06/08/2012

Ex-Spy Telescopes May Aid Hunt for Dark Energy

Last year, the National Reconnaissance Office gave NASA a gift — two declassified spy telescopes, each higher in quality than anything NASA has ever produced for space. NASA astrophysics director Paul Hertz and Caltech theoretical physicist Sean Carroll discuss how the telescopes could be used to hunt for elusive dark matter and dark energy.

In the SciFri Snack: How do you see an invisible particle? Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of the forthcoming book The Particle At the End of the Universe, tells us that scientists could find dark matter by looking for what’s missing — maybe it’s there, you just can’t see it! Check out more SciFri Snacks — and join a conversation about what you’ve heard — at Soundcloud.

Segment Guests

Paul Hertz

Paul Hertz is the Director of Astrophysics at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

Sean Carroll

Dr. Sean Carroll is the author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion, and is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.