lake has been found to contain none of the organic ingredients believed necessary to have initiated life on Earth.
Many scientists believe that simple life arose on Earth more than 4 billion years ago after meteorites crashed through the atmosphere, carrying amino acids and other biochemical compounds from outer space. The fragments of a 220-ton meteorite that were sprinkled on Tagish Lake in British...
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Study: Crystal in meteorite proves life once existed on Mars
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: February 27, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A crystal found in a meteorite from Mars could only have been formed by a microbe and may be evidence of the oldest life form ever found, researchers say.
Scientists at the Johnson Space Center in Houston say that a crystalized magnetic mineral, called magnetite, found in a Martian meteorite is similar to crystals formed on Earth by bacteria. "I am convinced that this is supporting evidence for the presence of ancient life on Mars," said Kathie Thomas-Keprta, an...
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Researchers say crystal in meteorite proves life once existed on Mars
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: February 27, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A controversial finding that a meteorite from Mars might contain evidence of life has been boosted by the discovery of a magnetic crystal that researchers say could have been made only by a microbe.
In a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston say a crystalized magnetic mineral called magnetite, found in a Martian meteorite, is similar to crystals formed on Earth by bacteria. "I am...
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Astronomers find key ingredients for formation of life
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: February 20, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Complex carbon molecules and water, which are key ingredients for life, have been found in the dust and gas around distant stars. The findings boost the theory that the cosmic stew of life is common in the universe.
Astronomers reported Monday that orbiting observatories probing the space around both young and dying stars have found vast waves of water vapor and clear traces of carbon molecules that can play a basic role in organic chemistry. "This strengthens greatly the...
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Japanese team finds 3,554 meteorites in Antarctica
Date: January 23, 2001 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Japanese scientists have found 3,554 meteorites in Antarctica during a three-week search, a collection that could yield clues about the rest of our solar system, a government official said Tuesday.
The finds were made around the Yamato mountain range about 186 miles from Japan's base on the rim of Antarctica, said Shigeru Kure of Japan's science ministry. A meteorite is a meteor that survives the destructive effects of a flight through the atmosphere and falls to...
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2000 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Expert: Explosion in sky probably a meteorite
Date: December 27, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A small meteorite's fall to Earth was the likely cause of a sonic boom and streaks of light over southeastern Australia which sparked dozens of calls to police, an expert said Wednesday.
"It is most likely to be a meteorite," said Ian Warren, operations supervisor at the Deep Space Communications Complex in the national capital, Canberra. "The size of the meteorite would probably be about coffee cup size, that would cause a sonic boom and...
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Study: Carbon-rich meteorite may give new clues to origin of life
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer Date: October 12, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
In a search for new clues about the origin of life, researchers worldwide are analyzing bits of a bus-sized meteorite that blazed to Earth last January in a spectacular fireball, giving science the most pristine primordial matter ever recovered.
The meteorite, estimated to weigh about 220 tons when it smashed into the atmosphere, shattered before it hit the ground and sprayed bits of space rock over a frozen lake in Canada's British Columbia. More than 70 eyewitness saw the...
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It came from outer space: Rock that damaged car is a meteorite
Date: July 25, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
It was no ordinary rock that broke Rick Wirth's windshield four years ago. It came from outer space. And it's older than the Earth.
Wirth got confirmation that his rock is a meteorite from a geology professor Monday. In 35 years at the University of Minnesota, professor Paul Weiblen said he has seen thousands of rocks brought in by people who thought they had meteorites. All of them were mere Earth rocks.
But when last month he saw the rock that broke...
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Oregon tribes agree to share sacred meteorite with NYC museum
Author: LARRY McSHANE Associated Press Writer Date: June 22, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The heads of the Museum of Natural History and an American Indian group signed an agreement Thursday to share custody of a 10,000-year-old meteorite that's a centerpiece of the museum's new planetarium.
"What a milestone it is to have reached this agreement here," said Kathryn Harrison, chairwoman of Oregon's Grand Ronde Tribal Council, after the deal was finalized at a news conference at the museum. The 16-ton meteorite became...
