AIP FYI #133: Space Science Initiative Would Address Fundamental Physics Questions

Beginning with the 2004 fiscal year, NASA has planned a new space
science initiative to explore some fundamental questions about the
nature of the universe that arise from Einstein’s theory of
relativity. An October 15 Capitol Hill briefing by the American
Astronomical Society (AAS) and the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy (AURA) highlighted this initiative, entitled
“Beyond Einstein.”

The Beyond Einstein initiative would utilize a series of space
science missions of varying sizes to address three questions: What
powered the Big Bang? What happens to space, time, and matter at
the edge of a black hole? What is the mysterious dark energy
pulling the Universe apart? According to NASA background materials,
“Einstein’s legacy is incomplete; his theory fails to explain the
underlying physics of the very phenomena his work predicted….
Beyond Einstein will employ a series of missions linked by powerful
new technologies and common science goals to answer these
questions.” Stated Edward Kolb of Fermilab at the briefing, “we
believe we are now in a position to answer these questions.”

NASA’s plan proposes two new “great observatories”: Constellation-X,
which would use X-rays to explore what happens to matter at the edge
of a black hole; and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA),
which would use gravitational waves to probe the changes in space
and time around black holes. Both missions were endorsed in the
astronomy and astrophysics community’s most recent decadal survey,
“Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium.”

The initiative would also include a series of three moderate-sized
“Einstein Probes” which would, according to NASA, determine the
properties of dark energy; “detect the imprints left by quantum
effects and gravitational waves at the beginning of the Big Bang;”
and “take a census of black holes in the local Universe.” In
addition to the space science missions, the initiative would support
technology development and research in preparation for future
missions to directly detect gravitational waves from the earliest
moments of the Big Bang, and to directly image and map the motion of
matter near the edge of a black hole.

According to an analysis by AAS, the budget request for the Beyond
Einstein program would be $765 million over five years, with $59
million requested for FY 2004. Neither the House nor the Senate
Appropriations Committee reports (H. Rept. 108-235 and S. Rept.
108-143) specifically mentions the Beyond Einstein initiative or
provides funding recommendations at that level of detail.

There is “a tremendous amount of excitement in the field right now,”
said Wendy Freedman of the Carnegie Institution at the October 15
briefing. “We can begin to address some of these questions left by
Einstein.” Kolb added that the initiative will provide research
opportunities “at an energy scale larger than we could afford to
build an accelerator to do.” It “leapfrogs what we can do on
Earth,” he said, by using “the universe as an accelerator.”

Audrey T. Leath

Media and Government Relations Division

The American Institute of Physics

fyi@aip.org www.aip.org/gov

(301) 209-3094