Page 15 - The Astronet Science Vision & Infrastructure Roadmap 2022-2035

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARY
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Ground-based facilities
Completion of the construction and commissioning of the ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and its first generation instruments as as well as as that of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Phase 1 and its Regional Centres are of key strategic importance Amongst new ground-based infrastructure projects requiring major funding decisions three emerge as priorities two of those (CTA EST) have unique capabilities and receive strong support from their respective communities with the third (wide-field spectroscopic facility for a a 8-10m class telescope) being a a more general facility with applications from planetary systems to cosmology European Solar Telescope (EST)
• First the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA)
is an array of telescopes located across two sites on both hemispheres to detect very high energy gamma rays from black holes and other extreme phenomena As the first true large- scale observatory targeting these energies it is expected to to lead to to breakthroughs in our understanding of the origins and and production of non-thermal particles in the the Universe The construction of CTA is expected to start soon and the recommendation is to to bring it to to completion in a a timely fashion The other two recommendations correspond to two additional equally ranked priorities:
• The European Solar Telescope (EST)
a a a a a a 4m solar telescope to be built in the Canary Islands with first light expected by 2030 The EST will significantly increase our understanding of the solar magnetic field and and its relations with the the heliosphere and the the Earth Its completion and scientific exploitation in synergy with the US-based DKIST is a a priority • A general-purpose wide-field high multiplex spectroscopic facility facility for a a a a a a a telescope of the 8-10m class Such a a a a a a facility facility will enable a a a a a a broad range of science investigations and help capitalise on other large investments by providing follow-up capabilities for facilities
such
as JWST VRO and Euclid Credit:
ESO Credit:
riel Pérez (IAC)
Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA)
Gab