The dark clouds over US astronomy

摘要

It is barely 12 months since US astronomy was shown the future, with the release of New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, the latest decadal survey by the National Academy of Sciences. The survey offered a strategy — based on realistic budgets and leveraged by international and private partnerships — to realize dazzling opportunities, including searching for life on other planets, identifying dark matter and understanding dark energy. It also promised to reveal the evolution of the first stars and galaxies and to probe whether supermassive black holes are accurately described by general relativity. It began well, with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the highest priority for ground-based astronomy, put on a path for construction in 2014. But today, US astronomy is in disarray, community morale is low and the proposed cancellation of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the cornerstone of the 2010 decadal survey, is the most glaring example of difficulties ahead. Although capabilities and budgets in Europe and Asia have largely caught up with those of the United States, the health of the US programme remains critical, not just domestically, but also to the rest of the world.