Shedding light on the ‘dark ages’ of the universe
By Clint Talbott
Jack Burns asks for the name of the most popular federal agency. A space scientist isn’t likely to be prodding you to answer “the IRS.” And he isn’t.
In public-opinion polls, Burns notes, the most popular federal entity is NASA. Always. Hands down.
Burns, a University of Colorado professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences who was recently elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, makes a convincing case for value of the space agency. It helps that he knows whereof he speaks.
Burns chairs the NASA Advisory Council’s Science Committee, leads a ground-breaking lunar project to explore the “dark ages” of the universe, and has been a “NASA geek” since the second grade.
While other federal agencies may be ignored or reviled, the space agency is different, Burns says. “NASA inspires people to our better nature.”
Government should be more than just building roads and providing for the common defense, Burns says. “There needs to be an element that looks beyond, to the future.”
The space agency is also important in research and development and in inspiring kids to learn. “If we can get kids interested in space at an early age, maybe we can keep them interested in some aspect of science.”
Kids tend to be interested in dinosaurs and space, he notes. “If we could ever get dinosaurs in space, we’d really have something.”
The search for new discoveries in the universe—which includes research on the development of the cosmos and the potential existence of life elsewhere—does more than inspire the next generation of students and open a pipeline of cutting-edge R&D.
It also reflects a fundamental human truth, he says.
“When we stop searching, we might as well be dead,” Burns says. “Everything we’ve built as a civilization is based on discovery.” And to those who say we can’t afford science or discovery, “I say we can’t afford not to.”
Especially when you consider the relative cost, he adds. NASA funding composes less than 1 percent of the federal budget.
Early this year, a team led by Burns won a $6.5 million grant from NASA’s Lunar Science Institute to explore the cosmos from the Moon. A second grant of $5 million went to a group led by CU Physics Professor Mihaly Horanyi, also a research associate for CU’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
Burns’ project will focus partly on the “dark ages” of the universe. Burns explains this as a gap in the cosmological record. About 13.7 billion years ago, the universe began with a very Big Bang. Some 400,000 years later, electrons and protons merged to form atoms, and that cleared the “cosmic fog,” permitting our first glimpse of the early Universe. Radio telescopes detect this as the “cosmic microwave background,” a faint signal from all directions.
About a half billion years later, the first stars and galaxies started to form. They emitted visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light seen by powerful instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to be launched in 2013. The problem is that there’s a half-billion-year gap between the cosmic microwave background and when we first see stars.
“What happened during that time period? We have no way of knowing that.”
Those half-billion years are called the “dark ages” because there is no visible light. There is hydrogen, which is emitting radiation in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. But the sources of these emissions are so far back in time, they are “redshifted,” meaning that their wavelengths are “shifted” toward the red, or longer, part of the spectrum.
This redshift results from the expansion of the Universe, stretching the fabric of spacetime, the distances between galaxies, and even the wavelength of light.
Redshifted microwaves from the “dark ages” can’t be seen with regular telescopes, or even with radio telescopes on Earth.
That part of the radio spectrum is too polluted on Earth, Burns notes. Garage-door openers, satellite transmissions from Digital TV, even the ionosphere (the uppermost part of the atmosphere) produce radio noise that completely overwhelms any weak signal from 13 billion years back.
One place that’s truly “radio quiet,” however, is the far side of the Moon, which always faces away from the Earth. Putting radio telescopes there, as Burns’ project would do, would allow scientists to detect these weak signals. “Scientifically, it’s very exciting, very fundamental.”
Burns notes that the project would also employ a unique technology: simple, elemental antennas embedded in a plastic membrane that will be unrolled by astronauts on the surface of the Moon.
There, the membrane would face temperature swings of 250 degrees Celsius, and it would be pummeled with ultraviolet radiation. This system is being tested on Earth at CU’s Center for Astrophysics & Space Astronomy, with the help of Burns’ undergraduate students and, in the future, with the help of astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld, who will service the Hubble Space Telescope from the Space Shuttle in May.
It’s a wonderful learning opportunity, Burns says. “It’s a neat science problem and a neat technology.”
Learn more about NASA’s Lunar Science Institute and Burns’ project, the Lunar University Node for Astrophysics Research (or LUNAR), at http://solo.colorado.edu/~hallman/lunar/Site%206/LUNAR.html.
