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Lab invites open house visitors to see "The Universe @ Marshall"

May 15, 1998: A peek at the sun's roiling surface and at the super insulation of the future are in store for visitors to the Space Sciences Laboratory Saturday, May 16th, during the open house at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

SSL, as it is called, is one of the largest science laboratories in NASA and conducts research ranging from the behavior of atoms in proteins to the hijinks of black holes in deep space. Scientists and engineers at the laboratory will be on hand to share with visitors the excitement of exploring the universe - whether it's stars and galaxies or atoms and molecules. Stops on the tour are:

• Welcome by Dr. Greg Wilson, SSL director, and Dr. John Horack,
• Black holes, pulsars, and gamma-ray bursts,
• Astronomy from Antarctica in search of cosmic rays,
• 3D animation and graphics in the computer lab,
• X-ray astronomy,
• Holograms and lasers,
• Aerogel, the superinsulation of the 21st century,
• Space plasmas and the Earth's aurora,
• Global hydrology, lightning, and severe weather,
• Solar flares, sunspots, and solar storms, and
• Biotechnology and materials made in "zero-g."

In addition, visitors are invited to stop at the Solar Vector Magnetograph (top, right), a special telescope developed by SSL for studying magnetic fields on the sun.

Finally, to remember their visit, guests can take 11x17 posters (like those below) that depict different aspects of SSL's research.

The lab is open during the same hours as the rest of NASA/Marshall's open house, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, May 16, 1998. For more details, including how to get here (the route is marked once you are on center), check the MSFC open house home page.

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