Everybody’s doing their top ten lists of cool things in astronomy in 2006, and since Phil Plait (aka the Bad Astronomer) posted the definitive list of top ten astro pix, I’m going to look ahead to my top ten things that I hope we’ll see, learn, and do in the new year.
1) I hope we’ll see more pictures like this one, showing seasonal frost on Mars as seen through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Imaging Spectrometer at three infrared wavelengths. Why infrared? Because it shows surface brightness of ices and also measures absorption spectra to tell us what those ices are made of. This image was taken at midwinter in the Martian southern hemisphere, and shows an area in the Terra Sirenum region.
2) I hope we’ll get closer to the next Hubble Repair Mission, currently slated for the fall of 2008. The observatory is operating in two-gyro mode (which stabilizes it during observations, but puts more wear and tear on the remaining gyros), and needs repairs to several vital systems. In addition, Hubble will get two new instruments, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. This new year will be a crucial one for shuttle missions, so I’m hoping for the best!
3) As always, I hope that funding for astronomy research continues with healthy growth, rather than the stagnancy we’ve seen in recent years. While I know that there are many things that compete for funding in the United States, there is no science that directly or indirectly touches hearts and minds like astronomy. I’ve often told people that astronomy is a gateway science to so many other science disciplines: physics, math, biology, chemistry, computer and information technology, and engineering. And, we NEED more scientists in the world if humanity is to progress. I want to see 2007 as a return to the “fun” and beauty of science that so many of us learned in the 60s and 70s (giving away my age there).
4) In addition, I hope that 2007 will see a renewed interest in appreciation of science for what it is, and not what certain religious and political fundamentalists want to turn it into (i.e. a tool to glorify a religious figure or idea at the exclusion of other faiths or moral codes) at the expense of logical, clear thinking. Without getting too specific, I just want to say that it’s about time we started teaching science for what it is, without ignorant interference from religious fundamentalists. Religion has NO preferred place in the range of human thought and capability, just as it has no exclusive hold on scientific truth. Nor does politics. ‘Nuff said.
5) I want to see more people get turned on by the tremendous work being done in the wavelengths of light we can’t see with our eyes. There is wonderful work being done by folks at the Spitzer Space Telescope, the the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Chandra X-Ray center, my friends and colleagues at Gemini Observatory, (for whom I edit and write outreach materials), and many other observatories around the world. Visit one each day!
6) Along that line of thinking, I hope that NASA and ESA and other space agencies will continue to push for renewed interest in space and astronomy. I read recently that NASA, in particular, is concerned that its vision is lost on the Web generation. I’ve also heard through the grapevine that the current NASA administrator is not so bullish on educational outreach. If that’s true, it’s sad, but reversible, with imagination and outreach. I hope it’s not true.
7) I hope that we see more planetariums open than close in 2007. The world is long overdue for a wave of new science center and planetarium openings, as well as re-openings and refurbishings, like the Griffith project (where I got to work on wonderful exhibits and work with good people throughout 2005 and 2006). If we work together to bring a renaissance in science centers, we can create more places where anyone can go and learn about our cosmos.
8) I look forward to learning more about conditions in the very early universe. Studying the origins of the cosmos combines physics, astrophysics, chemistry, and high-energy physics into a Big Bang of science. It’s fascinating to think of everything we know and love having its beginning in a tiny pinpoint of “stuff” that was sent on a great expansion of space and time to create the cosmos we know today. It’s an epic saga.
9) I hope that we find a way to understand the climate changes our planet seems to be undergoing. We’re long past the debate stage about what’s causing it; what we need to do now is make sure that humans are no longer one of the main causative factors.
10) Finally, I hope that we make some huge new discovery in astronomy this year, something that will knock our socks off. Not everything has been discovered, or understood. That’s the beauty and logic of science: there’s always something new to find and explain in our cosmos.
Happy New Year all! And thanks for reading me all these years. I’ve got cool, new astronomy-related projects to work on for my various clients in the new year, and I look forward to sharing them and many more astronomy and space science-related thoughts with you in 2007.
