In 1905, Albert Einstein published four revolutionary papers about the world we live in. Among the ideas that would come from his work were three predictions about space and time so extraordinary that even Einstein himself refused to believe they could be true — a time when time itself could not exist, a space that could generate yet more space, and a bizarre intersection of space and time at the center of a black hole. Now, one hundred years later, not only do we have actual evidence for all three phenomena, but the study of these once-wild ideas — the Big Bang, “Dark Energy” and Black Holes — is at the cutting edge of science in the 21st century.

Joining the worldwide celebration of the centennial of Einstein’s “miracle year,” the NASA-Smithsonian UniverseForum is creating a portfolio of highly visual, dramatic interactive learning resources especially for use by museums, science centers, planetariums and other science education organizations. Our resources explore three BIG questions “Inside Einstein’s Universe”:

• Did the universe have a beginning?
• What happens at the edge of a black hole?
• Will space expand forever?

We can see billions of galaxies, detect the afterglow of the Big Bang, and measure x-rays from million-degree gas just before it disappears into a black hole.

Our “Inside Einstein’s Universe” program uses the rich resources of NASA’s space science research missions to take audiences on a journey through the cosmos as we now know it. Throughout 2005, the Einstein Centennial provides opportunities for educational organizations to examine how scientists in the 21st century will continue to explore the boundaries of space and time.