NAS's Astro2010 Decacal Survey recommendations

The National Academies of Sciences has released its Astro2010 decadal survey report and recommendations. A PDF of the release presentation is also available on that site. The panel's recommendations influence what programs NASA, NSF and DOE pursue and fund in astronomy and astrophysics for the next decade, so this is a big deal.

So far I've only read the presentation, and looked at Steinn Sigurdsson's comments on his blog [1, 2], so what follows is by no means a complete and final assessment.

My personal take is that its a mix of the good and the bad.

Whats good (from my perspective at least):

• A strong endorsement and emphasis on revitalizing the Explorer class mission program. This had suffered badly under O'Keefe and Griffin.
• A strong recognition of the importance of feedback, and flows of matter and energy into and out of galaxies (the 8th, 9th, and 10th points on slide 9 of the PDF copy of presensation).

Whats bad:

• IXO ranks 4th, behind some wide field IR telescope focussed on Dark Energy (yawn, a couple of billion bucks to get one not-very-interesting number) and LISA. IXO will only get $180m in the next decade, so basically that pushes it back to ~2030? And probably kills its chances in the ESA mission rankings too. Given that Constellation-X (IXO's forerunner prior to the merger with ESA) came 2nd (after JWST) in the previous decadal and IXO thought it had a good chance of coming 1st this time the current ranking is a real blow.
• LISA is somehow ranked as lower risk (and cheaper) than IXO! Seriously?
• Funding for astrophysics doesn't look like it going to get better.
• Unless you're an optical/IR astronomer, or the three gravitational wave astronomers, you're in for a bad decade and a half. X-ray astronomy, UV astronomy, and radio seem to be in trouble.
• From my perspective there is a disconnect between the science priorities for the next decade and the missions endorsed. Feedback and the galaxy/IGM interconnection isn't going to be answered by JWST, WFIRST, LISA or any Explorer mission

Interesting Astrophysics: 01 Jan to 15 Jan, 2010

The first two weeks of 2010 have produced a number of interesting papers and preprints.

Of particular interest to me are starburst/galactic wind related papers (Moiseev et al; Westmoquette et al; Beaulieu et al), hot gas in galaxy halos (Nipoti; Marinacci et al), and AGN outflows (Morganti et al; Storchi-Bergmann).

Finally, the International X-ray Observatory team's response to the NAS's Astro2010 Decadal Survey's Request For Information (Bookbinder et al) is well worth a read, particularly if you're not familiar with X-ray astronomy's unique capabilities.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Ionized gas outflow in the isolated S0 galaxy NGC 4460
Authors: Alexei Moiseev, Igor Karachentsev, Serafim Kaisin, arXiv:1001.0234 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 11 pages, 7 figures; accepted by MNRAS

From their abstract: "We use integral-field and long-slit spectroscopy to study the bright extended nebulosity discovered in the isolated lenticular galaxy NGC 4460 during a recent H-alpha survey of nearby galaxies. An analysis of archival SDSS, GALEX, and HST images indicates that current star formation is entirely concentrated in the central kiloparsec of the galaxy disc. The observed ionized gas parameters (morphology, kinematics and ionization state) can be explained by a gas outflow above the plane of the galaxy caused by a star formation in the circumnuclear region. Galactic wind parameters in NGC 4460: outflow velocity, total kinetic energy - are several times smaller comparing with the known galactic wind in NGC 253, which is explained substantially lower total star formation rate."

Ionized gas in the starburst core and halo of NGC 1140
Authors: M. S. Westmoquette, J. S. Gallagher III, L. de Poitiers, arXiv:1001.0698 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 13 pages, 9 figures (6 colour). Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Supernova Remnants and the Interstellar Medium of M83: Imaging & Photometry with WFC3 on HST
Authors: Michael A. Dopita, et al, arXiv:1001.0815 [pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal. 10 figures, 41 pp

Are galactic coronae thermally unstable?
Authors: Carlo Nipoti, arXiv:1001.1246 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, to appear in "Hunting for the Dark: The Hidden Side of Galaxy Formation", Malta, 19-23 Oct. 2009, eds. V.P. Debattista & C.C. Popescu, AIP Conf. Ser

