The US Extremely Large Telescope Program at the January AAS meeting

Mark Dickinson, NOAO

The January 2019 AAS meeting #233 in Seattle featured two sessions devoted to the US Extremely Large Telescope Program. Presentations from these sessions are now available at the NOAO US-ELTP web site.

The US ELT Program (US-ELTP) proposes national open access to at least a 25% share of observing time at both the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). This 2-telescope, 2-hemisphere system will provide unique opportunities for US research leadership in the global ELT era. The US-ELTP is being developed jointly by NOAO, TMT, and GMT for presentation to the 2020 Decadal Survey and to the National Science Foundation.

A core element of the US-ELTP is the concept of Key Science Programs (KSPs), in which tens to hundreds of nights on GMT and TMT would be dedicated to tackling astrophysical problems of fundamental importance. It is envisioned that KSP teams would involve a broad and diverse range of observers, theorists and data scientists, organized by open collaboration models, to develop and execute these research programs. More than 250 community members responded to NOAO’s call to participate in KSP development, leading to at least 25 detailed KSP proposals that span a wide range of science from our solar system to the outer limits of the observable universe. The current KSP concepts are exemplars of the scientific potential of coordinated open access to both TMT and GMT. Actual, future KSPs would be proposed later when the observatories are entering their operations phases, and would be selected by peer review. Some open access observing time would also be reserved for smaller, PI-class “Discovery Science Programs” that would be responsive to new discoveries and research opportunities.

At the Seattle AAS meeting, a daytime session featured an overview of the US ELT Program presented by NOAO director David Silva, followed by six presentations with highlights from the community-developed Key Science Programs:

• Extrasolar Planets: Formation, Discovery & Characterization – Quinn Konopacky (UC San Diego) & Nikole Lewis (Cornell)
• The First Stars and the Origin of the Elements – Ian Roederer (University of Michigan)
• Origins and Fundamental Physics of Supermassive Black Holes – Jenny Greene (Princeton University)
• Dissecting Galaxy Assembly at Cosmic Noon from 1 Mpc to 100 pc Scales – Rachael Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh)
• The Nature of Dark Matter – Josh Simon (Carnegie Observatories)
• Discovery Frontiers in Time-Domain Astrophysics: Multi-Messenger Astronomy – Raffaella Margutti (Northwestern University).

These presentations demonstrated the broad range of transformational science that could be accomplished through systematic investment in large-scale, coherent GMT/TMT investigations. KSPs will also be used as guidance for investment in instrumentation development for TMT and GMT beyond the currently-planned first-light capabilities.

An evening joint Open House for GMT, TMT, and the US-ELTP was hosted by Robert Kirshner (Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation), and featured presentations by Shelley Wright (UC San Diego), project scientist for TMT’s first-light Infrared Imager and Spectrometer (IRIS); by Rebecca Bernstein (GMTO/Carnegie Observatories), GMT’s project scientist; and by AURA Board chairperson Debra Elmegreen (Vassar College) on behalf of the US ELT Program. These were followed by ample time for audience discussion over refreshments that were kindly sponsored by the Moore Foundation.

All presentations from both AAS sessions are posted on NOAO’s US-ELTP web pages.