MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

PREFACE Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A) is witnessing a major revolution thanks to several international wide-field surveys, multi-wavelength space missions and multi-messenger mega projects, and the ever growing computational techniques and computing power. The Indian astronomy community is today poised to be a crucial part of the global advancements with its own facilities as well as through participation in some of the international endeavours. Vision Documents are important for any community to identify thrust areas and define priorities that provide a focused progress in science and technological advancement. While individual organisations have had their own vision documents, a community-wise exercise for A&A in India was carried out by the Indian Academy of Sciences in the year 2004. It is extremely gratifying to note that several important recommendations mentioned in the 2004 document have been well implemented. In December 2020, the Office of the Principal ScientificAdviser to the Government of India formed sixWorking Groups for preparingMega ScienceVision (MSV) reports for the country in six areas, withAstronomy &Astrophysics being one of them. The mandate, in brief, was: (a) to report the state-of-the- art in the field and make a strength, weakness, opportunities and threat (SWOT) analysis for India in the time window of 2020–2035, (b) to enunciate the need for continuing and undertaking newMega Science projects, (c) to examine the relevance of such Mega Science programmes for India's scientific and technological goals, and (d) to suggest appropriate evaluation, funding and management structures for such programmes. While this charge was given to the Drafting Group and theWorking Group members, there was a community-wide consultation exercise, reaching out to a very large fraction of theA&Acommunity in India, who actively contributed to developing the document. Modern astronomy in the country can be traced to the setting up of theMadras Observatory in 1786, which later moved to Kodaikanal with the establishment of the Kodaikanal Observatory in 1899. These observatories led to the production of “The General Catalogue of 11000 Southern Stars” in 1843, the discovery of the “Evershed Effect” from Kodaikanal in 1909 and participation in the global Carte du Ciel effort by the Nizamiah Observatory (Hyderabad) during 1914–1938. Post-independence, the efforts of renowned observational astronomers such as Vainu Bappu, Govind Swarup, V. Radhakrishnan, Arvind Bhatnagar (to name a few) led to the establishment of (then) state-of-the- art observing facilities in the country. The establishment of the optical observatories in Kavalur and Nainital in the late 1960s / early 1970s led to the discoveries of the atmosphere around Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the outer rings of Uranus and asteroids. Though early radio observations began in the 1950s, it was the setting up of the Ooty Radio Telescope and the Gauribidanur Radio Telescope in the 1970s, that led to significant developments in radio astronomy in the country. The 1980s saw the development of the 2.3mVainu Bappu Telescope. This indigenous optical telescope was the largest optical telescope in Asia, when commissioned in 1986. The Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT), yet another indigenous, world-class facility, was built in the following decade, and has been available to the national and international community since 2002. India's first astronomy space missionAstroSat, launched in 2015, is yet another indigenous development widely recognised and utilised by the international community. The recent success of India's solar missionAditya-L1 has firmly established India as a key player in space astronomy. Theoretical astrophysics is an area where India has made significant contributions, ranging from solar physics, stellar astrophysics, galactic dynamics, to extragalactic astronomy, gravitation and cosmology and gravitational waves. There have also beenmany contributions in computational modelling of astrophysical processes in all of these areas as well as in processing of large data sets. Indian scientists have produced many seminal works, especially in the area of gravitation and cosmology. The works by stalwarts such as Bishveshwar Dutt, V.V. Narlikar,A. K. Raychaudhuri, P.C. Astronomy & Astrophysics 5 MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035