A lower limit of 50 microgauss for the magnetic field near the Galactic Centre
Authors: Roland M. Crocker, David Jones, Fulvio Melia, Jürgen Ott, Raymond J. Protheroe
Comments: Published in Nature. 17 page main article; 4 figures, arXiv:1001.1275 [pdf, other]
Journal-ref: Nature 468, 7277, p65, 2010

Unveiling the Sigma-Discrepancy in IR-Luminous Mergers I: Dust & Dynamics
Authors: Barry Rothberg, Jacqueline Fischer, arXiv:1001.1309 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 82 pages, 19 Figures, 2 Appendice

Variations in Integrated Galactic Initial Mass Functions due to Sampling Method and Cluster Mass Function
Authors: M. R. Haas, P. Anders, arXiv:1001.2009 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Resubmitted to A&A, 14 pages, 9 Figures

From their abstract: "If the integrated galactic initial mass function originates from stars formed in clusters, the IGIMF could be steeper than the IMF. We investigate how well constrained this steepening is and how it depends on the choice of sampling method and CMF. We compare analytic sampling to several implementations of random sampling of the IMF, and different CMFs. ... As we still do not understand the details of star formation, one sampling method cannot be favoured over another. Also, the CMF at very low cluster masses is not well constrained observationally. These uncertainties need to be taken into account when using an IGIMF, with severe implications for galaxy evolution models and interpretations of galaxy observations."

The Recent Star Formation History of NGC 5102
Authors: Sylvie F. Beaulieu, Kenneth C. Freeman, Sebastian L. Hidalgo, Colin A. Norman, Peter J. Quinn, arXiv:1001.2236 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 36 pages, 16 figures, accepted in AJ

The mode of gas accretion onto star-forming galaxies
Authors: F. Marinacci, J. Binney, F. Fraternali, C. Nipoti, L. Ciotti, P. Londrillo, arXiv:1001.2446 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 12 pages, 8 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Their abstract: "It is argued that galaxies like ours sustain their star formation by transferring gas from an extensive corona to the star-forming disc. The transfer is effected by the galactic fountain -- cool clouds that are shot up from the plane to kiloparsec heights above the plane. The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability strips gas from these clouds. If the pressure and the the metallicity of the corona are high enough, the stripped gas causes a similar mass of coronal gas to condense in the cloud's wake. Hydrodynamical simulations of cloud-corona interaction are presented. These confirm the existence of a critical ablation rate above which the corona is condensed, and imply that for the likely parameters of the Galactic corona this rate lies near the actual ablation rate of clouds. In external galaxies trails of HI behind individual clouds will not be detectable, although the integrated emission from all such trails should be significant. Parts of the trails of the clouds that make up the Galaxy's fountain should be observable and may account for features in targeted 21-cm observations of individual high-velocity clouds and surveys of Galactic HI emission. Taken in conjunction with the known decline in the availability of cold infall with increasing cosmic time and halo mass, the proposed mechanism offers a promising explanation of the division of galaxies between the blue cloud to the red sequence in the colour-luminosity plane. "

Interesting. I must take a closer look at the necessary conditions for the mass-loading of the local corona due to stripped gas from the clouds to cause coronal condensation.

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Black Holes, AGN and other compact accreting objects

In-depth studies of the NGC 253 ULXs with XMM-Newton: remarkable variability in ULX1, and evidence for extended coronae
Authors: R. Barnard, arXiv:1001.0870 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 7 pages, 5 figures

Cold and Warm Gas Outflows in Radio AGN
Authors: Raffaella Morganti, Joanna Holt, Clive Tadhunter, Tom Oosterloo, arXiv:1001.2389 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Invited talk, to appear in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium 267, "Co-Evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies", B.M. Peterson, R.S. Somerville, T. Storchi-Bergmann, eds., in press

