NEWS NOTES

Large-Scale Clustering
In the early part of this decade astronomers found conclusive evidence of
large-scale structure in the local universe (at redshifts less than z = 0.2,
which correspond to distances of about 3
billion light-years). Researchers suspected that the sheets, filaments, and walls of
galaxies they found could not have existed in the earlier universe (at higher redshifts) since cosmological models suggest
that such structures need a great deal of
time to form. However, a recent study of
galaxies with an average redshift of z =
0.5 hints that this may not be true.
Using the 10-meter Keck I Telescope,
Judith G. Cohen (Caltech) and her colleagues found the redshifts of 140 extragalactic objects that fall within the Hubble Deep Field and in adjacent regions.
Within that sample they detected six concentrations, all between z = 0.3 to z = 0.6.
It may still be too early to say what these
concentrations represent, since the sample was from such a small patch of sky.
Cohens team speculates in the Astrophysical Journal Letters for November 1,
1996, that it has found high-redshift
counterparts to local large-scale structures, and it has already widened its redshift survey to see if these distant groupings extend to neighboring fields.
As if that werent enough to confound
cosmological models, astronomers at the
University of Chicago have found evidence for superclusters of galaxies at
even higher redshifts. Jean M. Quashnock, Daniel E. Vanden Berk, and Donald G. York took advantage of a recently
compiled catalog of so-called heavy-

NUMBER OF GALAXIES

15

Distant-Galaxy
Clustering
10

0
0.2

0.4

0.7
0.5
0.6
REDSHIFT

0.8

0.9

A recent survey of galaxies within the

Hubble Deep Field reveals clustering at
certain redshifts. These groupings may
translate into large-scale structures similar
to those seen within a few billion lightyears of Earth. Adapted from the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

20

Sky & Telescope June 1997

The Large Magellanic Cloud Through Radio Eyes

Do these two images look familiar? If your answer is no, it might be because
human eyes werent designed to view radio waves (left) nor to filter out the red
glow of hydrogen-alpha emission (right). Youre looking at the Large Magellanic
Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and, at visible wavelengths, a
sight familiar to Southern Hemisphere observers. The radio image maps neutral
hydrogen gas, which traces the structure of the LMCs interstellar medium. Made
using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, it reveals large holes, called supergiant shells, that are telltale signs of violent explosions or tremendous stellar
winds. The map of the LMCs H-alpha emission, produced using a 16-inch telescope at Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, reveals sites of ongoing
star formation. The bright region toward the left side of the H-alpha image is 30
Doradus, the Tarantula Nebula. By comparing these images, a team of astronomers led by Sungeun Kim (Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories) is developing a broad picture of the LMCs structure and dynamics. Radio
and H-alpha images courtesy Sungeun Kim.
element quasi-stellar object absorbers.
In effect, this catalog records extended
objects that lie along the sight lines to
distant quasars, absorbing portions of
their spectra. Just what component of a
quasars spectrum is absorbed reveals the
scale and redshift of these systems. The
teams findings, reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters for December 1,
1996, suggest that large-scale clustering
exists out to redshifts as high as z = 3.
This implies that galaxies (or the gas
clouds from which they formed) were
grouped together within a billion years
of the Big Bang.

T Tauris Magnetic
Personality
Star formation, while ubiquitous, remains a mystery in many ways to astronomers. In part this is because the earliest stages of a stars development take
place within an obscuring cloud of dust
1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

and gas. In one still dimly understood

phase, magnetic fields are believed to
play a crucial role in a stars growth,
from facilitating the accretion of matter
to shaping jets and outflows. But the existence of magnetic fields in stars being
born has been difficult to establish conclusively.
However, an active, young object in
Taurus may have provided the first direct observational evidence of a developing star ejecting its magnetic field. In
1992 Tom Ray (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) and his colleagues observed T Tauri S (south), the visibly obscured component of a double (and
perhaps triple) star, at a wavelength of 6
centimeters using the MERLIN network
of radio telescopes. The astronomers discovered that the system had recently
ejected two blobs of fast-moving gas,
one from each side, and that energetic
electrons within the blobs were emitting
radio waves circularly polarized in opposite directions. As Ray and colleagues ex-

