[ASA] Astro2020 and GMT

[Matthew Colless]

Folks,

You may have seen the release of the US Decadal Survey (Astro2020) report overnight. This contained very good news for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) project. To quote from the report summary:

Because of the powerful potential that large (20–40 m) telescopes with diffraction-limited adaptive optics have for astronomy, and because of the readiness of the projects, the survey’s priority for a frontier ground-based observatory is a significant U.S. investment in the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) projects, ideally as components of a coordinated U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program (ELT) program. These observatories will create enormous opportunities for scientific progress over the coming decades and well beyond, and they will address nearly every important science question across all three priority science areas.

If you are interested in what this really means for GMT, you might like to look at the attached set of key extracts from the Astro2020 report relating to GMT, which outline some of the details and the proposed path forward.

Cheers, Matthew.

Professor Matthew Colless <matthew.colless at anu.edu.au<mailto:matthew.colless at anu.edu.au>>
Director, Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics
The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Work: +61-2-6125-0266 Mobile:+61-431-898-345

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