From their abstract: "Clear evidence for AGN-induced outflows have been found for the majority of these young radio sources. The outflows are detected both in (warm) ionized as well in (cold) atomic neutral gas and they are likely to be driven (at least in most of the cases) by the interaction between the expanding jet and the medium. The mass outflow rates of the cold gas (HI) appear to be systematically higher than those of the ionized gas. The former reach up to ~50 Msun/yr, and are in the same range as "mild" starburst-driven superwinds in ULIRGs, whilst the latter are currently estimated to be a few solar masses per year. However, the kinetic powers associated with these gaseous outflow are a relatively small fraction (a few x 10^-4) of the Eddington luminosity of the galaxy. Thus, they do not appear to match the requirements of the galaxy evolution feedback models."

Inflows and outflows in nearby active galactic nuclei from integral field spectroscopy
Authors: Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann, arXiv:1001.2480 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium no. 267, eds. B.M. Peterson, R.S. Somerville and T. Storchi-Bergmann, 2010

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

Supernova 2007bi as a pair-instability explosion
Authors: A. Gal-Yam, et al, arXiv:1001.1156 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted version of the paper appearing in Nature, 462, 624 (2009), including all supplementary information
Journal-ref: Nature 462 624 (2009)

Second generation planets
Authors: Hagai B. Perets, arXiv:1001.0581 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages. Comments are most welcome

Self-consistent Simulations of Alfven Wave Driven Winds from the Sun and Stars
Authors: Takeru K. Suzuki, arXiv:1001.2400 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 26 pages, 12 figures, submitted to special issue (BUKS 2009) of Space Science Review

H II regions: Witnesses to massive star formation
Authors: Thomas Peters, Robi Banerjee, Ralf S. Klessen, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, Roberto Galvan-Madrid, Eric Keto, arXiv:1001.2470 [pdf, other]
Comments: ApJ in press
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Galaxy Astrophysics (astro-ph.GA)

Nice simulations.

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Other

Pointing the SOFIA Telescope
Authors: Michael A. K. Gross, John J. Rasmussen, Elizabeth M. Moore, arXiv:1001.0197 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Proc. ADASS XIX (Sapporo, Japan, 2009)

The International X-ray Observatory - RFI#1
Authors: Jay Bookbinder (on behalf of the IXO Study Coordination Group, Science Definition Team, Instrument Working Group, and Telescope Working Group), arXiv:1001.2329 [pdf]
Comments: 19 pages, submitted in response to Astro2010 Decadal Program Prioritization Panel First Request for Information

Contains a nice summary of the unique science capabilities of IXO, along with a variety of interesting hardware and other technical information. Anticipated lauch date 2021. Good luck, IXO team!

Interesting Astrophysics: 20 Apr to 24 Apr

Another Friday dose of interesting astronomy preprints and accepted papers. It has been a relatively quite week, with perhaps the most interesting article being a Astro2010 Decadal Survey White Paper by Williams et al on problems with the current career structure in US astronomy.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Young stellar populations and star clusters in NGC 1705
F. Annibali, M. Tosi, M. Monelli, M. Sirianni, P. Montegriffo, A. Aloisi, L. Greggio, arXiv:0904.3257 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication on AJ

Star formation in extremely faint dwarf galaxies
Sambit Roychowdhury, Jayaram N. Chengalur, Ayesha Begum, Igor D. Karachentsev, arXiv:0904.2748 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 14 pages (+6 pages as appendix), 5 tables, 8 figures (+2 figures in appendix)

Standard empirical star formation laws (e.g. Kennicutt relation) do not appear to work at the very low levels of SF in these objects.

