Analysis of data from SAO's Ultraviolet Coronal Spectrome- 

 ter that flew aboard the Spartan 201-2 satellite in September 

 1994, revealed the presence of a remarkably hot gas in the at- 

 mosphere above the Sun's south pole, a finding that offers 

 clues to the origin and nature of the solar wind. 



An SAO scientist was a member of the team that used the 

 Hubble Space Telescope to gather evidence showing the 

 clouds or hydrogen gas found between galaxies at distances of 

 billions of light-years from Earth are at least 1 million light- 

 years in diameter, or about 10 times larger than previously 

 thought, and may have unexpected sheet-like structure. 



Hubble Space Telescope observations by SAO astronomers 

 of faint stars deep inside a globular cluster provided strong ev- 

 idence for the existence of cataclysmic variables, violently 

 interacting double-star systems that may hold clues to the evo- 

 lution of the clusters, which contain some of the oldest stars 

 in the Universe. 



A large international team of radio astronomers, including 

 SAO scientists, used the high-resolution capability of Very 

 Long Baseline Interferometry to obtain the closest — and earli- 

 est — view of the expanding shell of gas and dust of a recently 

 exploded supernova, which maintained remarkably precise cir- 

 cular symmetry. 



The analysis of VLBI measurements of the time delay in 

 the arrival of radio signals from distant quasars passing near 

 the Sun made by a team led by SAO scientists produced the 

 most accurate measurement yet for the deflection of radiation 

 by gravity predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity. 



SAO scientists participated in radio observations of the 

 Earth-crossing asteroid Toutatis that revealed the object has a 

 highly irregular shape and a complex "tumbling" rotation, 

 making it one of the strangest objects in the Solar System. 



Instrumentation 



An instrument designed to monitor ozone levels in the Earth's 

 atmosphere was launched from French Guiana April 20 

 aboard ESA's second European Remote Sensing Satellite 

 (ERS-2). The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment, or 

 GOME, was developed at SAO in cooperation with European 

 scientists and is designed to generate a complete world ozone 

 map every three days. 



Ground was broken June 8 for an array of submillimeter- 

 wave radio telescopes near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. 



An SAO submillimeter telescope (AST/RO) was installed 

 at the South Pole in January to study giant molecular clouds 

 in the Milky Way. 



Modifications of the existing MMT building were begun in 

 July in a major step toward the conversion of that six-mirror tele- 

 scope into a single-mirror instrument 6.5 meters in diameter. 



Preparations for the launch in 1998 of the Advanced X-Ray 

 Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) continued apace at SAO. The 

 telescope's unusual cylindrical mirrors were completed for 

 coating, with surfaces far exceeding the minimum require- 

 ments; and the High Resolution Camera being constructed at 

 SAO passed its Critical Design Review. 



Environmental testing of the SAO-designed Ultraviolet 

 Coronagraph Spectrometer, one of the major instruments 

 aboard the international Solar and Heliospheric Observatory 

 (SOHO), was completed in July and the instrument was 

 shipped to the Kennedy Space Flight Center in preparation 

 for launch. 



As the US Data Center for the Spectrum-X-Gamma (SXG) 

 mission, an international collaborative space x-ray observatory 

 led by the High Energy Division of the Institute for Space Re- 

 search in Moscow, SAO will collect and archive data from the 

 mission and make the information available worldwide 

 through the Internet. Computers allowing Russian scientists 

 easy accessibility to the data were shipped from SAO to the In- 

 stitute June 26, in time for a meeting between U.S. Vice Presi- 

 dent Al Gore and Russian Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin. 

 The SXG mission will conduct multiple experiments in a 

 broad wavelength range — from ultraviolet through x rays to 

 gamma rays. 



The Fourth International Conference on Space Tether Sys- 

 tems was held at the Institution in April with the joint spon- 

 sorship of SAO, NASA, and the Italian Space Agency. 



Public Education and Outreach 



In autumn 1994, thousands of teachers across the country par- 

 ticipated in a nationally broadcast series of interactive videos 

 produced by the Science Education Department and designed 

 to demonstrate how student misconceptions interfere with the 

 learning of science and mathematics. 



In spring 1995, SAO published "Space for Women," a 20- 

 page booklet designed to encourage young women to pursue 

 careers in asrronomy. 



The Whipple Observatory's Visitor Center in Arizona offic- 

 ially opened on January 6. The Center features exhibits on as- 

 tronomy, natural science, cultural (and Smithsonian) history, 

 and the environment. 



For the second year, the SAO Summer Intern Program 

 brought a dozen college undergraduates to Cambridge to 

 work with SAO scientists on a variety of research projects. 



Smithsonian Environmental 

 Research Center 



David L. Correll. Director 



The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) 

 maintained its research and education programs with a focus 

 on the interactions of plants and animals with their environ- 

 ment. Construction of a new office and education buildings 

 was initiated. A design package was completed for the fourth 

 phase of the Charles Mathias Laboratory Building. A new 

 boat launching ramp and small buildings for storing boat ac- 

 cessories and dispensing boat fuel were completed. 



4-' 



