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Pages 125-153

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From page 125...
... 3.5 BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS The preceding sections of this chapter argue for a sustained recommitment to the future of the field, through significant re-investment in the profession and with an increased focus on matters of equity, diversity, and sustainability. For the astronomy and astrophysics profession, the benefits of these investments include a workforce that, through its diversity, is more creative and innovative and reflective of society's full human potential; a professional community that, through equity and fairness, delivers on the promise of equal opportunity for all who would contribute their talent; and a set of policies and practices that, through their sustainability and accountability, ensure good stewardship of the natural and human resources necessary to achieve the field's ambitious science goals.
From page 126...
... 3.6 CONCLUDING REMARKS This chapter ends where it began, quoting from the SoPSI panel's report: "The pursuit of science, and scientific excellence, is inseparable from the humans who animate it." Indeed, the ability of astronomy and astrophysics to inspire and to awe is not only because of the grandeur of the cosmos and the grandness of our wonderment about it; it is also, perhaps even more so, because it is people -- seemingly so small and insignificant in relation to that vastness -- who dream the questions and who dare to try to answer them. Our ability to grasp the universe is as great as it is because it is driven by the boundlessness and breadth of human curiosity, creativity, ingenuity, and diversity.
From page 127...
... Some will find passages to be provocative reading, whether the topic is racial and ethnic representation and discrimination, sexual harassment and discrimination, stewardship of observatory sites, or the many other issues and areas addressed in the report. Facing such truths by listening, reflecting, and facilitating ongoing dialog will uplift and empower not only those who face barriers to entering and advancing in the profession but also enhance the entire astronomy and astrophysics community.
From page 128...
... support and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., the Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellowship) , and key seed funding for future projects.
From page 129...
... , Vera Rubin Observatory, Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory [LIGO]
From page 130...
... Chapter 3 emphasized the need to collect demographic information from researchers in external grant programs to assess indicators pertaining to outcomes of proposal competitions. A lack of data is apparent here as well; proposal success rates for only a few programs were available, and not always the most recent data.
From page 131...
... Preparing proposals for individual investigator grants is extremely time consuming, and -- given the large impact a successful proposal has on a scientist's output and career -- the stakes are typically high. NSF AAG proposal success rates averaged 30–50 percent in the early 1990s through the early 2000s (Figure 4.2)
From page 132...
... This work was supported by NSF AST individual investigator grants. These improved mass and distance estimates were crucial for cementing the black hole explanation for Sgr A*
From page 133...
... The decrease in AAG proposal success rate is attributed by a 2018 National Science Board (NSB) report in roughly equal measure to the increase in the number of submitted proposals and the decrease in available funds because of the increase in facilities operations costs with a nearly flat AST budget.4 AST stands out in the MPS directorate both for having a low proposal success rate and for spending the least amount of its budget on individual grants programs.
From page 134...
... Over the entire foundation, roughly 30 percent of proposals are ranked highly meritorious, and recent initiatives by the NSF director are focused on achieving a grant proposal success rate of 30 percent.5 Other NSF divisions that share common features with astronomy, such as physics and oceanography both being heavy users of the MREFC line, have higher proposal success rates than the astronomy division and devote a larger fraction of their budget to supporting individual investigator grants (Figure 4.4)
From page 135...
... The Enabling Foundation report suggested a 20 percent increase in funding above inflation for all individual investigator grants programs to restore success rates to a healthy competitive environment. This underfunding has also impacted equity within the field.
From page 136...
... Low funding rates at both NASA and NSF have affected the ability to carry out theoretical investigations. For NASA's ATP program, which funds theory relevant to NASA's missions, proposal funding rates dropped FIGURE 4.5 LIGO gravitational wave data from its two observatories at Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, from the first gravitational wave detection of merging black holes.
From page 137...
... 8 decadal survey recommended that funding for NASA's Astrophysics Theory Program be increased by 25 percent, but instead the budget remained flat, and the calls for proposals slowed to a 2-year cadence. When coupled with current extremely low proposal success rates, these changes have particularly hurt the career development of pre-tenure theorists.
From page 138...
... Even with higher AAG proposal funding rates, the time delay and gauntlet of multiple proposal reviews add significant inefficiencies that hamper the scientific output of the most powerful facilities. F inding: Associating research funding for data analysis and production of high-level data products with awarding of observing time ensures that observers have the resources they need to accomplish the proposed science.
