Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                  June 11, 2002
(Phone:  202/358-1547) 

Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354/0880)

Robert Sanders
University of California, Berkeley
(Phone: 510/643-6998)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N02-43

SPACE SCIENCE UPDATE: MAJOR EXTRASOLAR DISCOVERY 
ANNOUNCEMENT EXPECTED JUNE 13

     The planet-hunting team of Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler 
will announce their latest discovery beyond our Solar System 
at a Space Science Update at NASA Headquarters in Washington 
at 1 p.m. EDT, June 13. Their discovery represents a 
significant and much-anticipated advance in this relatively 
new field of finding so-called extrasolar planets.

Panelists will be:
*  Dr. Geoffrey Marcy, University of California, Berkeley 
*  Dr. R. Paul Butler, Carnegie Institution of Washington in 
Washington, D.C., Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
*  Dr. Alycia Weinberger, staff research astronomer at the 
Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Terrestrial 
Magnetism
*  Dr. David Spergel, Professor in the Department of 
Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, N.J.
*  Dr. Anne Kinney, the director of the Astronomy and Physics 
Division in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters 
in Washington, is panel moderator

The Update will originate from the James E. Webb Auditorium 
at NASA Headquarters located at 300 E St., S.W. in 
Washington. 

Because NASA Television will be supporting a spacewalk from 
the International Space Station at the time of the news 
event, the Space Science Update will be broadcast on Telstar-
5, Transponder-19, 97 degrees West Longitude, vertical 
polarization, downlink frequency 12053 MHz, audio 6.2 & 6.8 
MHz. There will be two-way question-and-answer capability for 
reporters covering the update from participating NASA 
centers.
                           -end-