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TABLE 7.1 Projects Thought Compelling for the Mid‐Scale Innovations Program (in alphabetical order) Project Name Science Goal Cost Range a Big Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Cosmic Microwave Background Measurements Exoplanet Initiatives Determine the cause of the acceleration of the universe. Detect the signature of inflation and probe exotic physics in the earliest moments of the universe. Develop radial-velocity surveys and spectrometers to determine the properties of extrasolar planets; understand extrazodiacal light levels. Upper Middle Middle and Lower Frequency Agile Solar Radiotelescope Understand the Sun’s atmosphere. Upper High-Altitude Water Cerenkov Experiment Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array Next Generation Adaptive Optics Systems North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves Map the high-energy (>1 TeV) gamma-ray sky. Determine how the universe is ionized after the formation of the first stars Enable near-infrared and visible wavelength imaging and spectroscopy at spatial resolution better than that of HST to address a broad science program from exoplanet studies to galaxy formation. Detect gravitational waves from the early universe through pulsar timing. Lower Upper Middle and Upper Upper a Upper: $40 million to $100 million, middle: $12 million to $40 million, lower:
excel at high spectral and spatial resolution spectroscopy and will have a relationship to JWST similar to that of the 8- to 10-meter-class telescopes to HST. 20 With every enormous leap in sensitivity comes new discoveries we cannot anticipate, but the broad impact the GSMTs will have on they survey’s identified science questions is clear. The very first galaxies in the universe that will be found by JWST will require GSMTs for follow-up so as to determine their internal dynamical properties by studying the bulk motions of stars in a way that complements the gas observations of ALMA. GSMTs would also monitor how the chemical elements are built up. Their superb spatial resolution and astrometric capabilities would enable them to follow the orbits of individual stars around the several-million-solar-mass black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy so as to obtain precision measurements of fundamental galactic parameters. Direct imaging of exoplanet systems using the advanced adaptive optics cameras on these telescopes would also be an exciting area of study, given that GSMTs will have the highest angular resolution in the visible through infrared of any existing or planned facility, ground or space. They would also be able to study the reflected infrared emission of planets in the habitable zone. The ability of a GSMT to perform direct spectroscopy on very faint galaxies would be crucial in efforts to elucidate the properties of dark matter and merging black holes. These telescopes would transform understanding of stellar astronomy by taking high-dispersion spectra of local stars, mapping the flow of gas into and out of massive galaxies during their formative stage, and studying the formation of protoplanetary systems. As discussed in Chapter 3, there are three projects underway in the world to construct and operate a new generation of extremely large telescopes with diameters in the range of 23 to 42 meters (Figure 7.9). The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is composed of seven 8.4-meter mirrors and has an aperture equivalent to a single 23-meter mirror; it will be sited at the Las Campanas Observatory (Chile). The GMT design builds on the success of the two 6.5-meter Magellan Telescopes. The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) is composed of almost 500 1.44-meter segments, has an aperture equivalent to a single mirror 30 meters in diameter, and will be sited at Mauna Kea (Hawaii). It builds on the success of the two 10-meter Keck Telescopes. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) has a segmented mirror design with an aperture equivalent to a single mirror 42 meters in diameter. Its recommended site is at Cerro Armazones in Chile. The project is led by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and has a mirror segment design similar to that of TMT. The committee concluded that more than one GSMT will be required in the world to fully exploit the identified science opportunities. The reasons are that there are advantages to having capability in two hemispheres, that the desired suite of instruments may require different optimizations of telescope design, and that so many new scientific problems can be addressed that any credible number of GSMTs is likely to be oversubscribed. It is imperative that at least one of the U.S.-led telescope projects have U.S. federal investment. Such a federal role will leverage the very significant U.S. private investment, will maximize the potential for the project’s success, will help to optimize the U.S. scientific return on other federal investments (ALMA, JWST, and LSST), and will position the NSF for leadership in future largetelescope projects beyond GSMT. Since both GMT and TMT are already international public-private partnerships, federal involvement with either one is consistent with the international collaboration strategy that is a recurring theme in this survey and would ensure U.S. leadership in one international large telescope. Such leadership would further another important strategy advocated in this report: cooperation with other countries so as to develop complementary capabilities that will maximize the science output. In the case of GSMT this means coordination with ESO on technology development and instrument selection to create a global system of GSMTs with optimal complementary and scientific reach. The committee notes that public time on a GSMT would, in principle, be subject to the open skies policy in effect for all federally supported U.S. telescopes. It is the committee’s hope that a result would be corresponding reciprocal access to major optical-infrared telescopes abroad. 20 Specifically, HST discovered many new classes of objects, and the larger ground-based telescopes with their superior spectroscopic capabilities were needed to determine where and what they are. PREPUBLICATION COPY—SUBJECT TO FURTHER EDITORIAL CORRECTION 7-33
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fi
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COMMITTEE FOR A DECADAL SURVEY OF A
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Panel on Stars and Stellar Evolutio
