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This JPRS translation, dated 1 August 1990, is an article from the Soviet journal Kommunist by Leonid Grishchuk of the Shternberg State Astronomy Institute. In it he argues that basic science needs state support. He notes that lecture audiences ask a lot about flying saucers and space aliens. He goes on to review cosmology, including galaxy structure, cosmic expansion, relic radiation, Fridman's models and inflationary theory. He closes by saying the question of non-Earth civilizations is a topic for another author.
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# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1990 Document 12 of 16 Page 9 any case, the definition of the geometry of space would be local in nature, i.e., it would directly relate only to the observed part of the Universe. 33. Fridman's cosmological solutions postulate homogeneity and isotropy as universal and eternal properties. Direct observational information about the Universe relates only to a limited area, both in time, as well as in space. In the area encompassed by observations, these properties really exist, although only with a certain degree of precision. However, cosmology is interested in the structure of the Universe on the whole, i.e., with the utmost conceivable distances and time intervals. Therefore, extrapolations are often used, true, inevitably of limited trustworthiness. Nonetheless, in using the observational data and a theory, tested in other observations and experiments, it is possible to draw meaningful conclusions about epochs and areas of the Universe which are not observed directly here right now. In this manner, for instance, we succeed in drawing conclusions about the structure of the Universe on scales exceeding its observable dimensions by a factor of 50-100. 34. On the grounds of this analysis, it can be claimed that on the tremendous scales mentioned, inaccessible to contemporary observations, the deviations from homogeneity and isotropy are not overly great. More accurately, the relative deviations of all cosmological values do not exceed one unit. On even greater scales, it is no longer possible to say this. The above argument does not rule out that the properties of the Universe on such great scales may be considerably different. There are interesting theoretical considerations to the effect that, on the utmost greatest scales, the structure of the Universe may be extraordinarily complex. Even violations of the properties of connection of space, the appearance of differences in the dimensionality of space, a change in the numerical values of fundamental constants, etc., are also not ruled out. Although, at this level of knowledge these considerations are highly hypothetical. 35. The question of the structure of the Universe on very large scales is supplemented by the question of the properties of the Universe at the very earliest stage of its evolution. The uncertainty in the answer to this question partly relates to the fact that the properties of matter under tremendous densities, exceeding nuclear density by many orders, are unknown. It would be especially important to clarify the amount and the sign of pressure in this matter. The point is that pressure is capable of creating gravity, just the same as it creates the energy density of ordinary matter. This is an effect of the relativistic theory of gravitation: it does not exist in the Newtonian theory. Under ordinary conditions, pressure is insignificant and additional gravitational forces are small. In any
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 12 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.