New Great Observatories Science Analysis Group
(NGO SAG)
Image: Great Observatories' Unique Views of the Milky Way. NASA's Great Observatories — HST, Spitzer, and Chandra — have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. Each image shows the telescope's different wavelength view of the galactic center region, illustrating the unique science each observatory conducts. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI
The goals of the New Great Observatories Science Analysis Group (see full terms of reference) are to analyze and answer the following questions:
To what degree can the Key Science Questions from Astro2020 be advanced by contemporaneous flight of current, imminent, and future IR/O/UV, X-ray, and FIR Great Observatories? In particular, what discoveries in the Astro2020 Priority Areas might be uniquely made possible by coordinated use of X-ray through FIR space observatories using powerful and varied instruments? What gaps require contemporaneous flight of several or even all of these observatories, and to what degree is asynchronous panchromatic coverage sufficient? How might gaps be closed by the notional future multi-scale multiwavelength mission portfolio, including future explorers and probes?
In the scenario that any or all of these missions not be launched, or should their missions see minimal overlap, what are the corresponding scientific impacts with regards to loss of discovery space or inability of the community to address the priority areas of Astro2020?
