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Calendar of Events PUBLIC OBSERVING

Prairie Park Nature Center Spring Schedule

Sunday February 01 Sunday March 01 Sunday March 29 Sunday May 03

MONTHLY MEETINGS 2001 Malott — 7:30 PM

FRIDAY, January 23 TIME TRAVEL: Fact or Fiction?

Dr. Bruce Twarog, KU

President: Rick Heschmeyer

rcjbm@sbcglobal.net Treasurer:

Dr. Steve Shawl Shawl@ku.edu

University Advisor: Dr. Bruce Twarog btwarog@ku.edu

Webmaster: Gary Webber

gwebber@ku.edu Observing Clubs

Doug Fay dfay@ku.edu

Report from the Officers: Hope the new year is off to a good start for everyone. As many of you already know, 2009 has been designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the Interna-tional Astronomical Union and the United Nations. The

year was selected because it represents the 400th anni-versary of the discovery and use of an astronomical

telescope by Galileo. There are events planned world-wide for both professionals and amateurs—to keep track

of what is happening, make use of the official web site for the celebration:

http://www.astronomy2009.org/ We will try to keep you informed about local and re-

gional events as best we can, but the simplest way to take part is to go out and enjoy the sky. In these times,

this activity has one major plus compared to other forms of entertainment — it’s free!

Speaking of observing the sky freely, the schedule for the public observing sites at the Prairie Park Nature Center is given on page 1 in the column at left. Please

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Volume 35 Number 01 January 2009

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Of Local Interest (continued) 2

Dark Energy Stifles Growth 3

NASA Space Place 4

Astronomy’s Dimmest Bulbs 5

JANUARY AAL Poster 6

HST Finds CO2 in ESP 7

NASA’s Griffin (continued) 8

NASA’s Griffin Bucks Obama Team

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Good Heavens: Vatican Rehabilitating Galileo By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press Writer

Galileo Galilei is going from heretic to hero. The Vatican is recasting the most fa-mous victim of its Inquisition as a man of faith, just in time for the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy next year. Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the Italian astronomer and physicist Sunday,

saying he and other scientists had helped the faithful better understand and "contemplate with gratitude the Lord's works."

In May, several Vatican officials will participate in an international conference to re-examine the Galileo affair, and top Vatican officials are now saying Galileo should be named the "patron" of the dialogue between faith and reason. It's quite a reversal of fortune for Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who made the first complete astronomical telescope and used it to gather evidence that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed the Earth at the center of the universe. The church denounced Galileo's theory as dangerous to the faith, but Galileo defied its warnings. Tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, later changed to house arrest. The Church has for years been striv-ing to shed its reputation for being hostile to science, in part by producing top-notch research out of its own telescope.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error re-sulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." But that apparently wasn't enough. In January, Benedict canceled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza University after a group of professors, citing the Galileo episode and depicting Benedict as a religious figure opposed to science, argued that he shouldn't speak at a public university.

The Galileo anniversary appears to be giving the Vatican new impetus to put the matter to rest. In doing so, Vatican officials are stressing Galileo's faith as well as his science, to show the two are not mutually exclusive. At a Vatican conference last

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About the Astronomy Associates of Lawrence The club is open to all people interested in sharing their love for astronomy. Monthly meetings are typically on the second Friday of each month and often feature guest speakers, presentations by club members, and a chance to exchange amateur astronomy tips. Approximately the last Sunday of each month we have an open house on Memorial Stadium. Periodic star parties are scheduled as well. For more information, please contact the club officers:Luis Vargas at lcvargas@ku.edu, Gary Webber at gwebber@ku.edu, our

faculty advisor, Prof. Bruce Twarog at btwarog@ku.edu. our events coordinator, Rick Heschmeyer at rcjbm@sbcglobal.net. Be-cause of the flexibility of the schedule due to holidays and alternate events, it is always best to check the Web site for the exact

Fridays and Sundays when events are scheduled. The information about AAL can be found at http://www.ku.edu/~aal.

Copies of the Celestial Mechanic can also be found on the web at http://www.ku.edu/~aal/celestialmechanic

contact Rick Heschmeyer if you are planning on attending any of these sessions, with or without scope. Our first meeting of the month is Friday Jan. 23, with a presentation on the fascinating topic of Time Travel. If the talk was really bad, I’m sure someone from the future would have sent us a message warning us not to go, so it must be really good. It’s that time of the year again—annual dues are due. Since we now send the majority of our newsletters out via email, there will be a form with a return envelope sent out by regular mail, meaning that there is no form at the end of this newsletter. Please return the dues and form as quickly as possible. As always, thanks for your cooperation on this. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or input on how we can make the club better, please contact Rick. Look forward to see-ing everyone at the January Open House and/or the January meeting (2001 Malott—7:30 PM).