Understanding Lyman-alpha emitters
Kim K. Nilsson, Klaus Meisenheimer, Nicholas Bond, Eric Gawiser, Harold Francke, Daniel Kunth, Toru Yamada, Goran Ostlin, arXiv:0904.3335 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Workshop summary of the "Understanding Lyman-alpha Emitters" meeting in Heidelberg, Oct. 2008, 49 pages (seven contributions), to be published in New Astronomy Review. Conference home-page, with presentations, is this http URL

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Black Holes and AGN

On The Maximum Mass of Stellar Black Holes
Krzysztof Belczynski, Tomasz Bulik, Chris L. Fryer, Ashley Ruiter, Jorick S. Vink, Jarrod R. Hurley, arXiv:0904.2784 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 12 pages, ApJ submitted

AGN with strong forbidden high-ionisation lines selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Jonathan M. Gelbord, James R. Mullaney, Martin J. Ward, arXiv:0904.3156 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: 31 pages, 19 figures. Includes 12 pages (5 figures, 7 tables) of online-only material. To appear in MNRAS. Also available from this http URL

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Instrumentation and Archives

MegaPipe: the MegaCam image stacking pipeline
Stephen D.J. Gwyn, arXiv:0904.2568 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: 4 pages. To appear in the procedings of ADASS 2008. 1500 square degrees of calibrated and stacked ugriz data publicly available at: this http URL and this http URL

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

X-Ray Spectroscopy of Stars
M. Guedel, Y. Naze, arXiv:0904.3078 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: accepted for Astron. Astrophys. Rev., 98 journal pages, 30 figures (partly multiple); requires bibtex

Rates and Delay Times of Type Ia Supernovae
Ashley J. Ruiter, Krzysztof Belczynski, Chris L. Fryer, arXiv:0904.3108 [pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ

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Other

Training the Next Generation of Astronomers
Peter K. G. Williams, et al, arXiv:0904.2571 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: 9 pp + cover page; position
paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey Subcommittee on the
State of the Profession; small typographical corrections made;
submitted version at this http URL

In my opinion this is one of the most important White Papers I've seen. The fact is that the out-of-equilibrium career environment young astronomers find themselves in the US wastes talent, people's lives and taxpayer money. The Universities themselves don't suffer: there are always more than enough skilled researchers applying for tenure, and the larger number of skilled astronomers that don't get one of the few tenure spots bringing in even more money to the Universities through grants until they tire of the rat race and leave academia. The Universities have no financial incentive to stop cranking out vastly more PhDs than the system can support, nor to be honest about to their students and Post Docs about their chances of having a stable long term academic career.

Anyway, read the White Paper. I had hoped it would have been more quantitative. If anything I think it underestimates the current problem by focusing more on graduate students and Post Docs and ignoring the massive log-jam associated with post-Post Doctoral researchers in "soft money" positions, but perhaps that is just my bias as a disaffected soft money researcher.

Their abstract is: "While both society and astronomy have evolved greatly over the past fifty years, the academic institutions and incentives that shape our field have remained largely stagnant. As a result, the astronomical community is faced with several major challenges, including: (1) the training that we provide does not align with the skills that future astronomers will need, (2) the postdoctoral phase is becoming increasingly demanding and demoralizing, and (3) our jobs are increasingly unfriendly to families with children. Solving these problems will require conscious engineering of our profession. Fortunately, this Decadal Review offers the opportunity to revise outmoded practices to be more effective and equitable. The highest priority of the Subcommittee on the State of the Profession should be to recommend specific, funded activities that will ensure the field meets the challenges we describe. "

Interesting Astrophysics: Mar 23 to Mar 27

It has been a relatively quite week in terms of astrophysical papers and preprints I consider interesting, although I must admit to some distraction caused by the major ongoing software upgrade (and possible hardware) problems that I am experiencing with my primary workstation.

I've also included our M82 supernova feedback efficiency paper in the list. I was going to write a short separate post describing it, but I'm too busy with trying to fix my workstation to consider that at the moment.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Collisional debris as laboratories to study star formation
M. Boquien, P.-A. Duc, Y. Wu, V. Charmandaris, U. Lisenfeld, J. Braine, E. Brinks, J. Iglesias-Páramo, C. K. Xu, arXiv:0903.3403 [pdf, other]
Comments: 18 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in The astronomical journal

The effect of ram pressure on the star formation, mass distribution and morphology of galaxies
W. Kapferer, C. Sluka, S. Schindler, C. Ferrari, B. Ziegler, arXiv:0903.3818 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: 19 pages, 25 figures, A&A accepted, high resolution version can be
found at this http URL

