The project JUMPING JIVE has facilitated the process of preparing a scientific roadmap for VLBI, whose main goals are to assess the relevance of milliarcsecond scale science in the current transformational landscape of new radio astronomical facilities, and to highlight the technological and operational developments needed to ensure that the role VLBI plays in astrophysics will continue and further grow in relevance.
The document “VLBI20-30: a scientific roadmap for the next decade – The future of the European VLBI Network” has been completed and has been distributed to the community worldwide.
The scientific content of the new roadmap, presented in seven science chapters, led to ten main questions, which VLBI may provide unique answers to:
- What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?
- When and how did the first black holes form?
- How do relativistic jets form? What is their impact on the host galaxy?
- What is the physics of explosions following gravitational wave events?
- What are the elusive fast radio bursts?
- Are we alone?
- How was the Milky Way born?
- How do stars form? How do they impact the environment at their death?
See here the document “VLBI20-30: a scientific roadmap for the next decade – The future of the European VLBI Network” and here a related article in the EVN newsletter issue 58 by T. Venturi (INAF/IT) – one of the main authors of the document.