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On Thursday, the Sentinel reported that Griffin, in an effort to shield his signature Constellation moon-rocket program from com-plaints it is underperforming and over budget, was obstructing efforts by the transition team to get information. The six-member team is reviewing the agency's policies and scouring its budget. The article also quoted witnesses' accounts of a heated 40-minute conversation last week between Griffin and Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads the transi-tion team. At one point, they said, the NASA chief demanded to speak directly to Obama because he said Garver is "not quali-fied" to judge his rocket program.

Garver would not comment on the report. Griffin made no reference to the argument, which took place in front of about 50 peo-ple. Sources close to the transition team said Thursday that Garver and her five colleagues have been getting cooperation from "most" NASA staff on most programs except for Constellation. According to one high-ranking official working for the office of the president-elect, "The front office on the ninth floor [Griffin's office] is definitely resisting, and telling others to resist."

The team, however, does not appear to be intimidated. In a meeting Tuesday with the Coalition for Space Exploration, a space-advocacy group, Garver said that her team was "unhappy" with NASA's plan -- pushed by Griffin -- to retire the space shuttle in 2010 "no matter what." Griffin has said the shuttle must be grounded to free up money for Constellation if its Ares I rocket is to fly by 2015. She also said that under NASA's plans, the possibility for exploration beyond the Earth's orbit seems unattainable at present, according to a person in the audience.

Garver didn't say what options her group might recommend, such as more money to keep flying the shuttle or changing the rocket systems NASA is currently developing to go to the moon. However, she promised that "there is going to be change."

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month entitled "Science 400 Years after Galileo Galilei," the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Galileo was an astrono-mer, but one who "lovingly cultivated his faith and his profound religious conviction. Galileo Galilei was a man of faith who saw nature as a book authored by God.” The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture, which co-sponsored the conference, went further. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi told Vatican Radio that Galileo "could become for some the ideal patron for a dialogue between science and faith." He said Galileo's writings offered a "path" to explore how faith and reason were not incompatible. The Rev. John Padberg, a church historian and the director of the Institute of Jesuit Sources at St. Louis University, said he suspected the Vatican's new emphasis on Galileo's faith came from the pope himself.

"Pope Benedict XVI is ardently convinced of the congruence of faith and reason, and he is concerned, especially in the present circumstances, of giving reason its due place in the whole scheme of things," he said. While it is widely accepted that Galileo was a convinced Catholic, Padberg questioned whether he could ever be accepted as some kind of a poster child for the faith and rea-son debate. "That's going to be a long shot for an awful lot of people, on both sides, by the way," he said. Benedict, a theologian, has made exploring the faith-reason relationship a key aspect of his papacy, and has directed his daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in particular, to take up the charge.

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Dark Energy Found Stifling Growth in Universe Chandra Observatory

For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of "dark energy" on the most massive collapsed objects in the universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By tracking how dark energy has stifled the growth of galaxy clusters and combining this with previous studies, scientists have obtained the best clues yet about what dark energy is and what the destiny of the universe could be. This work, which took years to complete, is separate from other methods of dark energy research such as supernovas. These new X-ray results provide a crucial independent test of dark en-ergy, long sought by scientists, which depends on how gravity competes with accelerated expansion in the growth of cosmic structures. Techniques based on distance measurements, such as supernova work, do not have this special sensitivity.

Scientists think dark energy is a form of repulsive gravity that now dominates the universe, although they have no clear picture of what it actually is. Understanding the nature of dark energy is one of the biggest problems in science. Possi-bilities include the cosmological constant, which is equivalent to the energy of empty space. Other possibilities include a modification in general relativity on the largest scales, or a more general physical field. To help decide between these options, a new way of looking at dark energy is required. It is accomplished by observing how cosmic acceleration af-fects the growth of galaxy clusters over time.

"This result could be described as 'arrested development of the universe'," said Alexey Vikhlinin of the Smithsonian As-trophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., who led the research. "Whatever is forcing the expansion of the universe to speed up is also forcing its development to slow down." Vikhlinin and his colleagues used Chandra to observe the hot

gas in dozens of galaxy clus-ters, which are the largest col-lapsed objects in the universe. Some of these clusters are relatively close and others are more than half-way across the universe. The results show the increase in mass of the galaxy clusters over time aligns with a universe

dominated by dark energy. It is more difficult for objects like galaxy clusters to grow when space is stretched, as caused by dark energy. Vikhlinin and his team see this effect clearly in their data. The results are remarkably consistent with those from the distance measurements, revealing general relativity applies, as expected, on large scales.

