Shooting for the Stars : Astronomy: Professor’s space telescope project could offer clues on the birth of the universe. It is one of four finalists in a NASA scientific contest.

Imagine this:

You’re a 34-year-old jeans-and-sneaker-wearing astronomer, sipping a beer with a friend in Pasadena and kicking around ideas for a NASA contest in which the winner has his work launched into space.

You come up with the idea for this thing called the Wide-Field Infrared Explorer, a contraption called WIRE, which essentially is a space telescope that could provide scientists a glimpse of the birth of stars. .

That, more or less, is how Perry B. Hacking, an astronomer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, came up with the idea for his special telescope.

Eight months ago, Hacking submitted his idea to NASA’s Small Explorer Program, which sponsors small scientific projects that can be built within four years and can make a contribution to science. NASA has named him as one of four finalists out of 51 entries.

When he heard the news, Hacking said: “I was bouncing off the wall. It was like a dream coming true.”

Since then, Hacking has been working to refine the idea of WIRE, a requirement of the contest. NASA will take another look at the four proposals next August and narrow the field to two. Both are expected to be launched in 1997 or 1998.

Hacking is a reserved but friendly scientist whose sharp wit is seen in some of his writings.

For example, in an autobiographical sketch, he recalled his first encounter with “food.”

“Perry’s culinary tastes were expressed early,” he wrote. “While crawling on the loose one day, he discovered that other forms of life can be quite tasty. His first taste of escargot on the hoof amused his older brother and horrified his parents.”

With WIRE, he has come a long way since that Christmas night 20 years ago when he pointed his telescope skyward and spotted Saturn floating among the stars.

Hacking fell in love with the heavens. He studied star maps and the sky became a habit that prompted him to major in chemistry and physics at the University of Utah and then earn a doctorate in astronomy at Cornell University in 1987.

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Until the WIRE project, Hacking, who was born in Salt Lake City, said it had never occurred to him to build a space telescope--even though he spends much of his free time building amateur telescopes.

Here is a simple explanation of the purpose of WIRE for those not obsessed with the stars:

Stars are born in a dark, dusty cloud of gas that cannot be seen by human eyes. WIRE would be able to detect the infrared beams emitted from these nascent stars, providing astronomers information that may help them determine how and when the stars were formed--a clue toward unlocking the mystery of how the universe evolved. .

There are no other telescopes that can detect infrared light as well as WIRE is expected to, Hacking said.

The project is expected to cost $17 million, with NASA picking up the tab.

David Gilman, manager of the NASA Small Explorer Program, said the most compelling aspects of WIRE, which was the first project of its kind submitted to NASA, are its infrared-light detectors, its cooling system and the way Hacking and the team of eight scientists he leads would be able to study the stars so closely.

Hacking, whose deep blue eyes get wider and whose voice quickens with excitement when he speaks of WIRE, said he is not only thrilled about the possibility of building and launching the project, but also about discovering how the universe came into existence.

Still, Hacking doesn’t spend all of his time pondering such weighty matters.

He also is a professor at El Camino College in Torrance, where, he said, his devotion to his students matches his love of astronomy.

“I really love teaching,” said Hacking, who has been at the college since 1988. “If I were forced to choose between teaching and the WIRE project, I would not know which one to choose.”

Teaching, he added, has never been work for him.

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His classes include a course in which students build their own telescope--one of the few such classes in the nation, Hacking said.

In an astronomy lab class students go to the roof of a building and, with telescopes and star maps, they search for constellations.

Hacking often takes his students on field trips to places such as the White Mountains and Baja California, where students can stargaze under clearer skies.

Many of his students say Hacking hooked them on astronomy.

“He is probably the best teacher I ever had,” said Chris Bogard, a communications student. “He gets things across to you in a way that is very easy to understand and learn.”

Hacking often surprises his students when he talks to them about social issues such as the Rodney G. King beating.

“He blew my mind away the day after the riots when he was telling us about people loving each other regardless of one’s color,” said Terri Maioriello, who is majoring in geology. “I began to admire him at that moment.”

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But forced to choose between teaching or the telescope project, Hacking said he would pick the telescope--but only by logic.

“It is a onetime opportunity and I always could go back to teaching,” he said.

If WIRE is not one of the projects selected next year, Hacking said he probably would be disappointed.

Regardless, as student Gene Williams put it, probably nothing would dampen Hacking’s zest for astronomy.

“He has a boyish enthusiasm for astronomy,” Williams said. “Actually for everything in life.”