A Year of New Perspectives
Explanation:
Fittingly, 1999 saw a decade of astronomical
discoveries
to an end with portents of things to come - embodied in
new spacecraft, telescopes, and perspectives to explore the
distant Universe across the electromagnetic spectrum.
X-ray astronomy in particular will likely flourish in coming years,
judging from this year's successful launch of the
triple-barrelled
X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite and
spectacular first results from the orbiting
Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Ground-based astronomy will flourished too as
very large telescopes and
new instruments have come
online or near completion.
Radio astronomers also achieved an observational
milestone this year with the
record breaking VLBI observations
from a network of radio telescopes
as large as planet Earth.
But the APOD editors' favorite astronomical screensaver
of 1999 has leveraged
the phenomenonal growth of the internet and the
personal computer boom to support the Search
for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence in
the SETI@home project -
which has now likely involved more computer power than any
other project in history.
News:
APOD Home Switched During Y2K Transition
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
