News Release

HUT detects a portion of the ultraviolet spectrum that cannot be seen by other space instruments. Scientists will use HUT to pursue a wide range of objectives, from fundamental questions of cosmology to detailed studies of our own galactic neighborhood. HUT's highest calling will be its search for the primordial intergalactic medium that theories predict was formed after the Big Bang of cosmic creation.

Endeavour will orbit Earth for up to 16 days, nearly twice as long as the nine-day Astro-1 mission, launched Dec. 2, 1990. HUT has been improved significantly for Astro-2, and it should be about three times more sensitive than the Astro-1 version. Those improvements, combined with refinements to other equipment and the mission's increased duration, should enable HUT scientists to gather up to 10 times more data than they did on the first Astro mission.

More than two dozen faculty, staff and students are involved in the HUT project, which is headed by astrophysicist Arthur F. Davidsen, a professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Physics and Astronomy. Many of these people will be at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., during the mission to support operations. Sam Durrance, a principal research scientist at Hopkins, will fly aboard the shuttle for the second time as a payload specialist.

If you are on the Internet, you can get information about HUT and Astro-2 on-line, through the HUT World-Wide Web page. To access this page through Mosaic, use the URL. (The address is http://praxis.pha.jhu.edu/hut.html).

Information is available about the HUT instrument, the science team, science results from Astro-1 and plans for Astro-2. Many of the write-ups are available on both a popular and a technical level. Also, links through the HUT home page can be used to get you to NASA pages, and in particular to the NASA/MSFC "Mission Operations Laboratory" page, which will be providing real-time updates and information during the Astro-2 mission.

Another source of information will be a recorded "HUTline" message that we will try to update daily. The phone number is (410) 516-6899.

Also available on this server are fact sheets on the various aspects of HUT, past and present, as well as a brochure outlining the HUT project, a glossary of astronomical terms and an article written by Dr. Davidsen describing the planned search for the primordial intergalactic medium. Journalists needing further information should contact Emil Venere at the Hopkins Office of News and Information (contact information available at the top of this file).

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