Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                  April 29, 1996 (Phone:  202/358-1547)

Jim Sahli
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (Phone:  301/286-0697)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N96-28

NEW FINDINGS ON THE NOT-SO-"QUIET" SUN SUBJECT OF MAY 2 UPDATE 
       Initial findings from the recently launched Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), as well as 
dramatic new images and movies, will be presented at a Space Science Update (SSU) scheduled for 1 p.m. 
EDT Thursday, May 2.  The SSU will originate from the NASA Headquarters Auditorium, 300 E St., SW, 
Washington, DC, and will be carried live on NASA TV with two-way question-and-answer capability for 
reporters covering the event from participating NASA centers. 
       Astronomers will report new information on strange "plume" structures in the atmosphere of the Sun, 
shown in new high-resolution ultraviolet movies from SOHO which reveal the source of long, feathery 
plumes that extend to high altitudes from regions near the poles of the Sun.  To investigators' surprise, 
SOHO instruments show that there are continuous disturbances on the Sun although it is in a supposedly 
"quiet" period near the minimum of the 11-year sunspot cycle.

       Participants in the Space Science Update will be:
        Dr. Joseph Gurman, Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), MD.         Dr. Craig E. DeForest, Stanford 
University, Stanford, CA.
        Dr. Andrea K. Dupree, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Boston
        Dr. P.Brendan Byrne, Armagh Observatory, N. Ireland
        Dr. Stephen P. Maran, GSFC, will be the panel moderator. 
     Audio of the broadcast will be available on voice circuit from the Kennedy Space Center at 407/867-
1260. 
                             - end - 
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