An artist's rendering shows sheets of simple, elemental antennas embedded in a plastic membrane (shown in yellow) that will be unrolled by astronauts on the surface of the Moon as part of a CU-led research mission to probe the 'dark ages' of the universe. The 'dark ages' comprise the half-billion-year gap between the cosmic microwave background and when we first see the development of stars.
Jack Burns asks for the name of the most popular federal agency. A space scientist isn’t likely to be prodding you to answer “the IRS.” And he isn’t.
In public-opinion polls, Burns notes, the most popular federal entity is NASA. Always. Hands down.
Burns, a University of Colorado professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences who was recently elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, makes a convincing case for value of the space agency. It helps that he knows whereof he speaks.
Burns chairs the NASA Advisory Council’s Science Committee, leads a ground-breaking lunar project to explore the “dark ages” of the universe, and has been a “NASA geek” since the second grade.
While other federal agencies may be ignored or reviled, the space agency is different, Burns says. “NASA inspires people to our better nature.”
Government should be more than just building roads and providing for the common defense, Burns says. “There needs to be an element that looks beyond, to the future.”
Jack Burns
The space agency is also important in research and development and in inspiring kids to learn. “If we can get kids interested in space at an early age, maybe we can keep them interested in some aspect of science.”
Kids tend to be interested in dinosaurs and space, he notes. “If we could ever get dinosaurs in space, we’d really have something.”
The search for new discoveries in the universe—which includes research on the development of the cosmos and the potential existence of life elsewhere—does more than inspire the next generation of students and open a pipeline of cutting-edge R&D.
It also reflects a fundamental human truth, he says.
“When we stop searching, we might as well be dead,” Burns says. “Everything we’ve built as a civilization is based on discovery.” And to those who say we can’t afford science or discovery, “I say we can’t afford not to.”
Especially when you consider the relative cost, he adds. NASA funding composes less than 1 percent of the federal budget.
Early this year, a team led by Burns won a $6.5 million grant from NASA’s Lunar Science Institute to explore the cosmos from the Moon. A second grant of $5 million went to a group led by CU Physics Professor Mihaly Horanyi, also a research associate for CU’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.
Burns’ project will focus partly on the “dark ages” of the universe. Burns explains this as a gap in the cosmological record. About 13.7 billion years ago, the universe began with a very Big Bang. Some 400,000 years later, electrons and protons merged to form atoms, and that cleared the “cosmic fog,” permitting our first glimpse of the early Universe. Radio telescopes detect this as the “cosmic microwave background,” a faint signal from all directions.
About a half billion years later, the first stars and galaxies started to form. They emitted visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light seen by powerful instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to be launched in 2013. The problem is that there’s a half-billion-year gap between the cosmic microwave background and when we first see stars.
“What happened during that time period? We have no way of knowing that.”
Those half-billion years are called the “dark ages” because there is no visible light. There is hydrogen, which is emitting radiation in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. But the sources of these emissions are so far back in time, they are “redshifted,” meaning that their wavelengths are “shifted” toward the red, or longer, part of the spectrum.
This redshift results from the expansion of the Universe, stretching the fabric of spacetime, the distances between galaxies, and even the wavelength of light.
Redshifted microwaves from the “dark ages” can’t be seen with regular telescopes, or even with radio telescopes on Earth.
That part of the radio spectrum is too polluted on Earth, Burns notes. Garage-door openers, satellite transmissions from Digital TV, even the ionosphere (the uppermost part of the atmosphere) produce radio noise that completely overwhelms any weak signal from 13 billion years back.
One place that’s truly “radio quiet,” however, is the far side of the Moon, which always faces away from the Earth. Putting radio telescopes there, as Burns’ project would do, would allow scientists to detect these weak signals. “Scientifically, it’s very exciting, very fundamental.”
Burns notes that the project would also employ a unique technology: simple, elemental antennas embedded in a plastic membrane that will be unrolled by astronauts on the surface of the Moon.
There, the membrane would face temperature swings of 250 degrees Celsius, and it would be pummeled with ultraviolet radiation. This system is being tested on Earth at CU’s Center for Astrophysics & Space Astronomy, with the help of Burns’ undergraduate students and, in the future, with the help of astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld, who will service the Hubble Space Telescope from the Space Shuttle in May.
It’s a wonderful learning opportunity, Burns says. “It’s a neat science problem and a neat technology.”
Learn more about NASA’s Lunar Science Institute and Burns’ project, the Lunar University Node for Astrophysics Research (or LUNAR), at http://solo.colorado.edu/~hallman/lunar/Site%206/LUNAR.html.