2019/03/12 by Knut Olsen, M. L. Graham, Olsen, Knut A. G. +7
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1903.05130
openalex publication_date 2019/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Over the past decade, research in resolved stellar populations has made great\nstrides in exploring the nature of dark matter, in unraveling the star\nformation, chemical enrichment, and dynamical histories of the Milky Way and\nnearby galaxies, and in probing fundamental physics from general relativity to\nthe structure of stars. Large surveys have been particularly important to the\nbiggest of these discoveries. In the coming decade, current and planned surveys\nwill push these research areas still further through a large variety of\ndiscovery spaces, giving us unprecedented views into the low surface brightness\nUniverse, the high surface brightness Universe, the 3D motions of stars, the\ntime domain, and the chemical abundances of stellar populations. These\ndiscovery spaces will be opened by a diverse range of facilities, including the\ncontinuing Gaia mission, imaging machines like LSST and WFIRST, massively\nmultiplexed spectroscopic platforms like DESI, Subaru-PFS, and MSE, and\ntelescopes with high sensitivity and spatial resolution like JWST, the ELTs,\nand LUVOIR. We do not know which of these facilities will prove most critical\nfor resolved stellar populations research in the next decade. We can predict,\nhowever, that their chance of success will be maximized by granting use of the\ndata to broad communities, that many scientific discoveries will draw on a\ncombination of data from them, and that advances in computing will enable\nincreasingly sophisticated analyses of the large and complex datasets that they\nwill produce. We recommend that Astro2020 1) acknowledge the critical role that\ndata archives will play for stellar populations and other science in the next\ndecade, 2) recognize the opportunity that advances in computing will bring for\nsurvey data analysis, and 3) consider investments in Science Platform\ntechnology to bring these opportunities to fruition.\n