Astrophysicists are deep in the throes of a process they conduct every 10 years to set scientific priorities for the field; the results could determine which missions fly and which don’t.
By the end of this process, dubbed Astro2020, the discipline will have a thorough document meant to steer astronomy and astrophysics research between 2022 and 2032. It’s the latest installment of what NASA scientists know as the decadal survey; planetary scientists conduct a similar process as well. The results of decadal surveys are crucial, since it is these community-informed documents that the federal government uses as guiding principles; the report will be completed in late January of next year.
Despite its reliance on input from scientists, the decadal survey process is highly confidential. Nevertheless, on Tuesday (Jan. 7), the two leaders of the process offered an update on its status and answered questions from scientists gathered here for the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting.
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