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Published online 25 November 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/456427a

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Astronomers unveil wish list

Roadmap sets out Europe's space priorities.

Katharine Sanderson

European scientists and funding agencies have launched an ambitious plan to prioritize the astronomy projects they believe should be supported over the next 20 years.

The ASTRONET Infrastructure Roadmap was released on 25 November, timed to coincide with the opening of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) ministerial meeting in The Hague, the Netherlands, where, as Nature went to press, ESA member states were due to thrash out how planned space projects will be funded over the coming years.

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  • The Sun is the model for other stars in the cosmos. With public attention focused on climate change, it would benefit the entire scientific community if astronomers would focus their attention on Earth's heat source - the Sun - at least long enough to respond to analytical data that seems to discredit the Standard Solar Model of a Hydrogen-filled Sun heated primarily by Hydrogen-fusion ["The Sun is a plasma diffuser that sorts atoms by mass," Physics of Atomic Nuclei 69 (2006) number 11, pp. 1847-1856]. http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0609509v3 Sincerely, Oliver K. Manuel, http://www.omatumr.com

    • 26 Nov, 2008
    • Posted by: Oliver Manuel

  • For example, Professor Pablo J. D. Mauas of the University of Buenos Aires Institute of Astronomy & Space Physics (Argentina) and co-workers have just published the results of a very practical study, "Solar Forcing of the Stream Flow of a Continental Scale South American River," in Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 168501 (2008) http://arxiv.org/pdf/0810.3882 There is no reasonable doubt that Earth's climate follows solar activity. The problem is that the Standard Solar Model (SSM) of a Hydrogen-filled Sun does not explain these very well-documented cycles of solar activity. Sincerely, Oliver K. Manuel, http://myprofile.cos.com/manuelo09

    • 27 Nov, 2008
    • Posted by: Oliver Manuel