Keck Observatory

From its unique vantage point in space, the Galileo probe Wednesday relayed the first direct evidence from the dark side of Jupiter showing a shattered comet streaking into the planet's atmosphere, even as the most devastating salvo of comet debris yet began to pummel the planet. While astronomers around the world gaped at the catastrophe unfolding in the heavens, the scientific fallout on Earth was just beginning.

A tiny wafer of silicon is pulling the Mt. Laguna Observatory east of San Diego from the backwaters of astronomy into a revolutionary new approach to unlocking the heaven's secrets. Called a charge-coupled device, or CCD, the electronic wonder is a sophisticated version of the imaging chip used in those low-light home video cameras. But, for San Diego State University astronomers, working with the CCD has been like getting Mt.

Scientists announced Monday the discovery of what may be a rocky, Earth-like planet orbiting a star 15 light-years away -- a milestone in the search for a world outside our solar system that could sustain life. The new planet, dubbed a "super-Earth" by the team that found it, is about seven times as massive as Earth and about twice the diameter. It orbits the star Gliese 876 in the constellation Aquarius.

Perhaps the woman should have known better, but she had traveled to great heights before--in Colorado and the Sierras, in Peru and Nepal. She wanted to see the star-gazing gear on the summit of Mauna Kea, the bold volcanic mountain that rises 13,796 feet above the sea on the Big Island of Hawaii. Perhaps the woman should have stayed at the 9,200-foot level, in the Visitors Center named for astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka, who was born on the Big Island and died in the 1986 Challenger disaster.

HILO, Hawaii - About 11,000 feet up Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, a plaintive-looking young couple stood by the side of the road, their thumbs thrust out. Tied around the woman's waist was a yellow sweater as bright as the plumage on a canary that contrasted with the black lava landscape. She and her companion were impossible to miss. Yet I didn't stop. On Hawaii, hitchhiking might be common, but getting the car started again would have been a feat, not unlike the couple's efforts to reach the 13,796-feet summit on foot.

Retired Air Force Gen. Lew Allen Jr., who during his multifaceted career headed the National Security Agency, was Air Force chief of staff and shepherded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory through a crucial period when budgets were at an all-time low and new space missions didn't seem imminent, has died. He was 84. Allen died Monday in Potomac Falls, Va., his family announced. No cause was given. Allen led the laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge during a period that saw the launches of the Galileo mission to Jupiter, Magellan to Venus, the Voyager 2 flybys of Uranus and Neptune and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite to Earth orbit.

The evening was full of emotional moments last week at the Bob Chandler Foundation fund-raiser at the Ritz-Carlton, Huntington. The late football hero's daughter, Marisa, a freshman at Harvard University, flew in to sing "Memories." That brought tears to Chandler's wife, Marilyn, and his parents, Gene and Barbara Chandler of Whittier. Chandler was 45 when he died a year ago, consumed by cancer in less than four months.

Already the Golden Thimble Committee of the Auxiliary of the Hospital of the Good Samaritan has $70,000 in patron money. That's a record, says chairwoman Kate Regan, who lunched with Deborah Booth, co-chairwoman, and Catherine Krell at the California Club last week, before the March 1 preview of their needlework show for exhibitors and patrons. This will be the 10th biannual event. More than 500 needlework entries are expected.

For the tiny cadre of scientists probing the cosmos for signs of alien life, the most difficult question isn't always, "Are we alone?" Sometimes it's simply, "What do you do?" from a fellow airline passenger. Jill Tarter generally doesn't like to answer that question when she first meets someone. She's director of the Center for SETI Research, as in Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

A consortium of California universities will unveil details today of a super-high-speed, $15-million computer network that will carry data more than 100 times faster than today's Internet. The California Research and Education Network, or CalREN-2, will primarily serve academic institutions throughout the state that have been squeezed off the Internet as it has gained popularity among commercial users. The Corp.