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Scientist say age of meteorite crystals about 4.57 billion years
Date: June 9, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Salt deposited by ancient space water inside of a meteorite is about 4.57 billion years old and probably crystalized just 2 million years after the birth of the solar system, researchers say.
The salt, or halite, crystals were found within a meteorite called Zag that fell in Morocco in 1998. Similar halite crystals were reported last year inside of a meteorite that fell in Monahans, Texas. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Manchester...
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Museum: Tribe has no claim to meteorite
Date: February 29, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The American Museum of Natural History argues that Oregon Indians have no claim to a 15 1/2-ton meteorite that the museum has owned for 94 years and is the centerpiece of a showy new building.
The museum on Monday asked a federal court to reject a claim filed in September by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, which contends the meteorite is a sacred object and should be returned under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The iron...
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Museum says Oregon Indian tribe has no claim to meteorite
Date: February 28, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The American Museum of Natural History argued Monday that Oregon Indian tribes have no claim to a 15 1/2-ton meteorite that the museum has owned for 94 years.
The museum asked a federal court to reject a claim filed in September by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon, which contends the meteorite is a sacred object and should be returned under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The iron meteorite crashed into Earth some 10,000 years...
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Tribe demands meteorite at center of new planetarium
Author: JOHN JURGENSEN Associated Press Writer Date: February 19, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A group of American Indians says a 16-ton meteorite that will be the main attraction at the Museum of Natural History's new planetarium is a holy tribal object and should be returned to Oregon.
The meteorite -- about the size of a small car -- was ready for display at the opening of the planetarium's main hall today. The meteorite hit Earth more than 10,000 years ago and was moved by glacial ice to a hillside in West Linn, Ore. The Clackamas tribe adopted it as a...
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Astronomers find complex organic molecules in space
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: January 12, 2000 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A primordial soup of complex organic chemicals that could be the precursors of life is cooked up very quickly after the birth of stars, new research suggests.
"Life could have had an easier time starting than we thought before," astronomer Sun Kwok said Wednesday at a national meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Kwok, of the University of Calgary, Canada, said a study by the Infrared Space Observatory showed that large organic molecules evolve within...
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1998 Meteorite News AP-newswire

Asians look to sky for spectacular meteor storm
Author: DANIEL L. SMITH Associated Press Writer Date: November 18, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Stargazers across Asia huddled in the pre-dawn chill today, admiring the flares of red and white that streaked through the night sky during the greatest meteor shower in decades.
NASA sent up research planes from this U.S. Air Force base in southern Japan in an attempt to glean hints into the origins of life on Earth and the planet's relationship to the cosmos. From Thailand's highest peak to the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo, people in Asia -- where meteors...
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Scientists and stargazers watch spectacular meteor storm
Author: DANIEL L. SMITH Associated Press Writer Date: November 18, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Meteors streaked through the skies over Asia in blazes of red and white as the biggest meteor storm in decades reached its climax just before dawn Wednesday.
While stargazers gathered across the globe, NASA scientists boarded planes to get above the clouds over Japan to study the spectacle, which began Monday. From the top of the highest mountain in Thailand, to the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo, to the deserts and plains of the United States, people turned their eyes to the skies for...
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APN SUNDAY ILLUSTRATIONS: Subscribers get 1 photo, NY367 of Nov. 17.
Date: November 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
At age 95, chemist dazzled by uses of his decades-old discovery
By BEN DOBBIN Associated Press Writer
CORNING, N.Y. (AP) -- When he figured out a way to make exceptionally pure glass, chemist Frank Hyde knew his discovery would have myriad applications.
But who, back in 1934, could have foreseen spaceship windows, precision lenses to build ever-so-tiny computer chips, or the gossamer strands of optical fiber?
"I'm surprised at some of the...
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Scientists launch airborne mission to study Leonid meteor shower
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: November 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
From ancient Chinese emperors to crooner Perry Como, stargazers have dreamed of the day they could catch a "falling star."
