Astronomy is in a golden age. Discoveries since 1960 include quasars (1963), the cosmic microwave background radiation (1965), pulsars (1967), neutronstar binaries (1970), superluminal expansion of radio sources (1971), solar coronal holes (1973), evidence for gravitational radiation from a binary pulsar (1974), anomalous solar neutrino flux (1976), a super gamma‐ray burst (1979), and a gravitational lens (1979). Radio, infrared, ultraviolet, x‐ray, and gamma‐ray techniques have made it possible to study phenomena not accessible to optical astronomy alone. Physics has come to play an increasingly important role in providing both the technology for these developments and the theoretical framework for astronomy. Today, atomic, molecular, nuclear, and plasma physics are indispensable tools in interpreting astronomical data; cosmology and the study of superdense configurations depend on general relativity and, increasingly, elementary‐particle physics.
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April 1982
April 01 1982
Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980s
NAS's Astronomy Survey Committee has identified priorities for new facilities that can take advantage of the tantalizing research opportunities in this decade.
George B. Field
George B. Field
Harvard‐Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Physics Today 35 (4), 46–52 (1982);
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George B. Field; Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980s. Physics Today 1 April 1982; 35 (4): 46–52. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2915010
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