A Population of Metal-Poor Galaxies with ~L* Luminosities at Intermediate Redshifts
John J. Salzer, Anna L. Williams, Caryl Gronwall, arXiv:0903.3948 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures; to appear in 10 April 2009 ApJL

Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Submillimeter Galaxies: Extended Star Formation in Massive High Redshift Galaxies
Karín Menéndez-Delmestre, Andrew W. Blain, Ian Smail, Dave M. Alexander, Scott C. Chapman, Lee Armus, Dave Frayer, Rob J. Ivison, Harry Teplitz, arXiv:0903.4017 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 21 pages, 11 figures, accepted to The Astrophysical Journal

Strong z~0.5 O VI Absorption Toward PKS 0405-123: Implications for Ionization and Metallicity of the Cosmic Web
J.Christopher Howk, Joseph S. Ribaudo, Nicolas Lehner, J. Xavier Prochaska, Hsiao-Wen Chen, arXiv:0903.3963 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 21 pages. Abstract abridged slightly

A Simple Model for the Relationship Between Star Formation and Surface Density
C. L. Dobbs, J. E. Pringle, arXiv:0903.4098 [pdf, other]
Comments: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRAS

The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation in SDSS galaxies uncovered by astropaleontology
N. Vale Asari, G. Stasinska, R. Cid Fernandes, J. M. Gomes, M. Schlickmann, A. Mateus, W. Schoenell, arXiv:0903.4167 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Their result (M-Z for galaxies with log M > 10) is not necessarily inconsistent with the conclusion of Tremonti et al (2004) that outflows shape the galaxy M-y_eff relatio below a characteristic mass of log M ~ 10, above which galaxies act as closed boxes.

Supernova feedback efficiency and mass loading in the starburst and galactic superwind exemplar M82
David K. Strickland, Timothy M. Heckman, arXiv:0903.4175 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 29 pages, 12 figures

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Black Holes and AGN

Evidence for X-ray synchrotron emission from simultaneous mid-IR to X-ray observations of a strong Sgr A* flare
K. Dodds-Eden, et al, arXiv:0903.3416 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 49 pages, 9 figures

Eddington ratio and accretion efficiency in AGN evolution
S.I. Raimundo, A. C. Fabian, arXiv:0903.3432 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 5 pages

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

The Disappearance of the Progenitors of Supernovae 1993J and 2003gd
Justyn R. Maund, Stephen J. Smartt, arXiv:0903.3772 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Science, in press, published online 19/03/09, 28 pages (MS+SOM) (high-res figures available at this http URL)

Both progenitors were Red Supergiants.

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Other

Astronomical Software Wants To Be Free: A Manifesto
Benjamin J. Weiner, et al, arXiv:0903.3971 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: State of the Profession white paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. The authors welcome comments and discussion

Argues that astronomical software development should be taken seriously as an academic endeavor (i.e in terms of career development), and should also be funded adequately. But it ignores the issue of certain projects (SDSS's spectroscopic pipeline, FUSE, etc) relying on user's having access to non-free non-cheap commercial software packages like IDL. All in all its an interesting issue that is worth the Decadal Survey's time taking into account, but its still small fry compared to the trifecta of problems associated with career development demographics, funding and overly-large missions.

International X-ray Observatory (IXO) white papers for Astro2010

Following on from this morning's post on Astro2010 Decadal Survey science white papers I should mention that the aim of my white paper (and various other white papers) is ultimately to emphasize the need for the US to engage in building and launching the International X-ray Observatory (IXO).

In terms of the science I am interested in, only IXO will have the capability to perform spectral-imaging of diffuse plasmas with high enough spectral resolution and high enough sensitivity to tell us what the rate of ejection from galaxies of gas, energy and newly-synthesized elements into the intergalactic medium is.

This entails being able to measure the velocity of the hot X-ray-emitting plasmas that drive superwinds in a sample of starburst galaxies covering a broad range in galaxy mass, which is impossible with the current generation of observatories, or even future non-X-ray observatories like HST/COS or NGST.