"For years, scientists have wanted to start testing how gravity works on large scales and now, we finally have," said William Forman, a co-author of the study from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. "This is a test that general relativity could have failed." When combined with other clues -- supernovas, the study of the cosmic microwave back-ground, and the distribution of galaxies -- this new X-ray result gives scientists the best insight to date on the properties of dark energy. The study strengthens the evidence that dark energy is the cosmological constant. Although it is the leading candidate to explain dark energy, theoretical work suggests it should be about 10 raised to the power of 120 times larger than observed. Therefore, alternatives to general relativity, such as theories involving hidden dimensions, are being explored.

"Putting all of this data together gives us the strongest evidence yet that dark energy is the cosmological constant, or in other words, that 'nothing weighs something'," said Vikhlinin. "A lot more testing is needed, but so far Einstein's theory is looking as good as ever."

These results have consequences for predicting the ultimate fate of the universe. If dark energy is explained by the cos-mological constant, the expansion of the universe will continue to accelerate, and the Milky Way and its neighbor gal-axy, Andromeda, never will merge with the Virgo cluster. In that case, about a hundred billion years from now, all other galaxies ultimately would disappear from the Milky Way's view and, eventually, the local superclusters of galaxies also would disintegrate.

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Superstar Hide and Seek

by Dr. Tony Phillips

It sounds like an impossible task: Take a star a hundred times larger in diameter and millions of times more luminous than the Sun and hide it in our own galaxy where the most powerful optical telescopes on Earth cannot find it.

But it is not impossible. In fact, there could be dozens to hundreds of such stars hiding in the Milky Way right now. Furiously burning their inner stores of hydrogen, these hidden superstars are like ticking bombs poised to ‘go super-nova’ at any moment, possibly unleashing powerful gamma-ray bursts. No wonder astronomers are hunting for them.

Earlier this year, they found one.

“It’s called the Peony nebula star,” says Lidia Oskinova of Potsdam University in Germany. “It shines like 3.2 million suns and weighs in at about 90 solar masses.” The star lies behind a dense veil of dust near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Starlight traveling through the dust is attenuated so much that the Peony star, at first glance, looks rather dim and ordinary. Oskinova’s team set the record straight using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Clouds of dust can hide a star from visible-light telescopes, but Spitzer is an infrared telescope able to penetrate the dusty gloom.

“Using data from Spitzer, along with infrared observations from the ESO’s New Technology Telescope in Chile, we calculated the Peony star’s true luminosity,” she explains. “In the Milky Way galaxy, it is second only to another known

superstar, Eta Carina, which shines like 4.7 million suns.”

Oskinova believes this is just the tip of the iceberg. Theoretical models of star formation suggest that one Peony-type star is born in our galaxy every 10,000 years. Given that the lifetime of such a star is about one million years, there should be 100 of them in the Milky Way at any given moment.

Could that be a hundred deadly gamma-ray bursts waiting to happen? Oskinova is not worried. “There’s no threat to Earth,” she be-lieves. “Gamma-ray bursts produce tightly focused jets of radiation and we would be extremely unlucky to be in the way of one. Furthermore, there don’t appear to be any supermassive stars within a thousand light years of our planet.”

Nevertheless, the hunt continues. Mapping and studying supermassive stars will help researchers understand the inner workings of extreme star formation and, moreover, iden-tify stars on the brink of supernova. One day, astronomers monitoring a Peony-type star could witness with their own eyes one of the biggest explosions since the Big Bang itself.

Now that might be hard to hide.

Find out the latest news on discoveries using the Spitzer at www.spitzer.caltech.edu. Kids (of all ages) can read about “Lucy’s Planet Hunt” using the Spitzer Space Telescope at spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spitzer/lucy.

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The “Peony Nebula” star is the second-brightest found in the Milky Way Galaxy, after Eta Carina. The Peony star blazes with the light of 3.2 million suns.

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Astronomers Find the Two Dimmest Stellar Bulbs Spitzer Press Release

It's a tie! The new record-holder for dimmest known star-like object in the universe goes to twin "failed" stars, or brown dwarfs, each of which shines feebly with only one millionth the light of our sun.

