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News briefs: August 14
Posted: Thu, Aug 15, 2002, 9:33 AM ET (1333 GMT)
- An armchair astronomer has discovered a comet in images taken by the SOHO spacecraft, the 500th comet spotted by the solar observing spacecraft. Rainer Kracht, a German amateur astronomer and astronomy teacher, found the comet, C/2002 P3 (SOHO), in a SOHO image on August 12. While SOHO is designed to primarily study the Sun, the spacecraft's cameras also observe comets as the pass very close to the Sun. Kracht alone has found 63 comets by looking at SOHO data posted on the Internet.
- The National Space Society and Space Adventures announced an agreement to promote space tourism for members of the space advocacy organization. Under the agreement NSS members will receive discounts on some of Space Adventures' programs, including zero-gravity aircraft flights and supersonic jet flights. Space Adventures will, in turn, provide free one-year NSS memberships to some of its customers.
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