IXO, even if fully funded by all the international groups involved (NASA, ESA and JAXA), would have a launch date of around 2020. JAXA's ASTRO-H will have been launched well before then, around 2013 if all goes to plan, and it should be able to measure wind velocities in one or two of the brightest starburst-driven winds. These will be historic measurements, but won't be enough to establish how or if wind velocities vary with galaxy mass or star formation intensity. Ultimately we need to observe a decent sample, and IXO will be able to measure wind speeds more accurately in more objects.

Ultimately there are a broad range of pressing astrophysical questions that can only be answered with an observatory-class X-ray mission, which is what the broad range IXO white papers aim to demonstrate to the Decadal Survey panels. The full list of IXO-related Astro2010 science white papers (including mine) can be found here.

Astro2010 White Papers I think are interesting

The deadline for the submission of science White Paper to the U.S. National Academy of Science's Astro2010 Decadal Survey was Sunday 15th February 2009. Now its down to the poor saps on the actual survey panels to read (or skim) through vast numbers of seven page documents.

Although their aim is to convince the Decadal Survey panel members of the importance of their relative scientific areas to the future of astronomy and astrophysics in the U.S., these White Papers are interesting as mini-reviews of how their authors view their respective fields and how they'd like to see them develop.

Here are the White Papers that (a) were also posted on arXiv by their authors by March 3rd 2009, and that (b) I consider somewhat interesting, or (c) I had some involvement with and are therefore by definition interesting. This is a very small selection of the approximately 320 or so science White Papers submitted to the Decadal Survey.

I've trimmed the author lists down to "First Author, et al" (even in cases where there are only two authors) to avoid the artificial popularity contest created by the variable number of endorsers on each White Paper.

I've ordered them crudely in terms of our Galaxy, galaxies in general, high redshift, AGN, clusters, planets, stars and assorted other phenomena.

Structure and Dynamics of the Milky Way: an Astro2010 Science White Paper
Authors: M. J. Reid, K. M. Menten, A. Brunthaler, G. A. Moellenbrock, arXiv:0902.3928 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures

Young stellar clusters and star formation throughout the Galaxy
Authors: Eric Feigelson, arXiv:0903.0374 [pdf]

Comments: Science Working Paper for the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. For a version with color figures, see this http URL

The History of Star Formation in Galaxies
Authors: Thomas M. Brown, et al, arXiv:0902.2973 [pdf]
Comments: Science white paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. 7 pages, 4 figures, PDF

How do Galaxies Accrete Gas and Form Stars?
Authors: M.E. Putman, et al, arXiv:0902.4717 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, Science white paper for the Astro2010 Decadal Survey, 2 color figures

The Star Formation Histories of Disk and E/S0 Galaxies from Resolved Stars
Authors: Knut A.G. Olsen, et al, arXiv:0902.4216 [pdf]
Comments: Science white paper submitted to Astro2010 Decadal Survey GAN Panel 7 pages + cover page, 2 figures

Kinematics and Formation Mechanisms of High-Redshift Galaxies
Authors: David R. Law, et al, arXiv:0902.2567 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages total. White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

Nearby Galaxies: Templates for Galaxies Across Cosmic Time
Authors: F. J. Lockman, et al, arXiv:0902.3963 [pdf, other]
Comments: science white paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey

The Galactic Center: A Laboratory for Fundamental Astrophysics and Galactic Nuclei
Authors: A. Ghez, et al, arXiv:0903.0383 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: An ASTRO2010 White Paper. Animations and high resolution images can be found at this http URL

The Very Local Universe in X-rays
Authors: A. Ptak, et al, arXiv:0902.4239 [pdf]

Comments: 8 pages, Astro2010 Science White paper. Full-resolution version available at this http URL

Starburst Galaxies: Outflows of Metals and Energy into the IGM
Authors: David K. Strickland, et al, arXiv:0902.2945 [pdf, other]
Comments: White Paper for US Astro2010 Decadal Survey. 7 pages. Technical supplement at this http URL

Astrophysics from the Highly-Redshifted 21 cm Line
Authors: Steven Furlanetto, et al, arXiv:0902.3011 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 5 figures, science white paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey "Galaxies across Cosmic Time" Science Frontier Panel

Radio Supernovae: Circum-Stellar Investigation (C.S.I.) of Supernova Progenitor Stars
Authors: Christopher J. Stockdale, et al, arXiv:0902.4059 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures. White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 SSE panel

Despite the slightly cheesy title (CSI? That is so five years ago.) this is actually a really interesting White Paper IMHO.