Previously, astronomers thought the pair of dim bulbs was just one typi-cal, faint brown dwarf with no record-smashing titles. But when NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed the brown dwarf with its heat-seeking infrared vision, it was able to accurately measure the object's extreme faintness and low temperature for the first time. What's more, the Spitzer data revealed the brown dwarf is, in fact, twins.

"Both of these objects are the first to break the barrier of one millionth the total light-emitting power of the sun," said Adam Burgasser of the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. Burgasser is lead author of a new paper about the discovery appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Brown dwarfs are the misfits of the cosmos. They are compact balls of gas floating freely in space, but they are too cool and lightweight to be stars, and too warm and massive to be planets. The name "brown dwarf" comes from the fact that these small, star-like bodies change color over time as they cool, and thus have no definitive color. In reality, most brown dwarfs would appear reddish if they could be seen with the naked eye. Their feeble light output also means they are hard to find. The first brown dwarf wasn't discovered until 1995. While hundreds are known today, astronomers say there are many more in space still waiting to be discovered.

The newfound dim duo of brown dwarfs, while notable for their exceptional faintness, will probably not be remem-bered for their name. They are called 2MASS J09393548-2448279 after the Two Micron All-Sky Survey, or "2MASS," the mission partially funded by NASA that first detected the object in 1999.

Astronomers recently used Spitzer's ultrasensitive infrared vision to learn more about the object, which was still thought to be a solo brown dwarf. These data revealed a warm atmospheric temperature of 565 to 635 Kelvin (560 to 680 degrees Fahrenheit). While this is hundreds of degrees hotter than Jupiter, it's still downright cold as far as stars go. In fact, 2MASS J09393548-2448279, or 2M 0939 for short, is one of the coldest star-like bodies measured so far.

To calculate the object's brightness, the researchers had to first determine its distance from Earth. After three years of precise measurements with the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Australia, they concluded that 2M 0939 is the fifth-closest known brown dwarf to us, 17 light-years away toward the constellation Antlia. This distance, together with Spitzer's measurements, told the astronomers the object was both cool and extremely dim.

But something was puzzling. The brightness of the object was twice what would be expected for a brown dwarf with its particular temperature. The solution? The object must have twice the surface area. In other words, it's twins, with each body shining only half as bright, and each with a mass of 30 to 40 times that of Jupiter. Both bod-ies are one million times fainter than the sun in total light, and at least one billion times fainter in visible light alone.

"These brown dwarfs are the lowest power stellar light bulbs in the sky that we know of," said Burgasser. "And like low-energy fluorescent light bulbs, they emit most of their light in a narrow range of wavelengths, in this case in the infrared."

According to the authors, there are even dimmer brown dwarfs scattered throughout the universe, most too faint to see with current sky surveys. NASA's upcoming Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer mission will scan the en-tire sky at infrared wavelengths, and is expected to uncover hundreds of these inconspicuous characters.

"The holy grail in the study of brown dwarfs is to find out how low you can go in terms of temperature, mass and brightness," said Davy Kirkpatrick, a co-author of the paper at NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "This will tell us more about how brown dwarfs form and evolve."

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HUBBLE FINDS CARBON DIOXIDE ON AN EXTRASOLAR PLANET HST Press Release

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This is an important step along the trail of finding the chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life as we know it. The Jupi-ter-sized planet, called HD 189733b, is too hot for life. But the Hubble observations are a proof-of-concept demonstra-tion that the basic chemistry for life can be measured on planets orbiting other stars. Organic compounds can also be a by-product of life processes and their detection on an Earth-like planet may someday provide the first evidence of life beyond Earth. Previous observations of HD 189733b by Hubble and the Spitzer Space Telescope found water vapor. Earlier this year Hubble found methane in the planet's atmosphere.

"Hubble was conceived primarily for observations of the distant universe, yet it is opening a new era of astrophysics and comparative planetary science," said Eric Smith, Hubble Space Telescope program scientist at NASA Headquar-ters in Washington. "These atmospheric studies will begin to determine the compositions and chemical processes op-erating on distant worlds orbiting other stars. The future for this newly opened frontier of science is extremely promis-ing as we expect to discover many more molecules in exoplanet atmospheres."