NEWS NOTES

In Brief
An international team of specialists has
found no evidence for a 50-meter-wide
impact crater in Honduras, despite reports to the contrary following a spectacular bolide last November 22nd (March
issue, page 12). According to Jiri Borovicka (Ond`rejov Observatory) and Mara
Cristina Pineda de Caras (National Autonomous University of Honduras), that
fireball had a peak apparent magnitude
of 19 to 21 roughly a thousand times
brighter than the full Moon! The event
probably resulted in sizable meteorites
near the Honduras-Guatemala border,
though none has been recovered yet.
The U.S. Naval Observatory plans to
add a leap second to the worlds clocks
on June 30th at 23 hours 59 minutes 59
seconds Coordinated Universal Time
(UTC). Since 1972, leap seconds have
been added to the worlds atomic clocks
when needed to account for the Earths
slowing rotation. According to USNO,
the last leap second was added in 1995.
Further evidence for intergalactic stars
has been winnowed from the Fornax
Galaxy Cluster with the help of the New
Technology Telescope in Chile. Tom
Theuns (University of Oxford) and Stephen J. Warren (Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London) have found what appear to be 10
planetary nebulae (the halos of dying,
low-mass stars) between the clusters
galaxies. In the January 21st Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
the researchers infer that as many as 40
percent of the clusters trillions of stars
lie between, rather than within, its galaxies. This parallels Hubble Space Telescope findings in the Virgo Cluster (May
issue, page 18).
Princeton Universitys Robert H.
Dicke died at age 80 on March 4th. A
multifaceted physicist who made fundamental contributions to the development of radio astronomy, Dicke was
perhaps best known for formulating alternatives to Einsteins general theory
of relativity.
22

Sky & Telescope June 1997

MISSION UPDATE

By Jonathan McDowell

Midcourse Space Experiment

The infrared telescope aboard the
Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX)
has made a detailed map of the galactic plane. Stars and nebulae crowd together so closely in this region that the
Infrared Astronomical Satellite was
unable to tell them apart during its
1983 all-sky survey. MSXs higher-resolution observations thus provide our
first comprehensive census of infrared
objects along the plane of the Milky
Way. In January, MSX scientists presented spectacular wide-angle views of
the galactic center (see the example at
right). Unfortunately the satellites infrared observations have now come to
a halt; the telescopes solid-hydrogen
coolant ran out on February 26th.
Mars Global Surveyor
NASAs Mars Global Surveyor is
now about halfway to its destination.
The spacecraft will enter Martian orbit
on September 12th, some two months
after the July 4th landing of Pathfinder,
also now en route to Mars. Surveyors
camera has passed several tests during
its interplanetary cruise, taking pictures
of the Pleiades and other targets.
Mir
The Russian space stations 12th
year in orbit got off to a shaky start in
February when an oxygen generator The MSX satellite made this 1-wide map
caught fire in the Kvant (Quantum) of the galactic center at infrared waveastrophysics module. Although the lengths between 6 and 20 microns. Emisblaze was extinguished quickly, the sions from stars, warm dust, and cool
cabin filled with smoke and the six dust have been colored blue, green, and
Russian, American, and German crew red, respectively. The brightest spot is
members had to don oxygen masks the nucleus of the Milky Way.
temporarily. Then, in March, other lifesupport equipment broke down and a robotic supply ship failed to dock with the
station. All these problems forced the crew to breathe oxygen from their reserve
supply as they awaited the arrival of another cargo ship in April.
Galileo
NASA has extended Galileos tour of the Jupiter system for another two
years. After its primary mission ends in December, Galileo will concentrate on
exploring icy Europa, with several close flybys planned.
Since last November, when the orbiter flew by Callisto, it has made almost
monthly passes near the giant planets moons. Galileo visited Europa for the first
time on December 19th, swung around Jupiter in January, then encountered Europa again in late February. Ganymede was due for successive visits in April and
May. After another flyby of Callisto in June, Galileo will head farther out to explore Jupiters magnetotail before returning to the inner satellite system in September. The extended mission will end in 1999 with a close pass of Io.
BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE ORGANIZATION

plain in Nature for January 30th, the most

likely cause for such diametric polarization is a strong magnetic field. Rays team
plans to monitor the T Tauri S outflow
as it expands away from the star, perhaps
getting the chance to observe other aspects of the star-formation process.

An astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, McDowell writes a

weekly electronic newsletter on the space program (http://hea-www.harvard.edu/QEDT/
jcm/space/jsr/jsr.html).

1997 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.