Physicist Steve Butow isn't just dreaming. He is dispatching a pair of aircraft filled with scientific instruments to examine the Leonid meteor storm as it pelts Earth's atmosphere with fiery debris. The celestial fireworks are expected to peak Tuesday and Wednesday, as Earth passes through the long tail of Comet...
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Mir cosmonauts deploy 'meteorite trap' during spacewalk
Author: VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Writer
Date: November 11, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station deployed a device for studying small meteorite particles and handled more than a dozen other tasks during a six-hour spacewalk that ended early today.
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev installed the French-made "meteorite trap," which should collect data on a barrage of particles expected to peak around the Mir in mid-November, said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for mission control. The device will stay...
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Mir cosmonauts take spacewalk to install meteor device
Date: November 11, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station deployed a device for catching small meteorite particles, during a six-hour spacewalk that ended early Wednesday.
The French-made "meteorite trap" will collect data on a barrage of particles expected to peak around the Mir in mid-November, said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for mission control. The device will stay attached to the Mir until 1999, when it will be taken for analysis back to earth early next year.
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Mir cosmonauts prepare for spacewalk to install meteor device
Date: November 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Two Russian cosmonauts on the Mir space station are heading out into space to mount a French-made device for catching and studying small meteorite particles, a news report said today.
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev were to venture into open space late tonight to install the "meteorite trap," which should collect data on a barrage of particles expected to peak around the Mir in mid-November, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. The device will stay...
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Scientists launch airborne mission to study Leonid meteor shower
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: November 9, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
From ancient Chinese emperors to crooner Perry Como, stargazers have dreamed of the day they could catch a "falling star."
Physicist Steve Butow isn't just dreaming. He is dispatching a pair of aircraft filled with scientific instruments to examine the Leonid meteor storm as it pelts Earth's atmosphere with fiery debris. This close encounter is the chance of his lifetime. The celestial fireworks are expected to peak Tuesday and Wednesday,...
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Mir's crew prepares for micro-meteorite 'rain'
Date: November 3, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The crew of the Mir space station will not face any serious danger when their space outpost enters a cloud of micro-meteorites later this month, space officials said Tuesday.
Just to be safe, however, cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Avdeyev will board a Soyuz escape capsule permanently attached to the six-module station when the barrage of meteorites peaks in mid-November, said deputy Mission Control chief Viktor Blagov. The "meteorite rain"... Click here for complete article ($1.50)

More evidence found that end of dinosaurs came from the sky
Author: RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer
Date: October 29, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists have uncovered more evidence that death from the sky ended the reign of the dinosaurs on earth.
According to a report in Friday's edition of the journal Science, a meteorite or comet produced an element, chromium, found in the layer of the Earth's crust that dates to the dinosaurs' end. An impact by an object six to 12 miles in diameter in what is now the Gulf of Mexico has been the leading candidate among theories explaining why the great...
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Oldest extraterrestrial debris offers clues to early conditions on Earth
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: September 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
It's old dirt, but it's old dirt that scientists can't get enough of.
Cosmic grit that survived a fiery ride from space 1.4 billion years ago has been discovered in a layer of sandstone in Finland, offering a glimpse of conditions on Earth during the earliest stages of life's formation. The micrometeorites are by far the oldest extraterrestrial debris found on this planet, according to the German and Finnish field team, which published its...
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Oldest extraterrestrial debris offers clues to early conditions on Earth
Author: JOSEPH B. VERRENGIA AP Science Writer
Date: September 9, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Cosmic grit that survived a fiery ride from space 1.4 billion years ago has been discovered in a layer of sandstone in Finland, offering scientists a glimpse at conditions on Earth during the earliest stages of life's formation.
The micrometeorites are by far the oldest extraterrestrial debris found on this planet, according to the German and Finnish field team, which published its discovery in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. The particles are known as...
