Number 222, April 17, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein
A CIRCUMSTELLAR DUST RING has been observed by the Cosmic Background
Explorer (COBE) satellite during its survey of the sky. Computer simulations
of the motion of asteroidal dust particles moving toward the sun had shown
that the presence of the Earth helps to trap some of the particles in a
circumsolar ring in which the Earth is embedded; the disposition of dust
would be denser beyond the Earth's orbit than inside of it. Previously,
the "zodiacal light" (reflected sunlight) from the dust had been
seen by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), but COBE's observations
are fuller and more unequivocal. (W.T. Reach et al., Nature, 6 April 1995.)
INTERGALACTIC MAGNETIC FIELDS are probably very weak but may well influence
galaxy formation. These fields might be primordial or might arise from
magnetized plasma expelled by galaxies. R. Plaga of the Max Planck Institute
in Munich, Germany suggests that the fields between the galaxies can be
detected through their influence on gamma ray bursts reaching the Earth.
According to Plaga, fields as weak as 10**-24 gauss would delay the arrival
of some gamma-ray photons by a measurable amount. He believes that it might
be possible to extract such information from gamma-burst data of the type
recorded by the Gamma Ray Observatory. (Nature, 30 March 1995.)
THE 1996 FEDERAL R&D BUDGET REQUEST amounts to $72.8 billion, 52%
of which is for the Defense Department, 9.5% for the Energy Department,
and 12.5% for NASA. Within DOE the request (in millions of dollars) for
high energy physics is $685.6 (up 6.8% from FY95), for nuclear physics
$321.1 (down 3.1%), and $366 (down 0.6%) for fusion research. The high
energy request includes operating budgets of $146.4 for Fermilab, $80.8
for SLAC, and $45.5 for Brookhaven. Construction projections of note are
the Fermilab main injector ($62.4) and the SLAC B factory ($57.6). The
largest nuclear physics construction project is the Brookhaven Relativistic
Heavy Ion Collider, at $71.3. The DOE request for basic energy science
is $811.4, up 10.6% from FY95. This includes $169.6 for materials science,
$178.7 for facilities operations, $118.3 for chemical sciences, and $108.7
for applied mathematical sciences. A separate category, major user facilities
(mostly synchrotron sources at Oak Ridge, Argonne, Brookhaven, and LBL)
will cost $240. At the NSF, the request for physics research is $142.2
(up 9.1%), while for materials research it is $190.9 (up 8.9%). The request
for geoscience is $451.5 and for astronomy $110.4. The NASA request for
physics and astronomy is $1131, including $237.6 for development of the
Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility, $182.7 for Hubble Space Telescope
operations and servicing, and $93.2 for small explorer missions. The NASA
planetary exploration request is $827.8, including $191.5 for Cassini development,
$108.5 for the Mars Surveyor, and $75.1 for Galileo operations. The budget
for the Mission to Planet Earth is $1341.1. (Physics Today, April 1995;
Physics World, March 1995.)
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