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CUDDLING UP IN A QUILT OF GAMMA-RAY STARS

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington, DC                  July 19, 2000
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

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

RELEASE:  00-110

CUDDLING UP IN A QUILT OF GAMMA-RAY STARS 

     The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory is gone, but its memory 
lives on -- in a quilt museum located in a rural Virginia town. A 
retired couple in Elkwood, VA took two gamma-ray images their son 
received from NASA, back in 1993, and turned them into 
spectacular coverlets. 

     One image, of the Crab and Geminga pulsars, is on display 
through September 18 at the Virginia Quilt Museum in 
Harrisonburg. The second, of a gamma-ray quasar called 3C 279, 
will have its first public viewing during a symposium on the 
Compton mission July 19 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, 
Greenbelt, Md. 

     "I can't say I know much about quilt-making, but these are 
fabulous reproductions of the original Compton images, right down 
to the smallest detail, or data point," said Dr. Neil Gehrels, a 
Goddard astrophysicist and project scientist for the mission. "We 
could use them as view graphs at meetings if the electricity 
should ever fail." 

     The cosmic quilt makers are Rose and Albert Costanzo, a 
retired couple who manage a Christmas tree farm. In their ten 
years of quilting, they have never made an astronomy-themed 
quilt. Nor do they consider themselves amateur astronomers. Mrs. 
Costanzo was simply struck by the gamma-ray images that her son 
showed her, captured by the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment 
Telescope (EGRET), one of Compton's four instruments. 

     Mrs. Costanzo wrote to Goddard in June after hearing about 
the controlled re-entry of the Compton observatory over the 
Pacific Ocean. "I saw in the paper that their satellite was 
deliberately crashed in the ocean," said Mrs. Costanzo. "I just 
wanted them to know that one of EGRET's many images can now be 
seen as a quilt hanging in a museum." 

     Quilts have long served as a medium for astronomical images. 
The Bayeaux Tapestry, an embroidery measuring more than 230 feet 
long and 20 inches wide, depicts the appearance of Halley's Comet 
in 1064, which William the Conqueror saw as a sign from God that 
he and not Harold of England was the rightful heir of the English 
throne. 

     Seven years ago, the Costanzos' son, Daniel, now a volunteer 
coordinator for the Albert Einstein Planetarium at the National 
Air and Space Museum, thought that new Compton images he had seen 
would lend themselves to a quilt design.

     Daniel Costanzo contacted Dr. Dave Thompson, a Goddard 
astrophysicist who works closely with EGRET data. Dr. Thompson 
quickly sent the family two photographs of EGRET, not knowing how 
they would be used.

     Mrs. Costanzo's letter to Dr. Thompson contained a 
photograph of the Crab and Geminga quilt. The EGRET team members 
at Goddard were so impressed that they asked the Costanzos to 
join them at the Compton symposium and to bring the second quilt. 
The Goddard Visitors Center may also display both quilts.  

     With the success of the Compton quilts, the Costanzos plan 
to attempt yet another celestial image, perhaps from the Chandra 
X-ray Observatory. Chandra has already captured hundreds of 
dramatic images of supernovae and flaring stars. 

     Rose Costanzo is a former school teacher and one of the 
first women to graduate from St. Bonaventure University. Albert 
Costanzo, a veteran of three wars, is a retired Army colonel and 
was a West Point classmate of Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. 

     The Compton Observatory, launched in 1991, re-entered the 
earth's atmosphere during a controlled reentry on June 4, 2000. 
GLAST, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope scheduled for a 
2005 launch, will essentially cover the EGRET energy range with 
50 times the sensitivity. 

     For images of the quilts and the Costanzos, refer to:

    http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/spacesci/structure/cgro.htm

                             -end-


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