Oct 21 2004
From The Space Library
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe announced the immediate appointment of James B. Garvin as NASA's new Chief Scientist. Garvin had previously served as Chief Scientist for NASA's lunar and Mars exploration programs. As Chief Scientist for all of NASA, Garvin would be responsible for ensuring the scientific merits of NASA's programs, including formulating the programs' scientific requirements. Garvin replaced former astronaut John M. Grunsfeld, who had served in the post since September 2003. NASA had selected Grunsfeld to train as an astronaut for a future long-duration mission. (NASA, “NASA Administrator Names New Chief Scientist,” news release 04-349, 21 October 2004.
Scientists published the first direct evidence of one of the fundamental elements of Einstein's theory of general relativity: an effect known as frame dragging. Frame dragging ~ the distortion of space and time around rotating celestial bodies, such as Earth ~ occurs because the gravity of those objects pulls space and time along with them. Ignazio Ciufolini of the University of Lecce in Italy and NASA scientist Erricos C. Pavlis of GSFC had measured distortions in the orbits of the Laser Geodynamics Satellites, LAGEOS and LAGEOS2, to obtain the evidence of frame dragging. They had discovered that, although irregularities in Earth's surface account for some of the variation in the satellites' orbits, the remainder of the variation is the effect of space-time distortions. (NASA, “As the World Turns, It Drags Space and Time,” news release 04-35 1, 21 October 2004; Guy Gugliotta, “Theory of Relativity Evidence Found,” Washington Post, 22 October 2004.
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