Astronomy panel talks dollars and sense.

Astronomy panel talks dollars and sense

Peering out with infrared, optical and X-ray eyes, telescopes survey the cosmos, bringing into focus such celestial residents as globular clusters, white dwarfs and quasars. Despite the beckonings of the universe, however, astronomers say tight purse strings limit the number and extent of their studies. That lament seems as old as the stars, but a scientific panel has now taken a step beyond fiscal grumbling with a plan for making the best of a limited budget.

The panel of 15 astronomers, appointed by the National Research Council, spent two years considering hundreds of projects and consulted nearly 1,000 astronomers. This week, they presented the results of their work: a list of what they deem the highest priorities for U.S. ground- and space-based research through the year 2000. Together, the projects would cost an estimated $3 billion.

Instead of focusing solely on new instruments, panel chairman John N. Bahcall of Princeton (N.J.) University says the committee concluded it had "a moral obligation" to give overall priority to maintaining and refurbishing existing national observatories -- an area in which funding has not kept pace with inflation in the past decade.

"[Current] investment in the infrastructure of astronomy is a national disgrace," asserts Bahcall. To remedy that, his panel recommends that the National Science Foundation (NSF) add $15 million a year for the next nine years to its annual expenditures to upgrade large telescopes and related equipment, currently funded at about $25 million annually. In addition, the panel calls for NSF to increase its annual funding for individual astronomy grants, particularly those funding young investigators, by $10 million a year.

The panel report, sponsored by NASA, NSF and other federal research and development agencies, also recommends an "increased emphasis in the astronomy research budget on small and moderate programs," stressing the need for smaller, more frequent space missions equipped with state-of-the-art instruments. In addition, Bahcall maintains that NASA could solve some of its recent organizational and equipment problems and prevent future glitches by working more closely with astronomers rather than treating them as unwanted collaborators.

The Earth-orbiting Space Infrared Telescope Facility won the panel's approval as first priority among proposed large-scale projects. This instrument, 1,000 times more sensitive than ground-based infrared telescopes, would play a key role in detecting newly forming stars and galaxies, the panel maintains.

The group recommends funding for three other large-scale projects. In order of ranking, these include: an 8-meter optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere; the Millimeter Array, a group of millimeter-wavelength telescopes for detecting planet-forming regions around young stars; and an 8-meter telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea, primarily for infrared use.

Among programs considered moderate in scope, the panel gives highest priority to research in adaptive optics -- efforts to improve ground-based telescope resolution by compensating for atmospheric distortion. Other recommendations include: more frequent Explorer telescope missions; construction of SOFIA, a 2.5-meter telescope that would probe far-infrared radiation from its vantage point inside a Boeing 747; and a space mission aimed at a 1,000-fold improvement in the precision with which scientists locate celestial bodies.

Small-scale projects highlighted in the report include a program to detect neutrinos from supernovas, and a new version of the Fly's Eye telescope -- an array that would analyze the most energetic cosmic rays ever detected.

Although the President has enthusiastically supported a lunar mission, Bahcall says that project did not make the priority list because the panelists concluded that in the short term, scientists could conduct astrophysical research just as easily from Earth as from the moon. Another contender that missed the boat: twin gravitational-wave detectors that NSF proposes to begin funding next year.

Congressional staffers and NSF administrators say they welcome the panel's report as a cogent guide to planning on a tight budget. "It's not just a wish list; it's not saying, 'We want it all,'" one congressional budget analyst told SCIENCE NEWS. "This will have an impact in helping us decide what to fund."