Plasma Physics Processes of the Interstellar Medium
Authors: Steven Spangler, et al, arXiv:0902.4181 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: White paper submitted for consideration of the Astro2010 Decadal Survey Committee, in the area of "Galactic Neighborhood" (GAN)

In Situ Probes of the First Galaxies and Reionization: Gamma-ray Bursts
Authors: Matthew McQuinn, et al, arXiv:0902.3442 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, science white paper submitted to the US Astro2010 Decadal Survey

Imaging the cool gas, dust, star formation, and AGN in the first galaxies
Authors: C.L. Carilli, et al, arXiv:0902.3671 [pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages total. White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

High Redshift Radio Galaxies: Laboratories for Massive Galaxy and Cluster Formation in the early Universe
Authors: G. Miley, et al, arXiv:0902.3677 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages total. White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

The Growth of Supermassive Black Holes Across Cosmic Time
Authors: K. Nandra, et al, arXiv:0903.0547 [pdf]

Comments: 8 pages, Science White paper submitted to Astro2010 Decadal survey. Supplementary information available at this http URL

Diffuse baryonic matter beyond 2020
Authors: M. Markevitch, et al, arXiv:0902.3709 [pdf, other]
Comments: pdflatex, 9 pages, 3 color figures. White paper submitted for NRC Astro2010 Decadal Survey

Nice enough paper, but they totally cheated on the paper length. You're allowed 7 pages plus 1 cover page, including all figures and references. The Decadal Survey should not consider this paper. The rest of us managed to follow the rules. Every panel or time allocation committee I've been on seems to get at least one wise guy who thinks they can get away with an extra page, often in the hope that only the last page will be removed (often only with the reference list on it).

How and When do Planets Form? The Inner Regions of Planet Forming Disks at High Spatial and Spectral Resolution
Authors: R. Millan-Gabet, John D. Monnier, arXiv:0902.2576 [pdf]
Comments: Science White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey

New Worlds: Evaluating terrestrial planets as astrophysical objects
Authors: Caleb A. Scharf, et al, arXiv:0902.2755 [pdf]
Comments: Submitted as a White Paper to the 2010 Astronomy & Astrophysics Decadal Survey

The Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: The Search for and Characterization of Young Planets
Authors: Charles Beichman, et al, arXiv:0902.2972 [pdf]
Comments: White Paper Submission to Astro2010

X-ray Studies of Planetary Systems: An Astro2010 Decadal Survey White Paper
Authors: Eric Feigelson, et al, arXiv:0903.0598 [pdf, other]

No Planet Left Behind: Investigating Planetary Diversity and Architecture with SIM Lite
Authors: S. R. Kulkarni, et al, arXiv:0902.3475 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey

MARVELS: Revealing the Formation and Dynamical Evolution of Giant Planet Systems

Authors: Jian Ge, et al, arXiv:0903.0181 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Unpublished SDSS-III white paper for the US Decadal Survey. See this http URL for details of the international SDSS-III project

Toward the End of Stars: Discovering the Galaxy's Coldest Brown Dwarfs
Authors: Adam J. Burgasser, et al, arXiv:0902.2604 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, Astro2010 Science White Paper

Temporal Variability of Stars and Stellar Systems
Authors: T. A. Lister, et al, arXiv:0902.2966 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Submitted as a White Paper to the SSE Panel of the Astro2010 Decadal Survey

Quantifying Stellar Mass Loss with High Angular Resolution Imaging
Authors: Stephen Ridgway, et al, arXiv:0902.3008 [pdf]
Comments: Science white paper prepared for Astro2010

