NASA plans for observing Comet Hale-Bopp (from the NASA Press release of 13 March 1997) Sounding Rocket Campaign The Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Wallops Island, VA, will conduct four sounding rocket launches starting March 24 through April 5. The missions will be launched for NASA by the U.S. Navy at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM. The payloads, launched on two-stage Black-Brant IX rockets, will observe the comet in the ultraviolet wavelengths of light for about five minutes before returning to Earth. The payloads will be recovered following a parachute descent at White Sands. Images of the sounding rocket activity at WSMR will be posted to the Internet at: http://www.wff.nasa.gov/~web/comet.html WFF and WSMR will host a media day at White Sands Missile Range from noon to 4 p.m. MST, March 24. Dr. Alan Hale, co- discoverer of the comet, will be at the site to speak to reporters. Media also are invited to cover the 8:15 p.m. MST launch. For clearance to visit White Sands, call the White Sands Public Affairs Office (PAO) at 505/678-1134. For more information on the sounding rocket campaign, call WFF PAO at 757/824-1579. Ulysses spacecraft The joint NASA/European Space Agency Ulysses spacecraft, now in solar orbit, will study what happens to comets as they are exposed to different solar wind conditions at various solar latitudes. Hale-Bopp is about to enter the Sun's lower latitude zone, where solar wind (a continuous outflow of charged particles streaming from the Sun in all directions at a million miles per hour) is disturbed compared with the equatorial regions. Dramatic changes in the comet's plasma tail are expected to occur at these lower celestial latitudes. A related observing program, called "Ulysses Comet Watch," a collaboration between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA, and the University of Colorado, will provide images from more than 200 amateur observers around the world. These images will be posted on the Ulysses Comet Watch home page on the Internet at http://lasp.colorado.edu/ucw/index.html. Observations will continue to be posted after the comet makes its closest approach to the Sun on April 1. Hubble Space Telescope NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has made a series of observations of the comet, particularly the nucleus, since September 1995. Hubble cannot observe Hale-Bopp during the next few months because the comet is too close to the Sun -- Hubble's sensitive detectors could be damaged if pointed in that direction. The last observation was made on Oct. 18, 1996, and the next possible opportunity will be this autumn. Dr. Harold Weaver will publish the results of his observations with Hubble in the March 28 issue of Science magazine. For more information, contact the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, MD, at 410/338-4514. Images already obtained by Hubble are available from the Internet at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/95/41.html Other NASA Comet Investigations NASA's Polar spacecraft will make observations of Hale-Bopp using ultraviolet and visible imaging instruments. For more information call the Goddard Space Flight Center, PAO, Greenbelt, MD, at 301/286-0697. Images obtained by Polar will be posted to the Internet site at: http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/spacesci/pictures/spacepic.htm. Scientists have been using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility, Mauna Kea, HI, to observe Hale-Bopp in the infrared region of the spectrum. Their observations will be made through Hale-Bopp's perihelion and continue until summer. For more information call NASA Headquarters at 202/358-1547. NASA also will fly a mid-deck experiment on the Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-85 mission in July. The experiment is the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, designed to complement the capabilities of the 5-10 minute sounding rocket flights by observing the comet more extensively during the Shuttle's 11-day mission. For more information call NASA Headquarters at 202/358-1547. In addition, NASA and the National Science Foundation are collaborating on ground-based observations and analyses of Hale- Bopp. For information, contact NASA Headquarters at 202/358-1547.