Corning Mirror To Serve as Powerful Eye on the Universe.

CORNING, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 17, 1999--

Subaru Telescope Dedicated Today on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

What is the history of our galaxy? How was life created in the universe? These are the kinds of questions scientists hope to answer with the help of the Subaru Telescope and its one-of-a-kind piece of Corning glass. What gives Subaru such incredible vision is an 8.3 meter (27-foot) mirror made by Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW). The largest monolithic mirror in the world, it can capture and focus starlight with extraordinary accuracy, and will serve as a powerful tool to penetrate the farthest reaches of the universe and expand the frontiers of astronomy.

The Subaru Telescope, sponsored by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), is being dedicated today atop the 14,000-foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. Corning Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Roger G. Ackerman will participate in the ceremonies.

Subaru will be in full operation in 2000, but has already taken images never seen before. For example, in June it was able to clearly capture separate images of Pluto and its satellite, Charon. Until then, ground-based images had shown them blurred together. The Subaru telescope's mirror produces superb images and provides more information because of its light-gathering ability. In fact, it can gather 10 times more light than the Hubble Telescope.

The 26-ton mirror blank, made of ULE(TM) glass, an ultra low expansion titanium silicate, was created at Corning's Canton, N.Y, plant by fusing together hexagonal pieces of the advanced material in a high-temperature furnace. The manufacturing process required constructing an addition to the plant that was 55-feet tall, with a doorway that is 45-feet high and 35-feet wide. Corning also had to arrange for the construction of three major, specially designed machines: a turntable used as a base for both firing and grinding the blank, a crane and fixtures to lift it, and a device for flipping the disk.

Corning has a long history in manufacturing telescope mirror blanks. In 1937 it created the mirror blank for the then-largest telescope in the continental U.S., the 5-meter (200-inch) reflector for the Hale telescope on Mt. Palomar in Southern California. It also manufactured the mirror of the Hubble, space-based telescope; and the 8.1-meter mirrors for Gemini North, near the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii, and Gemini South, currently under construction on Cerro Pachon in Northern Chile.

Established in 1851, Corning Incorporated creates leading-edge technologies for the fastest-growing markets of the world's economy. Corning manufactures optical fiber, cable and photonic products for the telecommunications industry; and high-performance displays and components for television and other communications-related industries. The company also uses advanced materials to manufacture products for scientific, semiconductor and environmental markets. Corning's revenues in 1998 were $3.5 billion. More information on the company is available at www.corning.com.

Editor's Note: Additional information on the Subaru Telescope is available at www.subaru.naoj.org