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The mostrecent reportis titled Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s.
Billions of dollars are at stake.
The committee reviewed573 white papersall arguing for specific projects and astronomical capabilities.
The finished report runs 615 pages, and its not light reading.
First is the study of Earth-like worlds.
Among themore than 5,000known exoplanets are several hundred that aresimilar to Earthand could potentially support life.
But orbital efforts are not the only aims of the report.
This kind of money is needed to achieve scientific goals of this scope.
State of the profession
Science is more than just the pursuit of knowledge.
This includes looking at diversity and inclusion, workplace climates and the contributions of astronomers to education and outreach.
These fields are overwhelmingly white, with people from minority backgrounds making uponly 4% of faculty and students.
In an appendix to the report, teamssuggested a number of remediesfor the lack of diversity and equity.
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