this is a story about catching rays the
kind that Loras here and the kind that
show doctor's unseen parts of the human
body but this is not a story about
getting a better tan or making better
medicine instead this is a story about
NASA and astronomers about the Space
Shuttle Space Lab and a sensitive
Observatory that may show us our
universe in a whole new light for 10
days in May a Spacelab mission called
Astro wand will focus its ultraviolet
and x-ray telescopes on places far
beyond our reach it's sensitive
instruments will catch the Rays
ultraviolet and x-ray messages that is
from these distant places these
messengers invisible to the human eye
will bring new information about
exploding stars that forge the elements
used to make new stars planets and even
life itself about tiny stars where a
sugar cube of matter weighs as much as a
billion tons about mysterious objects
that shine with the brilliance of 10
trillion of our own Suns and about
so-called black holes in the very fabric
of space that are so gravitationally
strong that neither matter nor light can
escape from them Astro one will show us
a violent ever-changing universe
unlike the peaceful serene heavens we
see with the naked eye or from
ground-based optical telescopes but why
does this astronomy have to be done in
space we look at the light from stars
and galaxies from the ground we really
don't see all of it most of most stars
and galaxies emit a lot of light that
doesn't reach the ground that's because
our atmosphere acts like a protective
blanket shielding us from all of the
message carrying ultraviolet in x-rays
well almost all of them anyway
but in space this radiation is a rich
barely tapped resource of information
about the universe Astro one will open
our eyes to the knowledge hidden in the
invisible universe this is the first
opportunity we've ever had to place an
observatory like this into outer space
manned by astronaut astronomers
will afford us an opportunity to take a
view of the universe such as we have
never seen it before we'll be able to
look at celestial objects with
ultraviolent telescopes and an x-ray
telescope and this is going to tell us a
whole lot about the composition of our
universe the history of the universe and
the future the universe Astro one is a
team effort astronomers in space will
operate the telescopes they will work
with astronomers on the ground in a
brand-new Space Lab control center at
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville Alabama other astronomers
will participate from a facility at the
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt
Maryland together they are in search of
knowledge trying to prove the expected
always anticipating the unexpected
surprises come in fact that's the fun
thing about science and I think that's
the thing that drives most of us
involved with Astro we think we
understand what these objects are and
what radiation they're going to admit
when we go and measure them in the ultra
product or X radiation but we know that
they're going to be unanticipated
discoveries people once stood on the
beach and look to the horizon at what
they believed was a flat world then
explorers took to the vast unknown
returning information that forever
changed human thought perhaps we are
standing on a similar Coast line
awaiting discoveries that could lead us
to a whole new understanding of our
universe
thanks to Astro one and other Spacelab
missions to follow we may soon find out