From page 139...
... These are relevant to astronomy research but are funded through other divisions. Neutrino astrophysics and gravitational wave astronomy are primarily funded out of NSF FIGURE 4.6 The multi-messenger nature of the detection of the kilonova 170817, first detected in gravitational waves and gamma-ray bursts, and shortly thereafter in many other wavelengths.
From page 140...
... The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also oversees space weather prediction capabilities and is another federal agency relevant to the subject. The direction for investments in space-based assets is prioritized by the solar and space physics decadal survey process, while this astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey committee advises only the division of Astronomical Sciences at NSF about ground-based solar physics.
From page 141...
... Advancing these myriad scientific goals is most efficiently done utilizing a comprehensive approach.  onclusion: The most appropriate role for future astronomy and astrophysics decadal surveys is to comment C on the value of ground-based solar physics projects for astronomy and astrophysics scientific priorities.
From page 142...
... astronomers in the 5 years since the first data release. In the coming decade, the Vera Rubin and Nancy Grace Roman Observatories, the highestpriority ground and space projects in the 2010 decadal survey, respectively, will provide comparably rich data sets, which promise to revolutionize time-domain astronomy and promise breakthrough discoveries across a wide range of astrophysical disciplines.
From page 143...
... For NASA, these include mission-specific support (Figure 4.8) , support for archival data centers, and individual investigator programs such as the ADAP and XRP.
From page 144...
... The effort put in by the ALMA Observatory to create data reduction and calibration pipelines has the result that currently 95 FIGURE 4.9 Graph of the growth of refereed papers using archival data from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) La Silla Paranal Observatory, as a percentage of the total number of papers published that year.
From page 145...
... ground-based observatories are financially positioned or structurally incentivized to provide fully reduced data products, and for older public facilities like the VLA or Very Long Baseline Array with complicated data processing, such a goal may simply not be possible for all data in spite of best efforts (see Figure 4.11 for the increasing trend in archival usage from the VLA)
From page 146...
... Novacescu et al., 2019, "Robust Archives Maximize Scientific Accessibility," APC white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, https:// arxiv.org/abs/1907.06234.
From page 147...
... The system as envisioned by the Enabling Foundation panel could also address cross-agency strategic planning in the related areas of software development, high-performance/high-throughput computing, archiving and curating data from theoretical simulations, and community training in related areas. An important component of creating effective archives is coordinating with cross-agency and international archiving services to develop best practices and interoperability.
From page 148...
... As discussed in the Open Source Software Policy Options for NASA Earth and Space Sciences report, funding for software maintenance and for open source software projects, which have been transformative for astronomical science over the past decade, could pay major dividends in the future.22 F inding: Software development has become an essential part of every sub-field of astronomy. However, software developers and large software development efforts are not adequately funded or supported by existing structures.
From page 149...
... and high resolution (right) simulation at a redshift where the majority of star formation is occurring demonstrates the utility of high-performance computing simulations for advancing understanding of complex processes like the factors affecting galaxy formation and evolution.
From page 150...
... F inding: Data science, including applications of machine learning, will play an increasing role in astronomical research over the coming decade. Incorporating training in this area at the graduate level and beyond will better prepare researchers regardless of whether they pursue careers in astrophysics or in other STEM fields.
From page 151...
... NOTE: See Ntampaka et al., 2019, "The Role of Machine Learning in the Next Decade of Cosmology," APC white paper submitted to Astro2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophys­ics, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1902.10159.pdf. SOURCES: Space Telescope Science Institute, https://frontierfields.org; courtesy of NASA, ESA, and J
From page 152...
... Laboratory astrophysics is also a required foundation to enable science on a range of scales -- from as small as dust grain growth to the solar convection boundary problem, to understanding the shock physics of supernovae. A prime topic for the next decade, constraining the heavy elements produced in the electromagnetic counterparts to neutron star mergers (kilonovae)
From page 153...
... In the era of ALMA, JWST, and proposed future facilities, with which astronomers will have the capability to study the chemical origins of exoplanetary systems and to detect molecules in exoplanetary atmospheres, the ability to spectroscopically identify complex chemical species in space, including prebiotic molecules, is critically important. A robust program of laboratory astrophysics to support these investigations is essential.


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