Mark Swain, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to study infrared light emitted from the planet, which lies 63 light-years away. Gases in the planet's atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths of light from the planet's hot glowing inte-rior. Swain not only identified carbon dioxide, but also carbon monoxide. The molecules leave their own unique spec-tral fingerprint on the radiation from the planet that reaches Earth. This is the first time a near-infrared emission spec-trum has been obtained for an exoplanet. "The carbon dioxide is the main reason for the excitement because under the right circumstances, it could have a connection to biological activity as it does on Earth," Swain said. "The very fact

that we're able to detect it and estimate its abundance is sig-nificant for the long-term effort of characterizing planets both to find out what they are made of and if they could be a possi-ble host for life."

This type of observation is best done for planets with orbits tilted edge-on to Earth. They routinely pass in front of and then behind their parent stars, phenomena known as eclipses. The planet HD 189733b passes behind its compan-ion star once every 2.2 days. This allows an opportunity to subtract the light of the star alone, when the planet is blocked, from that of the star and planet together prior to eclipse. That isolating the emission of the planet alone and making possible a chemical analysis of its "day-side" atmos-phere.

"In this way, we use the eclipse of the planet behind the star to probe the planet's day side, which contains the hottest portions of its atmosphere," said team member Guatam Va-sisht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We are starting to find the molecules and to figure out how many of them there are to see the changes between the day side and the night side."

This successful demonstration of looking at near-infrared light emitted from a planet is very encouraging for astronomers planning to use NASA's James Webb Space Telescope after it is launched in 2013. These biomarkers are best seen at near-infrared wavelengths. Astronomers look forward to using the James Webb Space Telescope to look spectroscopically for biomarkers on a terrestrial planet the size of Earth or a "super-Earth" several times our planet's mass.

"The Webb telescope should be able to make much more sensitive measurements of these primary and secondary eclipse events," Swain said.

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But budget problems and technical issues have created growing doubts about the project. Griffin has dismissed these as normal rocket-development issues, but they've clearly got the transition team's attention.

Scrap Ares I?

When team members arrived three weeks ago, they asked the agency, among other things, to quantify how much could be saved by canceling Ares I. Though they also asked what it would take to accelerate the program, the fact that the team could even consider scrapping the program was enough to spur Griffin and his supporters into action.

According to industry officials, Griffin started calling heads of companies working for NASA, demanding that they either tell the Obama team that they support Constellation or refrain from talking about alternatives. The companies, worried that Griffin may remain and somehow punish them if they ignore his wishes, have by and large complied.

One consultant said that when Garver invited "several" midlevel aerospace executives to speak to the team, their bosses told them not to go and warned that anything said had to be cleared first with NASA because Griffin had de-manded it. Documents and e-mails obtained by the Sentinel confirm NASA's efforts to coordinate what's said.

A Dec. 3 e-mail to Constellation contractors from Sandy Coleman, an executive with Alliant Tech Systems, the prime contractor on Ares I, said Griffin wanted NASA to preview any materials given to the team. "Phil [McAlister, the NASA contact for the transition team] relayed a request by Mike Griffin that if we plan to provide the Transition Team any re-ports or studies that were performed under NASA contracts that we provide them a copy first . . . ," Coleman wrote.

The e-mail followed two teleconferences set up by Shank and another NASA official, Gale Allen. According to docu-ments produced from the teleconferences, the point was "to develop a strategy for promoting the continuation of Con-stellation in the next administration." Among the ideas agreed on: tell the team that an Obama White House "could take ownership of the [Constellation] program and 're-brand' it as their own with minor tweaks."

Another set of talking points, presented during a Nov. 21 teleconference, was called "Staying the Course on Constella-tion." Among the points: Ares I had been thoroughly studied "and is sound" -- and any change would make NASA look bad. "If NASA appears to be wavering by not staying the course . . . this would cause a loss of public and stakeholder confidence in NASA," it said. Shank said that the contractors -- not NASA -- had requested the teleconferences. "We do not seek to intimidate at all," he said.

Tempers flare at event

Tensions were on public display last week at the NASA library, as overheard by guests at a book party. According to people who were present, Logsdon, a space historian, told a group of about 50 people he had just learned that Presi-dent John F. Kennedy's transition team had completely ignored NASA. Griffin responded, in a loud voice, "I wish the Obama team would come and talk to me."

Alan Ladwig, a transition-team member who was at the party with Garver, shouted out: "Well, we're here now, Mike." Soon after, Garver and Griffin engaged in what witnesses said was an animated conversation. Some overheard parts of it. "Mike, I don't understand what the problem is. We are just trying to look under the hood," Garver said. "If you are look-ing under the hood, then you are calling me a liar," Griffin replied. "Because it means you don't trust what I say is under the hood."

