Last April, Dr. Steven Myers of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory published a position paper for Astro2010 emphasizing the important role that astronomical surveys play in the next 10 years. The idea of a Great Surveys Program, notes Myers, is inspired by NASA’s Great Observatories program which includes the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
And on a deeper level, what makes this emphasis on survey astronomy so interesting and profound is the way resulting discoveries will guide the efforts of existing large-aperture narrow-field observatories performing follow-up studies of newly discovered objects. Among the key objectives of survey astronomy noted by Myers:
1. To serve as probes for narrowing in on key cosmological parameters
2. To study the origin and evolution of galaxies across time and to better understand the large-scale structure of the universe
3.To formulate a complete census of the Milky Way’s local neighborhood across the electromagnetic spectrum.
4. Identifying new classes of stellar objects and contributing to theoretical models of stellar structure and evolution.
5. Discovery of new exoplanets and improving our understanding of how planets and solar systems form.
6. Discovery of and tracking of transient phenomena including gamma-ray bursts and variable stars.
Myers summarizes a number of the underlying challenges to realizing an effective program for survey astronomy. These include required advances in hardware, data-processing, data-mining, and image analysis, visualization, and simulation. Myers also stresses the importance of public data access, quality assurance, and data interchange – issues that may not seem particularly sexy, but are fundamental to realizing the full potential of survey astronomy.
See also: The Great Surveys of Astronomy Workshop (November 2008, Santa Fe, NM) for additional papers and presentations.
