Astro2020 Science White Paper Submission Window Extended

Anyone wishing to provide scientific input to the next Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020) will have an extra month to do so. The window for submitting science white papers opens at 12:01 am Eastern Time on Monday, 7 January 2019 (as originally announced), but submissions will be accepted through 5:00 pm ET on Tuesday, 19 February 2019.

You can find more details on preparing and submitting science white papers in the instructions document (PDF), which has been updated to reflect the change in deadline. Material from the recent Astro2020 Early Career Astronomer and Astrophysicist Forum may also be useful as you consider and prepare white papers, particularly the slides from Lee Hartmann (PDF) on the topic. The Astro2020 Statement of Task was released last month and is available on the survey website, along with the scientific scope.

Questions on white paper submission or anything else regarding the survey can be sent to [email protected]. The National Academies have said they intend to announce the Astro2020 leadership (chair or co-chairs) in December. The chair(s) will lead the Astro2020 Town Hall at AAS 233 in Seattle, to be held Wednesday evening, 9 January.

While this call is only for science white papers, we anticipate later calls for other topics, like missions, facilities, policy, and the state of the profession. The Astro2020 leadership and committee will define the guidelines and call(s) for such further inputs. In particular, we can be reasonably confident that Astro2020 will seek input on a State of the Profession component of the survey, given the subject's inclusion in the Statement of Task, as covered on the AAS Policy Blog last month.

The AAS intends to publish the white papers in the newly revitalized Bulletin of the AAS — returning to AAS Journals in 2019! — pending the settling of final details with the National Academies. In doing so, the Society hopes to increase the value and utility of the white papers by making them more easily and sustainably accessed, shared, archived, and indexed/referenced. We hope to have more details to share soon, so be on the lookout for updates.