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Meteorite doesn't contain signs of life, researchers say
Author: KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer Date: August 14, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists were mistaken when they thought a potato-sized rock found in Antarctica held evidence suggesting life on Mars, according to three papers in a journal about meteors.
"Orson Welles made us want to believe it," said Derek Sears, editor of Meteoritics and Planetary Science at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. But it's unlikely Martians will ever be involved in anything like Welles' "War of the...
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Mars Meteorite doesn't contain signs of life, researchers say
Author: KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writer Date: August 14, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Scientists were mistaken when they thought a rock in Antarctica contained evidence suggesting life on Mars, according to three papers in a journal about meteors.
One article to be published today in Meteoritics and Planetary Science at the University of Arkansas says non-Martian rocks showed the same "evidence" of life. The other articles say temperatures were too high for tiny bacteria to form and leave organic evidence in the nooks and crannies of the 4.5...
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British scientists identify 13th meteorite from Mars
Date: August 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert was positively identified Monday as originating from Mars, British scientists said.
Out of 20,000 found worldwide, the 4.8-pound rock is only the 13th meteorite proven to be from the red planet. Meteorite experts hope this latest discovery, called Lucky 13, will tell scientists more about environmental conditions on Mars and aid in the search for evidence of life on the planet.
"This is another piece in the jigsaw...
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NASA sticks to theory as doubts increase
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: August 4, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The announcement stunned the world: Scientists had found evidence of life on Mars.
Inside a meteorite from Mars, NASA researchers said, they had discovered the fossilized remains of tiny, bacteria-like animals that may have once thrived on the Red Planet. The idea seized global attention and gave sudden popular legitimacy to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. President Clinton called for a space summit. Famed scientist Carl Sagan called it "a possible turning point in...
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New images show Jupiter moon with crater chain, hints of past ocean
Author: JANE E. ALLEN AP Science Writer
Date: July 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The latest photos released Wednesday of Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, suggest an early ocean beneath its surface from which water was shot through volcanoes.
The photos also show a crater chain created when the Jupiter moon was smacked by 13 comet fragments, which may have helped supply the essential ingredients for life. "We don't know and that's why we're out there looking," said James Head, a Brown...
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Jupiter's moon Ganymede has crater chain, hints of past ocean
Author: JANE E. ALLEN AP Science Writer
Date: July 15, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
New images show Jupiter's giant moon Ganymede has geologic hints of an early subsurface ocean and a chain of 13 craters that could have come from a broken-up comet.
But scientists still can't say whether life ever existed there. "We don't know and that's why we're out there looking," said James Head, a Brown University planetary scientist. "You have heat, liquid water, organic material coming...
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'Armageddon' has nothing on Manson's extraterrestrial claim to fame
Author: GREG SMITH Associated Press Writer
Date: July 4, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
As "Armageddon" hits the big screen, it isn't going to make a deep impact among folks here.
After all, they already have their own extraterrestrial claim to fame: a 24-mile wide crater formed some 74 million years ago when a huge meteorite slammed into north-central Iowa and turned the region into a giant killing field. Geologists say it's the second-largest crater in the continental United States and 15th-largest in the world....
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City council sides with boys in meteorite fight
Author: CHRIS NEWTON Associated Press Writer
Date: June 10, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The city council agrees: It's finders, keepers.
Seven boys who laid claim to a meteorite that crashed near where they played basketball won their fight Tuesday, when the Monahans City Council voted unanimously to let them keep the space rock. The mayor and city manager of this West Texas city had said the rock landed on city property on March 22 and thus belonged to them.
But council members said before their 4-0 vote that it would be heartless not to recognize the...
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Boy finds meteorite, but city officials say 'finders keepers' doesn't apply
Author: CHRIS NEWTON Associated Press Writer
Date: June 9, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Eleven-year-old Alvaro Lyles says a meteorite that landed in his front yard belongs to him and his family under one of the oldest rules in the book: "finders, keepers."
But city officials are holding on to the soccer ball-sized rock, saying it actually landed on government property. The city council is scheduled to take up the ownership issue at a meeting tonight. Alvaro's father has threatened to sue the city if the meteorite isn't...
