A list of the astronomy projects that European funders should prioritize has been unveiled by Astronet, a network of European funding agencies and research organizations.

Among the recommended projects are a new wide-field spectroscopic telescope, support for the Einstein Telescope — a gravitational-wave detector still in development — and the European Solar Telescope, which will study the Sun’s magnetic field. Space-based missions include a follow-up to the Gaia spacecraft that is mapping billions of stars .

US astronomy's 10-year plan is super-ambitious

“I was particularly excited to see the nature of dark matter and dark energy marked out as key unanswered questions,” says Priyamvada Natarajan, an astronomer at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Astronet came up with its 2022–2035 astronomy roadmap after consulting with the academic community for nearly three years, says Amélie Saintonge, an astrophysicist at University College London who edited the final report. The consultation process involved several working groups of researchers who advised on the scientific priorities in their fields and the technology needed to achieve their research goals.

Balancing the needs and wishes of the entire community was a big part of the process, says Saintonge. “If you look at some of our top recommendations in terms of ground-based facilities, you have, for example, the European Solar Telescope, which is a facility that really is most of interest for the solar-physics community,” she says. “Next to that we have recommendations of other facilities that are far more general,” she adds, for example a spectroscopic telescope that could see really distant galaxies in large spectroscopic surveys. “One of the reasons we prioritize that is because it is of appeal to essentially all science areas, it would be a very versatile facility,” she says. “At this time, strategically, you need that kind of spectroscopy facility to follow up and make the most of many other things that are upcoming.”

Continuing support

This is the second time Astronet has produced a roadmap for European astronomy. The first was published in 2008, and updated in 2015. Since then, Astronet has become independent of the European Commission, which hosted the network until 2015.

The network’s 2008 roadmap recommended that funders prioritize the 42-metre Extremely Large Telescope on Cerro Armazones, Chile, and the Square Kilometre Array in Meerkat National Park, South Africa and Boolardy, Australia. Both are large infrastructure projects that are currently being built. The latest report recommends providing ongoing support to these telescopes. “It’s a bit of a continuum from previous reports,” says Colin Vincent, chair of Astronet’s board, and associate director for astronomy at the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, based in Swindon.

The roadmap has overlap with other long-term planning reports such as the European Space Agency’s Voyage 2050 programme and the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s decadal survey, released in 2021, which sets out research priorities in astronomy and astrophysics.

Space-weather forecast to improve with European satellite

This report is in some ways the European counterpart to the decadal survey, explains Saintonge, “but at the same time, it’s quite a different exercise”. The US version has a budget attached to it, and is often seen as binding: the recommendations are the projects that will be funded. “This is much more of a community-driven effort and much more European astronomers establishing a wish list of what they would like to see.”

“It’s not just about the big facilities, it’s about [the whole] ecosystem of facilities,” adds Saintonge. “That means funding computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence,” she says, along with investment in training.

The roadmap also recommends that sustainability and diversity are prioritized in funding decisions. “Everybody wanted to see in there a strong component about sustainability, and the impact of astronomy research on society and the planet.”

Jean-Marie Hameury, an astrophysicist at the Observatory of Strasbourg in France, led the creation of the first Astronet roadmap and is pleased that a follow-up has been produced. European astronomy needs long-term planning in the broadest sense, he says. “There is a need for such a thing that covers both ground and space aspects. And also all wavelengths.”

article_text: A list of the astronomy projects that European funders should prioritize has been unveiled by Astronet, a network of European funding agencies and research organizations. Among the recommended projects are a new wide-field spectroscopic telescope, support for the Einstein Telescope — a gravitational-wave detector still in development — and the European Solar Telescope, which will study the Sun’s magnetic field. Space-based missions include a follow-up to the Gaia spacecraft that is mapping billions of stars.

US astronomy's 10-year plan is super-ambitious

“I was particularly excited to see the nature of dark matter and dark energy marked out as key unanswered questions,” says Priyamvada Natarajan, an astronomer at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Astronet came up with its 2022–2035 astronomy roadmap after consulting with the academic community for nearly three years, says Amélie Saintonge, an astrophysicist at University College London who edited the final report. The consultation process involved several working groups of researchers who advised on the scientific priorities in their fields and the technology needed to achieve their research goals. Balancing the needs and wishes of the entire community was a big part of the process, says Saintonge. “If you look at some of our top recommendations in terms of ground-based facilities, you have, for example, the European Solar Telescope, which is a facility that really is most of interest for the solar-physics community,” she says. “Next to that we have recommendations of other facilities that are far more general,” she adds, for example a spectroscopic telescope that could see really distant galaxies in large spectroscopic surveys. “One of the reasons we prioritize that is because it is of appeal to essentially all science areas, it would be a very versatile facility,” she says. “At this time, strategically, you need that kind of spectroscopy facility to follow up and make the most of many other things that are upcoming.” This is the second time Astronet has produced a roadmap for European astronomy. The first was published in 2008, and updated in 2015. Since then, Astronet has become independent of the European Commission, which hosted the network until 2015. The network’s 2008 roadmap recommended that funders prioritize the 42-metre Extremely Large Telescope on Cerro Armazones, Chile, and the Square Kilometre Array in Meerkat National Park, South Africa and Boolardy, Australia. Both are large infrastructure projects that are currently being built. The latest report recommends providing ongoing support to these telescopes. “It’s a bit of a continuum from previous reports,” says Colin Vincent, chair of Astronet’s board, and associate director for astronomy at the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, based in Swindon. The roadmap has overlap with other long-term planning reports such as the European Space Agency’s Voyage 2050 programme and the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s decadal survey, released in 2021, which sets out research priorities in astronomy and astrophysics.

