Lets be presumptuous….
21st Century astronomers should be uniquely positioned to study “the evolution of the universe in order to relate causally the physical conditions during the Big Bang to the development of RNA and DNA” (Giacconi, 1997)
- Dynamics, abundances’ requires - spectral resolutions > 5,000
- Isolating individual objects or phenomena requires - high spatial resolution
- Imaging spectroscopy at high spectral and spatial resolution requires - collecting area