“You’re not going to be surprised to hear,” Hammel says. But what about studying the formation of galaxies? What drives the formation of spiral structures or the evolution of the big elliptical galaxies? The goal of characterizing the atmosphere of Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars falls under the “worlds and suns in context” theme and requires the very large-UV-optical space telescope Hammel described. “New Messengers and New Physics,” studying dark energy and gravitational waves.“Cosmic ecosystems,” examining the formation and evolution of galaxies.“Worlds and suns in context,” studying exoplanets and their stars.The 2020 Decadal Survey, delayed a year due to Covid-19, framed its specific recommendations within three broad scientific themes: The 2010 survey recommended the Nancy Grace Roman telescope. The 2000 Decadal Survey recommended what would become the Webb telescope. The Decadal Survey, Hammel says, “is a document by the science community, an assessment of where we are scientifically in astronomy and astrophysics currently and where we want to progress in the next decade.” It’s a stop at the map in the astronomy food court, charting a path to the next stop. Instead, they’ve laid down scientific goals for the engineers to backfill over the coming decade. At this stage, astronomers have yet to set the technical specifications. What is the Decadal Survey?- To understand what these new tools may look like, you have to understand the Decadal Survey. The right question isn’t necessarily, “What happens after Webb?” It’s more like: What set of instruments replaces the current fleet of astronomical tools in the mid-21st century?Īnd the answer is really big, really cool tools. Hammel points out the Decadal survey also recommended huge ground-based telescopes and newer medium-sized space telescopes viewing the X-ray and other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. “What do you need to do that? Well, basically, you need a very large aperture telescope in space.”īut that’s not all. “We're at the stage now where our goal should be to be able to characterize the atmospheres of habitable worlds,” Heidi Hammel, astronomer and interdisciplinary scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope team, tells Inverse. It’s what it will take to see other planets. It turns out the astronomical community spelled out what they want to see follow the Webb in November, with the publication of the results of the 2020 Decadal Survey: An enormous space telescope, one with a six-meter diameter mirror that can see in the optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. Not just the next space telescope to be launched - likely NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman telescope in 2027 -but the next Webb-like telescope: a big flagship project for the future, recommended by astronomers today.

So naturally, the question that’s already coming up: What comes next? If all goes well, the multi-billion dollar scientific instrument will finally launch to space in a matter of days and will stand ready to peer into the deepest recesses of the cosmos sometime next summer. It’s nearly the home stretch for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Big telescope