On the astronomer’s wish list for the next ten years: two giant telescopes and a space telescope to search for life beyond Earth and a habitable world.

Give any friend a story

As a subscriber, you have 10 gifts to send every month. Anyone can read what you share.

American astronomers on Thursday called on the United States to invest in a new generation of "super-large" telescopes worth billions of dollars. These telescopes will be larger than any telescope currently on Earth or in space orbit.

This investment will require salvation and a combination of the efforts of two competing projects, namely the giant Magellan telescope and the 30-meter telescope. Once completed, the sensitivity of these telescopes with main condenser diameters of 25 meters and 30 meters, respectively, will be about 100 times higher than any telescope currently in use.

They will enable astronomers to observe the core of distant galaxies in depth, where huge black holes roam and sputter energy; investigate the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy; and study planets around stars other than the sun. Perhaps more importantly, they can raise new questions about the nature of the universe.

But astronomers have been trying to raise enough funds for years to fulfill their dreams. In the new proposal, the National Science Foundation will provide 1.6 billion U.S. dollars to complete these two projects, and then help run them as part of a new project called the US Very Large Telescope.

On Thursday, astronomers also urged NASA to start a new Grand Observatory mission and technology maturity program, which will develop a series of astrophysics spacecraft in the next 20 to 30 years. The first is an optical telescope larger than the Hubble Space Telescope, which can search for and study terrestrial planets in the nearby universe-possibly a habitable "exo-Earth". Astronomers say that only NASA can do this, and pointed out that it may be ready in 2040 at a cost of 11 billion U.S. dollars.

These two recommendations are the largest in a long-awaited 614-page report "Discovery Pathways in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the 2020s" released by the National Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Engineering, and the School of Medicine on Thursday.

In the past 70 years, every 10 years, the academy has sponsored a survey of the astronomy community in order to set priorities for large items in the next decade. As we all know, the ten-year investigation has attracted the attention of Congress, NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy.

This year's work is a branch of Astronomy by Fiona A. Harrison of California Institute of Technology and Robert C. Astronomy of the University of Arizona and Texas A&M University. A total of 860 white papers were submitted for the survey, describing possible telescopes, space missions that should be launched, experiments or observations that should be conducted, and the diversity of issues that the astronomy community should address.

Dr. Harrison said in an interview that their committee had tried to strike a balance between ambition and the time and money required for these projects. For example, some people have put forward some ideas about planetary exploration spacecraft. Some are too big, some are too small; some take a century to execute. The team did not choose one of them, but asked the community and NASA to come up with an idea for a 6-meter-diameter space telescope. (Hubble’s primary mirror is 2.4 meters in diameter.)

"The six-meter telescope seems to be an achievable goal," Dr. Harrison said.

"This is essentially an ambitious exploration," she added. "Only NASA and only the United States can do this. We believe we can do it."

Matt Mountain, chairman of the Association for University Astronomical Research (AURA), which runs the observatory for the National Science Foundation, described the ten-year report as "very bold" in an email. "And they did not shy away from articulating the vision for decades, which is actually what it will need and need to adopt."

The ten-year survey has a successful record. The Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 1990 and still in operation-designed to see the beginning of time and scheduled for launch next month-have benefited from high rankings in the previous ten-year survey .

Therefore, the astronomy and astrophysics communities are eagerly awaiting the results of each new investigation. "The committee has always been very confidential," Natalie Batalha, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in an email on the eve of the report. She was on NASA’s Kepler Planet. Played a leading role in the search task. "Honestly, I heard nothing. I can't wait to wait."

In its report on Thursday, the college listed three overall scientific goals for the next ten years: the search for habitable planets and life; the study of black holes and neutron stars, which are the causes of the most violent events in nature; and the development of galaxies. Growth and evolution.

The report states: "The next few decades will put humanity on a path to determine whether we are alone." "Life on Earth may be the result of a common process, or it may require a series of unusual environments that we are The only creature in the galaxy and even the universe. Any answer is profound."

The idea of ​​the Very Large Telescope project is ambitious because it involves a mix of two competing telescope projects, namely the 30-meter telescope planned for the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii or the Canary Islands in Spain, and the ongoing giant Magellan telescope. In Chile.

Both telescopes are huge international cooperation and the dream product of raising funds and recruiting partners in the past ten years. The volume of these two telescopes is about three times that of existing telescopes on Earth, and the ability to identify faint distant stars in the universe is 100 times that of today. By working together, they can solve deep-seated questions about the universe. But neither project has raised enough funds—more than $2 billion needed—to achieve its goals.

If these telescopes cannot be built, Europe will hand over its leadership in terrestrial astronomy to Europe, which is building a 39-meter telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert-the European Very Large Telescope-expected to begin in 2027 run. Some astronomers have compared the cancellation of the 1993 American Superconducting Supercollider project, which entrusted the future of particle physics to CERN and the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.

If the National Science Foundation invests in the completion of these two telescopes, it will obtain a large amount of observation time, which will be allocated to American astronomers.

Dr. Harrison said: "These two telescopes are located in opposite hemispheres and have completely different designs. They are very suitable for complementary studies of the universe." "It is unthinkable to imagine that the United States will not be able to obtain it."

Major challenges await us. The giant Magellan team has broken ground in Chile, but the progress of the 30-meter telescope has been blocked by protests and blockades by Native Hawaiians and other groups. An alternate site has been designated in La Palma, Canary Islands.

Given the current emphasis on infrastructure and the ever-increasing scientific budget, astronomers hope that the stars will align with their bold vision. But they have been troubled by the history of cost overruns. The most notable is the James Webb Space Telescope. After years of delay, the telescope will finally be launched in December with a final price of US$10 billion.

"All of this is imminent is JWST-the whole plan will be based on its success," said Michael Turner, a cosmologist and ten-year survey veteran who now works at the Kavli Foundation in Los Angeles. "Ten fingers interlocked."

Never miss solar eclipses, meteor showers, rocket launches or any other astronomical and space events beyond this world.

A guide to spacecraft beyond earth orbit.

We can help you keep track of what is happening in our solar system and the entire universe.