The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released the Decadal Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
In the Astro2020 report, experts recommend buildinga new massive telescope with a preliminary cost of $ 11 billion. It will operate in the optical, infrared and ultraviolet ranges, which will allow it to study dark matter, potentially habitable exoplanets, neutron stars and other space objects and phenomena.
The new “Great Observatory” will be partially launchedto replace the Hubble Space Telescope, which is gradually approaching the end of its useful life. It will draw knowledge from NASA's Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) mission and Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) mission. According to the scientists who proposed the project, the observatory will be really large, which will allow the telescope to observe distant planets.
The Hubble telescope was launched in 1990and since then he has made more than 1.5 million observations. However, due to a malfunction caused by the telescope's power control unit in June, all operations were stopped for almost a month. It was the latest reminder that the telescope's aging equipment could fail as early as this decade. That's why ambitious new projects such as the James Webb Telescope and the Great Observatory are either nearing launch or being proposed as replacements for the iconic Hubble Telescope.
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