Don Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                       May 24, 1999
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Nancy Neal
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone:  301/286-0039)

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
(Phone:  410/338-4514)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N99-31

HUBBLE TEAM TO PRESENT ITS FINAL REPORT 
ON EXPANSION RATE OF THE UNIVERSE, MAY 25

     Having completed eight years of painstaking measurements, the 
Hubble Space Telescope Key Project Team tomorrow will announce its 
findings regarding how fast the universe is expanding. The rate of 
expansion, a value called the Hubble Constant, is essential to 
determining the age and size of the universe.

     The team will brief reporters as part of a Space Science 
Update at 11 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, May 25, in the James E. Webb 
Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, Washington, DC.  

       The team used several different techniques to derive the 
Hubble Constant, all of which gave a consistent answer.  
Underpinning all of these techniques was the team's use of Hubble 
Space Telescope to observe a specific type of star.  Those 
observations allowed the team members to dramatically improve 
their knowledge of the precise distances of relatively nearby 
galaxies.

        Panelists will be:

     *  Dr. Wendy Freedman, astronomer at the Carnegie 
Observatories in Pasadena, CA;
  
     *  Dr. Jeremy Mould, professor of astronomy at the Australian 
National University and director of its Research School of 
Astronomy and Astrophysics;

     *  Dr. Michael S. Turner, chairman of the department of 
astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago;

     *  Dr. Robert Kirshner, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard 
University, and Associate Director of the Harvard-Smithsonian 
Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA;

     *  Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA Associate Administrator for Space 
Science, panel moderator.

     The briefing will be carried live on NASA TV with two-way 
question-and-answer capability for reporters covering the event 
from participating NASA centers.  

       NASA Television is broadcast on the GE-2 satellite, 
Transponder 9C, at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical 
polarization, frequency 3880.0 Mhz, audio 6.8 MHz.  Audio of the 
broadcast will be available on voice circuit at the Kennedy Space 
Center on 407/867-1220, 1230 and 1240.

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