Dolores Beasley

Headquarters, Washington, DC April 25, 2001

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

Bill Steigerwald
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone: 301/286-5017

RELEASE: 01-85

"SUN-EARTH DAYS" DAWN APRIL 27

Just a week after Earth Day, space aficionados and

science teachers and students will turn their sights from
their own planet to their nearest star, as NASA sponsors the
first-ever Sun-Earth Days.

April 27 and April 28, thousands of participants at science

museums, schools and star parties in North America and Europe
will talk with scientists, turn solar telescopes toward the
Sun and explore the only star we can study up close.

Sun-Earth Days is a national celebration of the Sun, the

space around the Earth, and how both affect life on our
planet. Sun-Earth Days coincides with National Astronomy Day
2001 and with the fifth anniversaries of discoveries with the
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and Polar spacecraft.

The event is co-sponsored by NASA's Sun-Earth Connection

Education Forum and The Astronomical League, the worldwide
association of amateur astronomers that has been hosting
"Astronomy Day" events each spring for the past 28 years.

Most NASA Centers and NASA Educator Resource Centers have

planned an event for science teachers and students, or for
the public, in conjunction with Sun-Earth Days. More than
4,500 science teachers have been invited to 35 education
workshops related to the science of the Sun-Earth Connection.

From Barcelona to Boston, participants will have a solar

blast sharing stories, images and activities demonstrating
the central role the Sun plays in our lives.

The Discovery Science Channel, the new digital, science-only

network from the Discovery Channel, will support Sun-Earth
Days by airing two special documentaries, "Savage Sun" and
"The Sun," which will air April 28.

The Stanford SOLAR Center, Stanford, CA, will host a national

webcast with scientists, teachers and students, April 27.
Students who have been conducting experiments and studying
the Sun for the past months will share their results, ideas
and questions with scientists during the two-hour program,
available on the Web at:

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/events/stanford_solar/sunearthd
ay1.html

Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, Palo

Alto, CA, is sponsoring a "SolarWeek 2001" series of web
activities targeted at young women and girls interested in
science. Additional information is available on the Internet
at:

http://www.lmsal.com/YPOP/solarweek/

To learn more about Sun-Earth Days events in your community,

visit:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/SECEF_SunEarthDay/index.html

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