Forwarded from news://sci.astro, posted by Ron Baalke,

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington April 5, 2002
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
(Phone: 256/544-6535)

Megan Watkze
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
(Phone: 617/496-7998)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N02-23

CHANDRA UNCOVERS EVIDENCE FOR A NEW FORM OF MATTER: SPACE
SCIENCE UPDATE, APRIL 10

New observations from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory
provide a window to new forms of matter. This significant
discovery, which challenges some of the most fundamental
questions in physics, is the topic of a Space Science Update
scheduled for 9 a.m. EDT Wednesday, April 10, in the James E.
Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW in
Washington.

The Space Science Update panelists will be:
* Anne Kinney, director of the Astronomy and Physics
Division, Office of Space Science, NASA headquarters,
Washington
* Jeremy Drake, Astrophysicist, Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.
* Norman Glendenning, Senior Scientist Emeritus, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif.
* David Helfand, Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics,
Columbia University, New York
* Michael Turner, Professor and Chair of the Department of
Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago

The Space Science Update will be carried live on NASA
Television with two-way question-and-answer capability for
reporters covering the briefing from NASA centers. NASA TV is
broadcast on satellite GE-2, transponder 9C, at 85 degrees
West longitude, vertical polarization, frequency 3880 MHz,
audio of 6.8 MHz.

The briefing will also be webcast live on the Internet at:

http://www.nasa.gov

Thed,
I tried the first link which opened up my e-mail adn then told me that I was not associated with any news groups and later that the server could not be found...

I would like to see more info on it though. Prehaps you could post it...

What news reader are you using? In outlook Express I think the news server is configured in Tools/Accounts/Add News Account or some such. If you are using tin, Forte or another the procedure will be different. You may also have to goto Control Panel/internet Options and associate a news reader there.

If all else fails goto http://groups.google.com then follow the link for sci. and then Astro. Then look for Ron Baalke or Andrew Yee. Ron is a NASA employee who posts many press releases. He is also a NASA web master.

Hi thed, it's getting interesting, here's the link to the full discussion that you mention, Ned Wright seems to ring a bell too.


<A HREF="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&threadm=a8kpvi%242he%241%40nntp1.jpl.nasa.gov&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3DRon%2BBaalke%2Bnew%2Bform%2Bmatter%26 hl%3Den%26selm%3Da8kpvi%25242he%25241%2540nntp1.jp l.nasa.gov%26rnum%3D1" target=new><FONT COLOR=ff0098 size=+1> Chandra Uncovers Evidence For A New Form Of Matter: Space </FONT></A>

Ned Wright is El Numero Uno cosmologist. He wrote the definitive web guide to cosmology. Plug in his name into google and see what comes back. The other posters are no light weights either.

Might have 9 for my list if they can confirm Quark stars and quark matter.

There are now nine states (phases) of matter. Quark matter, Plasma, Gas, Liquid, Solid, Bose Einstein Condensate, BEC-Mott insulator, Degenerate Fermi gas, Degenerate Fermi sea.
Quark matter

<A HREF="http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0204159" target=new><FONT COLOR=ff0098 size=+1> Quark matter </FONT></A>

Strange Quark stars

Undifferentiated Quarks?

Now they are talking strange quark matter? because they domonate.


<A HREF="http://198.116.66.254:8080/ramgen/encoder/live.rm"><FONT COLOR=Lime size=+1> Chandra story via Nasa tv live now</FONT></A>

<img src="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/0211_xray.jpg" width=473 height=356 BORDER=0>

<img src="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/3c58_xray_pullout.jpg" width=473 height=356 BORDER=0>


<A HREF="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/index.html" target=new><FONT COLOR=ff0098 size=+1> Chandra </FONT></A>


Chandra observations of RX J1856.5-3754 and the pulsar in 3C58 suggest that the matter in these collapsed stars is even denser than nuclear matter, the most dense matter found on Earth. This raises the possibility that these stars are composed of free quarks or crystals of sub-nuclear particles, rather than neutrons.

By combining Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope data, astronomers found that RX J1856 radiates like a solid body with a temperature of 700,000 degrees Celsius and has a diameter of about 7 miles.

This size is too small to reconcile with the standard models of neutron stars. One exciting possibility, predicted by some theories, is that the neutrons in the star have dissolved at very high density into a soup of "up," "down" and "strange" quarks to form a "strange quark star," which would explain the smaller radius.

Observations of 3C58, the remnant of a supernova noted on Earth in AD 1181, reveal that the pulsar in the core has a temperature much lower than expected. This suggests that an exotic, denser state of matter might exist inside this star as well.

These observations demonstrate that the universe can be used as a laboratory to explore physics under conditions that are not accessible on Earth.

<img src="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/0211_illustration.jpg" width=473 height=356 BORDER=0>

Neutron Star/Quark Star Interior
In a neutron star (left), the quarks that comprise the neutrons are confined inside the neutrons. In a quark star(right), the quarks are free, so they take up less space and the diameter of the star is smaller.
(Credit: Illustration: CXC/M. Weiss)

<img src="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/0211_diameter_ill.jpg" width=473 height=356 BORDER=0>

Size Comparison of RX J1856 to Neutron and Quark Stars This artist's rendition shows the diameter of RX J1856.5-3754, determined by data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, is too small to be a neutron star. The data are consistent with predicted size for a strange quark star, an object never before seen in nature. (Illustration: CXC/M. Weiss)

<img src="http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/0211/0211_optical.jpg" width=473 height=356 BORDER=0>

RX J1856 in Optical Light
This optical image of RX J1856.5-3754 portrays a crowded region of star formation. In comparison, the Chandra X-ray image shows that RX J1856 outshines all of the other sources in the field, indicating it is both extremely hot and very small.
(Credit: European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope

Evidence Found for New Form of Ultra-Dense Matter

Astronomers announced Wednesday the discovery of evidence for a new state of matter heavier than any previously known, equivalent in density to stuffing all of Earth into an auditorium.
The apparent discovery, made with NASA's orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory, provides support for a two-decade-old theory suggesting the existence of so-called "strange quark stars." The findings were discussed at a press conference at NASA headquarters in Washington D.C.
The research involved two stars expected to be neutron stars, remnants of exploded stars that are composed primarily of neutrons and would be very dense. One of the stars, however, was found to be much smaller than expected.

For the rest of the article:*here* ( http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/new_matter_020410.html/)

I've heard of Quark stars and really must do some reearch on them. Last I studied the standard model you could not have 'free quarks' so either some new theory is kicking about or these are free quark/gluon balls.

It might not be confirmed yet, we can only wait and see.

The case for RX J185635-3754 being a Strange quark star may have been proven wrong, I wonder if the pulsar in 3C58 will follow?


<A HREF="http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0204199" target=new><FONT COLOR=ff0098 size=+1> A Revised Parallax and its Implications for RX J185635-3754</FONT></A>

New astrometric analysis of four WFPC2 images of the isolated neutron star RX J185635-3754 show that its distance is 117 +/- 12 pc, nearly double the originally published distance. At the revised distance, the star's age is 5 x 10^5 years, its space velocity is about 185 km/s, and its radiation radius inferred from thermal emission is approximately 15 km, in the range of many equations of state both with and without exotic matter. These measurements remove observational support for an extremely soft equation of state. The star's birthplace is still likely to be in the Upper Sco association, but a connection with zeta Oph is now unlikely.