X-ray Timing of Neutron Stars, Astrophysical Probes of Extreme Physics
Authors: Z. Arzoumanian, et al, arXiv:0902.3264 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages. Science white paper submitted to Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey

X-ray Timing of Stellar Mass Black Holes
Authors: John A. Tomsick, et al, arXiv:0902.4238 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: White paper submitted to the Astro 2010 Decadal Survey

Stellar-Mass Black Holes and Their Progenitors
Authors: J. M. Miller, et al, arXiv:0902.4677 [pdf]
Comments: Astro 2010 Science White Paper

Spin and Relativistic Phenomena Around Black Holes
Authors: L. Brenneman, et al, arXiv:0902.4691 [pdf]
Comments: Astro 2010 Science White Paper

Gravitational Wave Astronomy Using Pulsars: Massive Black Hole Mergers & the Early Universe
Authors: P. Demorest. et al, arXiv:0902.2968 [pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, white paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. For NANOGrav information, see this http URL

The Dynamic X-ray Sky of the Local Universe
Authors: Alicia M. Soderberg, et al, arXiv:0902.3674 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, 2 figures; White Paper submitted to the Astro2010 SSE panel

Origin and evolution of cosmic accelerators - the unique discovery potential of an UHE neutrino telescope
Authors: Pisin Chen, et al, arXiv:0902.3288 [pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to US Astronomy Decadal Survey (2010-2020)

Properties of Dark Matter Revealed by Astrometric Measurements of the Milky Way and Local Galaxies
Authors: Edward Shaya, et al, arXiv:0902.2835 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, White Paper for the Decadal Survey in Astrophysics

The Need for Plasma Astrophysics in Understanding Life Cycles of Active Galaxies
Authors: H. Li, et al, arXiv:0902.3469 [pdf]
Comments: a White Paper submitted to GCT and FCP panels of Astro2010

A New Era in Extragalactic Background Light Measurements: The Cosmic History of Accretion, Nucleosynthesis and Reionization
Authors: Asantha Cooray et al, arXiv:0902.2372 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 7 pages; Science White Paper for the US Astro 2010-2020 Decadal Survey. If interested in further community-wide efforts on this topic please contact the first author

Astrophysics with Radioactive Atomic Nuclei
Authors: R. Diehl et al, arXiv:0902.2494 [pdf]
Comments: 7 pages, white paper for US Nat.Acad.Sci. Decadal Survey "Astro2010"

Solid State Astrophysics: Probing Interstellar Dust and Gas Properties with X-rays
Authors: Julia C. Lee, et al, arXiv:0902.4671 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 6 figures. White paper submitted to the Astro2010 Decadal survey for Astronomy and Astrophysics

Understanding of the role of magnetic fields: Galactic perspective
Authors: A. Lazarian, S. Boldyrev, C. Forest, J. Sarff, P. Terry, arXiv:0902.3618 [pdf]
Comments: 8 pages, white paper submitted to the Galactic Neighborhood (GAN) Panel

[Updated 03/09/09. Added the following White Paper.]

A complete view of galaxy evolution: panchromatic luminosity functions and the generation of metals
Andrew W. Blain, et al, arXiv:0903.1272 [pdf]
Comments: A whitepaper submitted on 15th February 2009 in response to the call from the Astro2010 panel: astro2010.org; uploaded as an 8-page pdf file

[Updated 03/11/09. Added the following White Paper.]

A Proposal for a Renewed Research Emphasis in Astrophysical and Celestial Dynamics
D. J. Scheeres, et al, arXiv:0903.1650 [pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pp. White Paper submitted for the 2010 Decadal Survey, to panels PSF, SSE, GAN, & GCT

Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey

I'm a little slow off the mark on this, but the National Academies has a web page up on Astro2010, the new decadal survey of the state and future of astronomy and astrophysics in the USA.

Mission statement, committee membership, events calendar, community input, all available from that one page (including links to existing comments made prior to the Chair and committee being selected).

[Update Sep 08 2009: Fixed link.]