Bahrain joins Inmarsat

material is increasing (in December the gas production rate was more than five times higher than that observed in September). The outgassing in Comet Halley is higher than seen before in any other comet observed with IUE. If the present trend continues it could, at the time of perihelion, be even larger than IO’” moleculeslsec. This represents an extremely high rate in comparison with any comet ever observed before at similar distances from the Sun (90 million km). Apart from the general increase in outgassing the comet shows erratic behaviour which can be looked at as sudden bursts of activity. The comet has a significant dust cloud (dust coma) with it. The dust coma is rather compact (20 000 km; this is only one tenth of its gas coma). The dust coma appears quite dense. This could be of importance to the success of ESA’s Giotto mission which is coming very close to the cometary nucleus and would pass through this dust cloud to obtain pictures of the cometary nucleus. In addition to the faint gas tail which has developed, a small dust tail is indicated on the images taken with the IUE star tracker. Very important observations were also made of the passage of the comet in front of a bright star (occul~tion). The dimming of the starlight due to the presence of the cometary dust in front of the star will supply details about the near environment of the cometary nucleus at about 800 km from it.

214. BAHRAIN JOINS INMARSAT””

The State of Bahrain has become the 45th member country of Inmarsat, the International Maritime Satellite Organization. The Bahrain Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Mr. Sulman Abdul Wahab Al-Sabbagh, signed the Inmarsat Operating Agreement on behalf of the Ministry of Transport of Bahrain, in London this week, completing the formalities required for his country’s membership. Inmarsat is the international co-operative organization that operates a satellite system for the provision of satellite communications services to the world’s shipping and offshore industries. It is also planning to offer services for aircraft in the near future. There are currently more than 4000 vessels and other units equipped to operate with the Inmarsat satellites. Bahrain becomes the seventh country in the Gulf area to join Inmarsat. Others are: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“H’Inmarsat

News Release of 10 January 19Xb.

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