Hi,

Here is a correction to the December 2, 2005 Gravity Probe B report:

#-----------------------------------------------

=================================================
AMENDMENT TO GRAVITY PROBE B MISSION UPDATE FOR 2 DECEMBER 2005
=================================================

STANFORD REPORT NEWS STORY & VIDEO ON GP-B NASA TEAM AWARD
==============================================
This week, Stanford Report, the print and Web publications of the Stanford University News Service, published a brief story, along with a nicely done Web Video about the special Group Achievement Award that was presented to the GP-B team by NASA last Wednesday--and which was the subject of our Mission News Story last Friday. Following are links to the Stanford Report story and video:

Story: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/december7/gpb-120705.html

Video: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/december7/videos/79.html


CLARIFICATION TO LAST WEEK'S MISSION DIRECTOR'S SUMMARY
============================================
Because GP-B is perceived as the paragon of precision, it is always a bit embarrassing when I make incorrect or inaccurate statements in our GP-B updates--which was the case in my description last Friday of what our GP-B telescope experts have been investigating in recent weeks.

While our GP-B spacecraft has many extraordinary capabilities, it is not following in the footsteps of the NASA COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) and WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) missions to measure dark energy and cosmic background radiation. I have been reading Brian Greene's book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and the terms "dark energy" and "cosmic background" seem to be emblazoned in my mind (along with Muzak holiday tunes playing in all the stores these days). The correct terms describing our telescope team's investigation are "dark current" and "stellar background." Following is a more accurate version of the paragraph I wrote last week:

Over the past month, our telescope experts have been monitoring data from the telescope detectors, observing their performance as the telescope views the stellar background in the vicinity of our guide star, IM Pegasi. In part, the telescope team is looking for the presence of "dark current," a signal produced by the detectors due to due to infrared and ultraviolet light from the faint stars surrounding IM Pegasi. To this end, they have been periodically cycling the shutter on the spacecraft's sunshade open and closed to observe the difference between current generated by the detectors with no light entering the telescope (shutter closed) and stellar background light entering the telescope (shutter open).

Many thanks to those who brought this to my attention, along with the typo in Bill Fairbank's last name.

=======================================
NEXT SCHEDULED GP-B UPDATE ON DECEMBER 30, 2005
=======================================
Our final regularly scheduled update of 2005 will be at the end of this month. Of course, we will send out a timely update if there are any important changes in the spacecraft's status, or if noteworthy events occur here at GP-B in the meantime.

===================
PREVIOUS GP-B UPDATES
===================
If you wish to read any of our previous updates, our GP-B Web site includes a chronological archive of all the updates/highlights (with photos and drawings) that we have posted over the past 8 years: http://einstein.stanford.edu/highlights/hlindexmain.html

==========================
ABOUT THE GPB-UPDATE EMAIL LIST
==========================
The email distribution list for this GP-B Weekly Highlights update is maintained on the Stanford University email lists server.

To subscribe to this list, send an email message to "majordomo@lists.Stanford.edu" with the command "subscribe gpb-update" in the body of the message (not in the Subject line).

You can unsubscribe at any time by sending an email message to "majordomo@lists.Stanford.edu" with the command, "unsubscribe gpb-update" in the body of the message (not in the Subject line.)

--

**********************************
NASA - Stanford - Lockheed Martin
Gravity Probe B Program
"Testing Einstein's Universe"
http://einstein.stanford.edu

Bob Kahn
Public Affairs Coordinator

Phone: 650-723-2540
Fax: 650-723-3494
Email: kahn@relgyro.stanford.edu
**********************************

#-----------------------------------------------------

Regards,

LelandJ