MACH News | November 4, 2021

MACH Goal Included in Key Astronomy Challenges

The focus of the research being done by the MACH team is included in the first of the three key scientific Astro2020 challenges for the next decade. The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has released their latest decadal survey report, “Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s.” In this report, the priority area, Pathways to Habitable Worlds, includes understanding the planet’s atmospheric evolution and the role magnetism plays in atmospheric loss.

‘Understanding the connections between stars and the worlds that orbit them, from nascent disks of dust and gas through formation and evolution, is an important scientific goal for the next decade. The effort to identify habitable Earth-like worlds in other planetary systems and search for the biochemical signatures of life will play a critical role in determining whether life exists elsewhere in the Universe.’

For more information, see the NASEM website here: https://www.nap.edu/resource/26141/interactive/