special section | cosmic questions, answers pending
tools for the mission
Fermi
LHC Planck
Hunting data shown), scientists hope to spot signs
A number of instruments now operating or proposed can troll the skies or other- of supersymmetry and find evidence for
wise help to answer some of the most puzzling questions about the universe. string theory — possibly pointing to a
theory that unifies the forces of nature.
Planck A European Space Agency 12/5/09, p. 9) and captured unexpected The collider, in a 27-kilometer tunnel
observatory launched in 2009, Planck is changes in emissions from the Crab straddling the border of Switzerland and
recording a more detailed picture of the Nebula (SN: 1/1/11, p. 11). Fermi could France, began regular operations in 2010
cosmic microwave background, the relic offer clues to the identity of dark matter but has yet to operate at full energy.
radiation left over from the Big Bang, and to the birth of the universe.
than its predecessors COBE and WMAP LSST Proposed to sit atop Cerro
did. The mission is searching for pri- WFIRST The Wide-Field Infrared Sur- Pachón in the Chilean Andes, the Large
mordial gravitational waves, which could vey Telescope, a proposed NASA obser- Synoptic Survey Telescope (mirrors and
provide a test for inflation theory, and vatory, would probe a wide swath of the lenses depicted) will capture the entire
looking for clues to the nature of dark sky with two main goals: to settle key visible sky twice each week, helping
matter and dark energy. questions about dark energy by map- astronomers better understand the
ping large-scale structures and to look large-scale structure of the universe
Fermi Launched in 2008, the Fermi for signs of extrasolar planets in the throughout its history. Knowing how
Gamma-ray Space Telescope has opened Milky Way’s central bulge. stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters are
scientists’ eyes to astronomical objects distributed can offer insight into cosmic
that emit very high-energy radiation, LHC By smashing protons together at ingredients, including dark matter’s
including supermassive black holes and high speeds, the Large Hadron Collider distribution and dark energy’s strength.
colliding neutron stars. Since its launch, is re-creating energies present just after
Fermi has found evidence of antimatter the Big Bang. In the spew of particles Dark Energy Survey Atop another
above thunderstorms on Earth (SN: emitted (computer-generated image mountain in the Chilean Andes — Cerro
32 | science news | April 23, 2011 www.sciencenews.org
Euclid IXO
Fermi image: nasa; LHC: ©cern geneva; Planck: c. carreau/esa; LSST: todd mason/mason productions inc., lsst corporation; Euclid:
LSST LISA XENON
esa; IXO: nasa; lisa: ESA; Xenon: Francesco Arneodo/INFN, XENON Collaboration; tablet: Viktor Gmyria/shutterstock.com
Tololo — researchers are mounting a and silicon detectors. Though claims of IXO Proposed by NASA, the European
sensitive digital camera on an existing detection have been made, dark matter’s Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace
4-meter telescope in an attempt to identity remains unknown. Exploration Agency, the International
uncover the nature of dark energy. The X-ray Observatory would take in radia-
camera will survey a large swath of the JWST The James Webb Space tion emitted from neutron stars and
southern sky over five years to gather Telescope will have a primary mirror from the vicinity of black holes. Search-
information about more than 300 million 6.5 meters across and will orbit about ing in the X-ray regime would allow
galaxies. An effort that includes scien- 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. the observatory to peer through dust
tists from 23 institutions, the survey is The observatory will probe how stars and gas clouds that might otherwise
expected to see first light in fall. and galaxies first emerged and will obscure its view. IXO may reveal how
look for Earthlike planets. Launch had matter behaves in extreme conditions
Dark matter experiments The been scheduled for 2014, but has and help reveal the nature of dark mat-
XENON Dark Matter Project, operating been pushed back to no earlier than ter and dark energy.
underground at Gran Sasso National 2016 because of cost overruns (SN:
Laboratory in Italy, looks for signs of 4/25/11, p. 22). LISA The Laser Interferometer Space
dark matter particles by recording scintil- Antenna, a proposed NASA-ESA mission,
lations in liquid xenon (detector shown Euclid Named for the father of geome- would actually be three identical space-
above). The DAMA/LIBRA experiment, try, the proposed Euclid spacecraft (two craft that form a triangle. By recording
at the same lab, records seasonal varia- concepts shown) would measure dark how the craft move in relation to each
tions in faint flashes of light from 25 matter distribution and try to under- other, scientists hope LISA will detect
sodium iodide detectors. And an experi- stand the nature of dark energy by look- gravitational waves. Background undula-
ment in a mine in northern Minnesota, ing back 10 billion years, before dark tions left over from the early universe
the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, tries energy began to dominate over matter could offer clues to its origin and expan-
to spot dark matter jostling germanium in the universe. sion history.
www.sciencenews.org April 23, 2011 | science news | 33
