Comment in 2018

There are efforts to establish a modern astronomical observatory on Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia. This future observatory aims to answer fundamental astronomical questions and to strengthen the nation through education, research, science and technology.

The field of gamma-ray burst astronomy arguably went through three decades of growing pains before reaching maturity. What development lessons can be learned for the adolescent field of fast radio burst astronomy?

Fast radio bursts were discovered just over a decade ago, and their origin remains a mystery. Despite this disadvantage, astronomers have been using them to investigate the matter through which their bright, impulsive radiation travels.

To date, one repeating and many apparently non-repeating fast radio bursts have been detected. This dichotomy has driven discussions about whether fast radio bursts stem from a single population of sources or two or more different populations. Here we present the arguments for and against.

Physical constraints on the sources of fast radio bursts are few, and therefore viable theoretical models are many. However, no one model can match all the available observational characteristics, meaning that these radio bursts remain one of the most mysterious phenomena in astrophysics.

Multi-wavelength and multi-messenger astronomy will reveal the phenomena that produce fast radio bursts, turning fast radio bursts into sharper tools with which to probe extragalactic plasma.

The detection of biosignatures on extrasolar planets would allow us to explore the predictability of evolution. What could we learn without directly obtaining a sample of life?

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has been working to increase public familiarity with astronomy. Here we introduce our outreach activities, including the development of interactive tools that make NAOJ data visible to the public.

Understanding how and why star formation turns off in massive galaxies is a major challenge for studies of galaxy evolution. Many theoretical explanations have been proposed, but a definitive consensus is yet to be reached.

The next-generation observatory Lynx will provide an unprecedented X-ray view of the otherwise invisible Universe, directly observing the dawn of supermassive black holes, revealing the drivers of galaxy formation, tracing stellar activity including effects on planet habitability, and transforming our knowledge of the endpoints of stellar evolution.

LUVOIR is a concept for a powerful, flexible space observatory to enable the first survey for exoplanets most similar to the Earth, search for signs of life in our Solar System and beyond, and revolutionize astrophysics in the twenty-first century.

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) is a conceptual space-based 4-m telescope with the means to image and characterize potentially habitable planets orbiting Sun-like stars, and with ultraviolet to near-infrared imaging and spectroscopic capabilities suited to general observatory science.

The Origins Space Telescope, one of four large Mission Concept Studies sponsored by NASA for review in the 2020 US Astrophysics Decadal Survey, will open unprecedented discovery space in the infrared, unveiling our cosmic origins.

The Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) project, a joint venture between the UK, South Africa and African partner nations, aims to provide development, education, training and careers advice to Africans through radio astronomy and related technical disciplines.

The development of astronomy and space science in Africa has grown significantly over the past few years. These advancements make the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals more achievable, and open up the possibility of new beneficial collaborations.

Since 2013, the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy for Development has been funding and nurturing astronomy-for-development projects across the globe. In Africa, these projects aim to use astronomy to stimulate educational, technological and socioeconomic development.

Arguably, no mission changed X-ray astronomy in as short a time as did Hitomi. The planned X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission, XARM, will carry its legacy forward.

Upcoming telescopes might be able to detect signatures of complex life on other worlds, but we need to involve physical, chemical and life scientists at the planning stage in order to interpret the findings when the time comes.

China has approved or planned a string of several space exploration missions to be launched over the next decade. A new generation of planetary scientists in China is playing an important role in determining the scientific goals of future missions.

Moroccan scientific production in astronomy and astrophysics has shown sustained growth since the late 1980s. This growth is largely due to the dynamism of an increasingly entrepreneurial community and to the creation of an astronomical observatory in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.