The article was originally published at The Conversation.
Chris Impey is a professor at the University of Arizona.
It takes a lot of money to learn about the universe, but projects like the Chandra X-ray Observatory have pushed scientific knowledge forward in ways that wouldn't have been possible before. Astronomers and astrophysicists use the decadal survey to identify their priorities for hardware. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published the newest version of the survey in late 2021, and debates about funding are in full swing for the next fiscal year.
Facilities and equipment built after a recommendation in one of these decadal surveys have been used in my astronomy research, and I was involved in the previous survey.
It will be exciting to see which projects get funded and what research comes from them, because the most recent wish list is full of fascinating projects.
Since the 1960s, U.S. astronomy and astrophysicists have created a priority list for new facilities.
The decadal survey of astronomy is important because it forces everyone to be on the same page. It has to temper ambition with realism, but when astronomy and astrophysicists from the many subfields work together, they come up with ideas that advance the whole field.
The report titled "Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s" is directed at Congress and the three federal agencies that fund most astronomy research. Billions of dollars are at stake.
Producing the reports involves 20 people on the main committee and over 1,000 others who contribute to the final report. The white papers argued for specific projects and capabilities. The report runs over 600 pages and is not light reading.
This approach works. NASA proposed and funded some of its most ambitious and fruitful scientific missions through decadal surveys.
There are 24 key science questions for the next generation of astronomy. There are three major themes that are science at the biggest scale and the facilities on the wish list are designed to address them.
The study of Earth-like worlds is the first thing. The number of known planets outside the solar system has doubled every two years since the discovery of exoplanets. More than 5,000 known exoplanets are similar to Earth and could potentially support life. A major goal for the next decade is to build new large telescopes on the ground and in space with instruments that can detect gases like oxygen that are created by microbes.
Second is to advance multimessenger astronomy, a relatively new field of astrophysics that takes information about gravitational waves. The need for more grants to enable researchers to collaborate and share data is more important than the need for new scientific tools. The goal of the science is to learn more about mergers of small objects.
The study of the origin and evolution of the universe is the final theme. Astronomers can look into the past by looking at distant galaxies. To understand these massive, complicated systems, scientists will need giant optical telescopes and radio telescopes to peer into their dusty hearts and see the black holes.
Here are a few highlights from the wish list.
The report recommends spending $1 billion on developing technology to build the next generation of great observatories in space. An optical telescope with a massive 20-foot (6-meter) mirror would be the flagship of these missions, which would cost $11 billion. This mirror would be eight times bigger than Hubble and would be used to study Earth-like planets in other solar systems. The report recommends that two smaller space telescopes be built at a cost of $3 billion to $5 billion.
The report has other aims. A giant optical telescope with a diameter of 80 to 100 feet (25 to 30 meters) is requested in the report. Two proposals are competing to build the largest telescope in the world, which would cost close to $2 billion.
The National Science Foundation should spend $3 billion on a new array of 263 radio telescopes that would span the entire U.S. A $650 million pair of microwave telescopes inChile andAntarctica would map the afterglow of the Big bang.
This kind of money is needed to accomplish scientific goals.
The pursuit of knowledge is only one aspect of science. Astronomers and astrophysicists have taken the time to look at the state of their profession. Diversity and inclusion, workplace climates, and contributions of astronomer to education and outreach are some of the things this includes.
Only 4% of faculty and students are minorities in these fields. The teams suggested a number of remedies for the lack of diversity and equity. The ideas included in these were better mentoring to reduce the high attrition rate for minority students, along with funding for bridge programs to help minorities get established early in their careers and to treat harassment and discrimination as forms of scientific misconduct.
If a small part of the wish list becomes reality, it will not only increase our understanding of the universe, but also lead to a more diverse and compassionate astronomy and astrophysics community.
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