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Scientists raise new questions about life in Mars rock
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: June 4, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
A chemical study casts fresh doubt on claims by NASA scientists that a rock from Mars contains evidence of life.
A California research team says a mineral structure inside the meteorite were made by nonbiologic processes, and not by ancient bacteria as proposed by some researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A space agency scientist says the research is flawed and does not prove that microbes never lived inside the rock known as Allen Hills 84001.
The...
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Odds and Ends
Author: The Associated Press Date: May 28, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
"Armageddon" came and went in less than five days. The banner, that is.
Traffic became nightmarish after a 10-story banner for the upcoming film was unveiled in sight of one of the busiest highway interchanges in California. The eye-catching ad, posted on a 15-story building, shows a flaming meteorite flying through the side of a glass office building.
The sign came down Wednesday because no one bothered to get a permit to put it up.
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More fireballs seen in the West; scientists differ on meaning
Author: MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press Writer
Date: February 12, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The phone lines to Denver's Museum of Natural History have been buzzing since a fireball streaked across the Colorado sky last month.
That flash of light, caught on a homeowner's security camera, was not an isolated incident; it was followed by at least four more fireball sightings, said Jack Murphy of the museum's geology department. He hopes to find pieces of the celestial objects for the museum's collection. As new reports of sightings...
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Cosmonauts pitch Space Pens, Russian spacesuits in American TV debut
Author: CHRIS OLERT Associated Press Writer
Date: February 7, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The pen was mightier than the word when late-night television crossed the final shopping frontier early Saturday.
Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station, appearing live on the QVC shopping channel, set out to hawk the American-made $32.75 Fisher Space Pen, used on NASA space flights since 1967 because it can write in the absence of gravity. As they orbited 200 miles above the Earth, a technical problem kept Commander Anatoly Solovyov and flight engineer Pavel Vinogradov...
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Shopping heaven -- cosmonauts to hawk Mars rocks, spacesuits on QVC
Author: RICHARD PYLE Associated Press Writer
Date: February 6, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Just when you thought late-night television couldn't get any weirder, Russian cosmonauts are taking over QVC.
Two cosmonauts will appear on the cable shopping channel live via satellite from the orbiting Mir station Saturday as ex-flight engineer Alexander Lazutkin offers comments from the stage of a New York comedy club. No joke -- the Russians are hawking spacesuits, meteorites and Mars rocks.
Just what they get out of the deal isn't clear. But QVC says...
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In TV shopping orbit: Russian space suits and Mars rocks
Author: RICHARD PYLE Associated Press Writer Date: February 5, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
The glitzy universe of late-night, cable-TV shopping is expanding to include outer space, joining forces with Russia's beleaguered space program to hawk Mars rocks, meteorites and genuine cosmonaut space suits.
QVC, the channel that sold Muhammad Ali's Michigan farm and nearly clinched a deal for the Brooklyn Bridge, has enlisted the help of real cosmonauts from the Mir space station on a program early Saturday. Two cosmonauts will appear live by satellite from...
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Studies say life traces in Mars rock probably came from Earth; NASA scientists disagree
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: January 16, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
NASA scientists who say they found evidence of Martian microbes in a rock that came from Mars are not impressed with two studies that say the rock actually contains organic contaminants from Earth.
In reports published today in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography conclude that amino acids and carbon found in the Mars rock got there after it landed on Earth and lay on Antarctic ice for thousands of years. The...
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Studies: Life traces in Mars rock probably came from Earth
Author: PAUL RECER AP Science Writer
Date: January 15, 1998 Publication: Associated Press Archive
Organic chemicals found in a Martian rock may be contamination from Earth and not evidence of life on the Red Planet, new studies suggest. But NASA scientists say the reports "don't shake our belief one bit."
Laboratory studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography conclude that amino acids and carbon found in a rock from Mars probably got there after the rock landed on Earth and lay on Antarctic ice for...
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