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DOUGLAS FINKBEINER, Harvard Univers
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SPACE STUDIES BOARD CHARLES F. KENN
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activities 2 that have emerged from
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In addition to the 27 panel meeting
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Acknowledgment of Reviewers This re
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The Accelerating Universe 2-26 The
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APPENDIXES A Summary of Science Fro
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light up the universe, marking the
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RECOMMENDED PROGRAM Maintaining a b
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TABLE ES.4 Space: Recommended Activ
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Cosmic Dawn: Searching for the Firs
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this imprint would both probe funda
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important outcome will be to open u
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estimated to be on the order of $20
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observatories. For NASA an annual b
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surveys of large fields, enabling s
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RECOMMENDATION: U.S. investors in a
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departments and the community as a
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dominate spending; (2) private-publ
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us was certainly evident during the
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BOX 2-1 Other Worlds Around Other S
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FIGURE 2‐2 The source 3C 75, show
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FIGURE 2‐3 Numerical simulation o
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FIGURE 2‐4 Left panel: Image of t
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FIGURE 2‐6 Top: Schematic of the
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Most stars with masses smaller than
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BOX 2-2 The Origin of Planets After
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send material raining into the cent
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BOX 2-4 Lifecycles in Galaxies One
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Stars Stars are the most observable
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ubiquitous high-energy charged-part
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The Nature of Inflation As describe
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FIGURE 2‐11 Pie chart showing the
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An important clue to the nature of
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Studying the properties of neutron
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FIGURE 2‐14 A possible pathway is
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partners and makes recommendations
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As astronomy research has blossomed
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are increasingly relevant. The Euro
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TABLE 3-1 Currently Operating OIR F
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29% 1990 44% US Priv US Fed Other E
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CONCLUSION: Complex and high-cost f
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Space Observatories The Laser Inter
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Physics Division (PHY); the Mathema
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4 Astronomy in Society Astronomy of
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FIGURE 4‐2 The dust sculptures of
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FIGURE 4‐5 President Obama takes
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Astronomy Inspires in the Classroom
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teaching the scientific method. The
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where the fraction of astronomers h
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Percentage of AAS Membership by Fie
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0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 PL SO IM AG SF IN S
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FIGURE 4‐12 Number (top panel) an
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Professional training needs to acco
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assistant and associate professor p
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fluctuating level of funding for as
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THEORY Emerging Trends in Theoretic
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Central to the Galaxies across Cosm
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TABLE 5‐2 Support for astrophysic
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would normally be for a five-year p
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FIGURE 5‐7 Highly cited HST publi
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y optical and radio astronomers are
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FIGURE 5‐8 Number of PhDs per yea
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ated by the Program Prioritization
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Page 167 and 168: Box 7.1 Implementing a Cosmic Dawn
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Page 181 and 182: significance of mergers in the buil
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Page 187 and 188: Laboratory Astrophysics As describe
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Page 191: Program for instrumentation and fac
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Page 207 and 208: A Summary of Science Frontiers Pane
Page 209 and 210: PLANETARY SYSTEMS AND STAR FORMATIO
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Page 221 and 222: decadal research strategy with reco
Page 223 and 224: CFP CHIPSat CIP CGRO CMB CMU CoBRA
Page 225 and 226: NRC NSB NSF NSF-AGS NSF-ARC NSF-AST
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