NASA Chief Insists He's Cooperating With Obama's Team By Robert Block, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said Thursday that he was fully cooperating with the incoming Barack Obama admini-stration and was "appalled" by a report that he was obstructing efforts by the president-elect's transition team to get in-formation about the agency. In a statement, Griffin called the report in Thursday's Orlando Sentinel "simply wrong."

"I would like to reiterate what I have stated in a previous e-mail to all NASA officials: We must make every effort to 'lean forward,' to answer questions promptly, openly and accurately," he said. He added that the agency has provided 414 documents and 185 responses to 191 requests since mid-November. He said the six outstanding responses would be provided soon and on schedule: "We are fully cooperating with transition-team members."

Griffin also said he was "appalled" that industry sources quoted by the Sentinel said he and top NASA administrators were telling contractors what they could and could not say to the Obama transition team. "We strongly urge full and free cooperation by companies performing work for NASA," he said.

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NASA Chief Griffin Bucks Obama's Transition Team By Robert Block and Mark K. Matthews, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, is obstruct-ing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is "not qualified" to judge his rocket program, the Or-lando Sentinel has learned.

In a heated 40-minute conversation last week with Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads the space transition team, a red-faced Griffin demanded to speak directly to Obama, according to four witnesses. In addi-tion, Griffin is scripting NASA employees and civilian contractors on what they can tell the transition team and has warned aerospace executives not to criticize the agency's moon program, sources said.

Griffin's resistance is part of a no-holds-barred effort to preserve the Constellation program, the delayed and over-budget moon rocket that is his signature project. Chris Shank, NASA's chief of strategic communications, denied that Griffin is trying to keep information from the team or that he is seeking a meeting with Obama. He also insisted that Griffin never argued with Garver. "We are working extremely well with the transition team," he said.

Not qualified to judge?

However, Shank acknowledged Griffin was concerned that the six-member team -- all with space-policy backgrounds -- lacks the engineering expertise to properly assess some of the information its members have been given. Garver would not comment about her conversation with Griffin -- and his remark that she is "not qualified" -- during a book-publication party at NASA headquarters last week. Obama's Chicago office -- which has sent similar transition teams to every federal agency -- also had no comment.

People close to Garver, however, say that she has confirmed "unpleasant" exchanges with Griffin and other NASA officials. "Don't worry, they have not beaten me down yet," she e-mailed a colleague.

And this week, Garver told a meeting of aerospace representatives in Washington that "there will be change" to NASA policy and hinted that Obama would name a new administrator soon, according to participants. Those who spoke for this article, including a member and staff in Congress, NASA employees, aerospace executives and consultants, spoke only on condition that their names not be used. Garver's team is one of dozens of review panels that during the past few weeks have descended on every government agency. Armed with tough questions, they are scrutinizing programs, scouring budgets and hunting for problems that may confront a new president.

'A natural tension'

Though their job is to smooth the transition between administrations, their arrival also brings a certain level of anxiety, particularly when programs face tough questions, as at NASA. Said John Logsdon, a George Washington University professor who co-wrote the book honored at the NASA party, "There is a natural tension built into this situation. . . . Mike is dead-on convinced that the current approach to the program is the right one. And Lori's job is to question that for Mr. Obama. The Obama team is not going to walk in and take Mike's word for it."

The Bush White House has pledged cooperation, and many agency leaders have told staff to cooperate fully. Griffin himself sent a memo urging employees "to answer questions promptly, openly and accurately." At the same time, he made clear he expected NASA employees to stay on message.

For example, transition-team interviews have been monitored by NASA officials "taking copious notes," according to congressional and space-community sources. Employees who met with the team were told to tell their managers about the interview. The tensions are because NASA's human-spaceflight program is facing its biggest crossroads since the end of the Apollo era in the 1970s. The space shuttle is scheduled to be retired in 2010, and the next-generation Constellation rockets won't fly before 2015.

Nearly four years ago, President George W. Bush brought in Griffin to implement a plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 as a prelude to going to Mars. Griffin and his team selected Constellation, with its NASA-designed Ares I rocket and Orion capsule, as cheaper and safer than existing rockets. Constellation -- especially Ares I -- is the cen-ter of what Griffin sees as his legacy to return humans to the frontiers of space.

Griffin has made no secret that he would like to stay on but only, as he recently told Kennedy Space Center workers, "under the right circumstances," including being able to finish Constellation.

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AAL Astronomy Associates of Lawrence

University of Kansas Malott Hall 1251 Wescoe Hall Dr, Room 1082 Lawrence, KS 66045-7582

Celestial Mechanic January 2009