The flagship projects in astronomy and astrophysics for the coming decade will likely be the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). They ranked first in the big-ticket space-based and ground-based categories, respectively, in New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics (known as Astro2010), the decadal survey released by the National Research Council in August. The survey sets priorities for the field for fiscal years 2012 through 2021 and will serve as a handbook for funding agencies.
“The survey puts science first. We were emphatic about that,” says Astro2010 committee chair Roger Blandford of Stanford University. The committee narrowed its focus to three broad science objectives: searching for the first stars, galaxies, and black holes; seeking nearby, habitable planets; and understanding the fundamental physics of the universe. Those goals—plus fitting into a tight budget—inform the mix of space- and ground-based facilities and related...