Space-weather forecast to improve with European satellite

This report is in some ways the European counterpart to the decadal survey, explains Saintonge, “but at the same time, it’s quite a different exercise”. The US version has a budget attached to it, and is often seen as binding: the recommendations are the projects that will be funded. “This is much more of a community-driven effort and much more European astronomers establishing a wish list of what they would like to see.” “It’s not just about the big facilities, it’s about [the whole] ecosystem of facilities,” adds Saintonge. “That means funding computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence,” she says, along with investment in training. The roadmap also recommends that sustainability and diversity are prioritized in funding decisions. “Everybody wanted to see in there a strong component about sustainability, and the impact of astronomy research on society and the planet.” Jean-Marie Hameury, an astrophysicist at the Observatory of Strasbourg in France, led the creation of the first Astronet roadmap and is pleased that a follow-up has been produced. European astronomy needs long-term planning in the broadest sense, he says. “There is a need for such a thing that covers both ground and space aspects. And also all wavelengths.” vocabulary:

{'Spectroscopic': '光谱学的，指用光谱学方法研究物质的性质和结构的，例如：The spectroscopic analysis of the star's light revealed its composition.', 'Gravitational-wave': '引力波，指由物体间的引力作用产生的波，例如：The gravitational-wave detector was able to detect the wave from the collision of two black holes.', 'Gaia': '盖亚，指欧洲航天局的一项太空任务，旨在精确测量恒星的位置和运动，例如：The Gaia mission has mapped billions of stars in the Milky Way.', 'Priyamvada': '普里亚姆瓦达，指耶鲁大学的一位天文学家，例如：Priyamvada Natarajan is an astronomer at Yale University.', 'Amélie': '阿梅莉，指伦敦大学学院的一位天体物理学家，例如：Amélie Saintonge is an astrophysicist at University College London.', 'Spectroscopy': '光谱学，指用光谱学方法研究物质的性质和结构的，例如：Spectroscopy is used to study the composition of stars.', 'Voyage': '旅行，指欧洲航天局的一项太空任务，旨在探索太空，例如：The Voyage 2050 mission is a European Space Agency mission to explore space.', 'Decadal': '十年的，指美国国家科学、工程和医学院发布的一份报告，旨在确定天文和天体物理学研究的优先事项，例如：The US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine's decadal survey sets out research priorities in astronomy and astrophysics.', 'Ecosystem': '生态系统，指一组相互作用的生物群落和它们的环境，例如：The ecosystem of the forest is composed of plants, animals, and microorganisms.', 'Sustainability': '可持续性，指社会、经济和环境系统的可持续发展，例如：The company is committed to sustainability and has implemented a number of initiatives to reduce its environmental impact.', 'Strategically': '战略地，指从战略上考虑，例如：The company strategically invested in new technology to stay competitive in the market.', 'Continuum': '连续，指一系列连续的事物，例如：The continuum of colors in the rainbow is made up of all the colors of the visible spectrum.', 'Versatile': '多功能的，指能够多种用途的，例如：The versatile tool can be used for a variety of tasks.', 'Meerkat': '猫鼬，指一种非洲的小型兽类，例如：The meerkat is a small mammal native to Africa.', 'Boolardy': '布拉尔迪，指澳大利亚西部的一个小镇，例如：Boolardy is a small town in the western part of Australia.', 'Astronet': '天文网络，指欧洲资助机构和研究组织的一个网络，例如：Astronet is a network of European funding agencies and research organizations.', 'Einstein': '爱因斯坦，指德国犹太裔科学家爱因斯坦，例如：Einstein was a German-born Jewish scientist.', 'European': '欧洲的，指欧洲的，例如：The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states.', 'Strasbourg': '斯特拉斯堡，指法国东部的一座城市，例如：Strasbourg is a city in eastern France.', 'Armazones': '阿马佐内斯，指智利的一座山，例如：Cerro Armazones is a mountain in Chile.'} readguide:

{'reading_guide': '这篇文章报道了欧洲天文网络Astronet发布的2022-2035年欧洲天文学路线图，其中推荐的项目包括新的广角光谱望远镜、支持正在开发中的爱因斯坦望远镜和欧洲太阳望远镜，以及继续跟踪正在绘制十亿星体图的盖亚号太空任务等。文章还提到，该路线图还强调了暗物质和暗能量的重要性，并建议在资金分配时考虑可持续性和多样性。'} long_sentences:

{'sentence 1': 'At this time, strategically, you need that kind of spectroscopy facility to follow up and make the most of many other things that are upcoming，這時候，從戰略上來說，你需要這種光譜儀設備來跟進，充分利用其他即將到來的東西。句子結構上，主要是一個名詞子句，其中包含了一個that引導的定語從句，其中的kind of spectroscopy facility是一個名詞短語，表示“某種光譜儀設備”，follow up and make the most of many other things that are upcoming則是一個動詞短語，表示“跟進並充分利用其他即將到來的東西”，句子的主語是you，動詞need的賓語是that kind of spectroscopy facility，句子的意思是“你需要這種光譜儀設備來跟進，充分利用其他即將到來的東西”。', 'sentence 2': 'The roadmap also recommends that sustainability and diversity are prioritized in funding decisions，該路線圖還建議將可持續性和多樣性列為籌資決策的優先考慮。句子結構上，主要是一個that引導的定語從句，其中的sustainability and diversity是一個名詞短語，表示“可持續性和多樣性”，prioritized in funding decisions則是一個動詞短語，表示“列為籌資決策的優先考慮”，句子的主語是The roadmap，動詞recommends的賓語是that sustainability and diversity are prioritized in funding decisions，句子的意思是“該路線圖建議將可持續性和多樣性列為籌資決策的優先考慮”。'}