NASA Sponsors Studies of Next Generation Astronomy Missions

Feb. 15, 2008

Grey Hautaluoma
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668
grey.hautaluoma-1@xxxxxxxx

RELEASE: 08-054

NASA SPONSORS STUDIES OF NEXT GENERATION ASTRONOMY MISSIONS

WASHINGTON - NASA has selected 19 science teams to conduct yearlong
studies of new concepts for its next generation of major
observatories. The studies will help NASA make decisions about how it
explores the heavens in the future, following the Astronomy and
Astrophysics Decadal Survey.

Every 10 years, astronomers and physicists from across the U.S. work
with the National Academy of Sciences to define the future research
directions for the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. The science
teams' work is part of an effort to ensure that technical and cost
input is accurate for this upcoming Astronomy and Astrophysics
Decadal Survey. The survey produces directions that guide federal
agencies such as NASA and the National Science Foundation in planning
their programs over the coming decade.

"Astrophysics is truly in a golden age, revolutionizing our knowledge
of topics as diverse and compelling as the origin and evolution of
the universe, the physics of black holes and the distribution and
habitability of planetary systems across our galaxy," said Alan
Stern, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at
NASA Headquarters, Washington. "The exciting new astrophysics mission
concept studies we are funding will seed preparations for
astronomical space missions and paradigm-shifting discoveries across
the early 21st century. Today, NASA's Science Mission Directorate is
setting sail on a whole new chapter in continued U.S. leadership in
astrophysics."

The concept studies total approximately $12 million in fiscal years
2008 and 2009, ranging in cost from $250,000 to $1 million. Among the
ideas selected for further study as potential new space telescopes
are:

-A study of the organic molecules in interstellar space and
star-forming clouds (Scott Sandford, NASA's Ames Research Center,
Moffett Field, Calif.);
-A census of black holes in our galaxy and distant galaxies and of
the
birth of stellar black holes in the early universe (Jonathan
Grindlay, Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Mass.);
-A test of theories that predict a rapid inflationary expansion when
the universe was less than a fraction of a second old by
characterizing the distribution of distant galaxies (Gary Melnick,
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge);
-Observations of faint signatures of polarized light in the cosmic
microwave background that will also reveal information about
inflationary expansion (Stephan Meyer, University of Chicago);
-Exploration of the origins of cosmic rays (James Adams, NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.).

Several different methods to search for and characterize exoplanets,
planets that orbit a star outside our solar system, also were chosen.
Among these approaches are:

- Precise mapping of the movements of stars induced by planets
circling them (Geoffrey Marcy, University of California, Berkeley);
-Direct imaging of giant planets around nearby stars (Mark Clampin,
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; Olivier Guyon,
University of Arizona; Tuscon; John Trauger and Michael Shao, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.);
-Imaging nearby Earth-sized worlds using large telescopes with
multiple instruments and separate spacecraft to block the light from
these exoplanets' host star (Webster Cash, University of Colorado,
Boulder; David Spergel, Princeton University, N.J.).

Some of the proposals explore a powerful new combination of
telescopes
and instruments optimized for observing the tenuous filaments of
intergalactic hydrogen gas known as the cosmic web gas (Kenneth
Sembach, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore) or star
formation in our own and distant galaxies (Paul Scowen, Arizona State
University, Tempe).

Another mission would place two laser beacons on Mars. Precise
measurements of the distance to these beacons would provide the most
stringent test yet of Einstein's theory of general relativity (Thomas
Murphy, University of California, San Diego).

NASA also will sponsor studies about how to create the next
generation
of extremely precise and large optics for X-ray and optical astronomy
(Roger Brissenden; Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; Marc
Postman, Space Telescope Science Institute). Another study
investigates the possibility of putting an extremely large array of
radio telescopes on the lunar surface to map clouds of hydrogen gas
that formed during the infancy of our universe, even before the first
stars (Jacqueline Hewitt, MIT; Cambridge; Joseph Lazio, Naval
Research Laboratory, Washington).

"The number, range, and quality of the proposals submitted indicate
very powerfully the level of enthusiasm in the community for
addressing frontier astrophysics research and employing the very
latest technologies," said Jon Morse, division director for
Astrophysics, NASA Headquarters. "This early investment directed
toward the decadal study will pay off in the coming years."

The studies' results are expected in March 2009. Concepts that rank
highly in the decadal survey may result in missions that would launch
after the suite of missions in development such as the Gamma-ray
Large Area Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in May, the Kepler
mission, scheduled to launch in 2009, and the James Webb Space
Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2013.

For more information on NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


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