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The NASA'S Cosmos Project
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| Central Objectives: The excitement and scientific content of NASAís Space Science Missions will be shared with the public. Notable books will be written, and public accessibility and exposure enhanced in an enjoyable NASAíS COSMOS Web Site, located at http://ase.tufts.edu/cosmos/. Previous Accomplishments: Previous Applied Information Systems Research (AISR) Program funding has resulted in the publication of two books, entitled The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun (2001) and The Cambridge Guide to the Solar System (2003), and the completion of the Solar System phase of the NASAís COSMOS Web Site, which now has more than a million hits per year. Other accomplishments include a Discovery Channel show, The Savage Sun, presentations to the National Academy of Sciences and United Nations Workshops, and contributions to the Elsevier, Phillips and Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedias. Proposed Methods/Techniques: The proposed work will update and extend previous work by incorporating new NASA discoveries in the Solar System, and including NASA results for the entire Cosmos outside the Solar System. A new book, entitled Parting the Cosmic Veil, will be written, and new Navigation Tabs for the NASAíS COSMOS Web Site will be prepared, within categories entitled Discovering the Unknown, Brave New Worlds, Motion, Content and Form, Pervasive Violence, Cosmic Evolution, Illusory Emptiness, and Origins and Destinies. Each thematic concept will include an Overview of key concepts, a Tutorial with text and images, Images that present hundreds of visually appealing space shots and line drawings, and Resources with access to all of the relevant Space Science Mission Home Pages. This new material will include topics of immense public interest, such as black holes, cosmic evolution, the expanding Universe, dark energy, dark matter, gamma-ray bursts, planets around other stars, pulsars, quasars, and the three-degree cosmic microwave background. Significance of Proposed Work to ROSS-2003 and NASA interests and programs: This comprehensive and innovative program of education and public outreach describes accomplished and anticipated scientific results of the Office of Space Science (OSS) in all its 2003 science themes and strategic goals, and many of its 2003 research focus areas. The proposed work will bring scientific credibility, historical authority, human interest, and visual excitement to these elements of the OSS program, sharing all this information with a broad cross section of the American public that funded them. |
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