In order to provide a summary of the discussion in the previous sections, the committee established a rating system of how existing and future telescopes might impact on the principle science goals. These are arranged in the following two tables. The intent here is to indicate what impact the various facilities would likely have had on the main science goals 25 years from now. So the way to interpret the ratings are to imagine the year 2023, look back on the previous 25 years and rate how each telescope has contributed to the key scientific issues. The committee made every effort to be objective and the ratings were arrived at by consensus although the dispersions in each category were generally remarkably small. For reasons of space and clarity the tables are broken up into ground and space telescopes but the real desire here is to have an intercomparison of how space and ground facilities will contribute to the key astronomical questions of the future. Hence the tables should be read together.
The main point to glean from these tables is that almost every instrument will address particular problems quite well, but have little impact on other fields. A prime example of this is the various interferometers planned by ESA and NASA as well as the ground-based ones. These will be key instruments in the science goal of searching for extrasolar terrestrial planets but have almost no impact on the dark matter searches or the quest for the first stars in the Universe. By contrast with every instrument currently planned or even envisioned, a large ground-based optical telescope will impact all the key areas significantly.
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26#26
Science Goals1 - Are we alone in the Universe?
2 - What is the Universe made of and what is its overall geometry?
3 - How did our and other solar systems form and evolve?
4 - First sources of light and how did the galaxies like our own form?
5 - Are there things in the Universe that we haven't as yet dreamed of?
Ratings
A = must have, B = extremely useful, C = useful, D = marginal, E = not useful
Notes on Ratings
21#21 - includes all the 15 4 - 6m and the 2 - 3m specialized telescopes, high rating in goal 2 for SN searches, MegaCam and lensing, high
rating in goal 5 for SDSS and MegaCam.
27#27 - includes all the 15 8m class telescopes
1#1 - interferometers only
28#28 - IR and optical interferometers, unfunded
29#29 - aperture larger than 25m visible and near-IR telescope - high rating in goal 5 for aperture 8#8 50m only
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30#30
Science Goals1 - Are we alone in the Universe?
2 - What is the Universe made of and what is its overall geometry?
3 - How did our and other solar systems form and evolve?
4 - First sources of light and how did the galaxies like our own form?
5 - Are there things in the Universe that we haven't as yet dreamed of?
Ratings
A = must have, B = extremely useful, C = useful, D = marginal, E = not useful
Notes on ratings
21#21 - the C rating for goal 2 is for AXAF, the other telescopes are less useful
for this goal, the B rating for goal 3 is due to SIRTF.
27#27 - the B rating for goal 1 is for NGST, the A rating for goal 2 is for Planck,
the A rating for goal 3 is due to FIRST and NGST, the A rating for goal 4 is for NGST
while FIRST would rate a B here on its own, the A rating for goal 5 is for NGST and
FIRST.
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