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Future of Astronomy

Future of Astronomy. Astronomy 315 Professor Lee Carkner Lecture 23. Yerkes Observatory 1897. The Future of Astronomy. What would we like to understand better? Formation and evolution of stars and planets Formation and evolution of black holes. Problems and Solutions.

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Future of Astronomy

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  1. Future of Astronomy Astronomy 315 Professor Lee Carkner Lecture 23

  2. Yerkes Observatory1897

  3. The Future of Astronomy • What would we like to understand better? • Formation and evolution of stars and planets • Formation and evolution of black holes

  4. Problems and Solutions • We want to study fainter objects • We want better detail • We want to study a broad range of astrophysical phenomena • Use multiwavelength telescopes

  5. Key Initiatives • While much science is done with small and common instruments, there are several large and expensive new projects that we hope will lead to big breakthroughs • Three of these are: • A Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope

  6. Webb Space Telescope • See earliest galaxies • View protoplanetary disks • To be launched in 2013 (?) • Cost:

  7. Webb Format • Want to be both high performance and cheap • To get large mirror to fit in small launch vehicle, mirror folds up

  8. Constellation X • Would have collecting area ~100 times larger than current X-ray telescopes • Would be able to get high resolution X-ray spectra of: • Key challenge is coordinating the 4 telescopes

  9. Future Ground Based Telescopes • Currently the worlds largest telescope is the 10 meter Keck on Mauna Kea • Much larger telescopes are called ELTs • US is looking into a 30 meter Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT)

  10. Extremely Large Telescopes • Success of large telescopes depends on adaptive optics • ELT’s would complement NGST • For follow up observations that require greater sensitivity

  11. HobbyEberlyTelescope1997

  12. Telescope Trends • 21st century astronomy versus 20th century astronomy:

  13. Next Time • Meet in planetarium • Bring telescope sketches to hand in • Be prepared to sketch the Sun

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