LAMOST telescope under the starry sky. Photo courtesy of National Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences
"Du, du, du ..."
This kind of music should only be in heaven, where can I hear it several times?
201710/0 at the release conference of the first batch of results of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST), Li Yong, then a scientist of the FAST project, played a veritable "Scorpio"-a heartbeat from the universe and the first pulsar discovered by China's radio telescope.
This is a moment that can be recorded in the astronomical history of China. After that, FAST entered the era of large-scale discovery of pulsars.
Up to now, FAST has detected 9 1 high-quality pulsar candidates, of which 65 have been certified, including millisecond pulsars with the weakest traffic so far.
Today's FAST is a household name. But few people know that it is an innovative platform named Astronomical Science Research Center of China Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as Astronomical Science Center), which silently supports, cultivates and produces these great achievements.
Second choice
Since ancient times, the brilliant starry sky has always been the yearning of mankind. Astronomy is also one of the most developed natural sciences in ancient China.
However, as modern China closed its doors and missed modern science and technology, these bright pearls were gradually forgotten by the world.
1949, China Academy of Sciences, established together with New China, re-integrated the astronomical observation power of China.
In 200 1 year, the observatory system structure of China Academy of Sciences was formed, which was composed of National Astronomical Observatory (including headquarters, Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory and Changchun Satellite Observatory), Purple Mountain Observatory and Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, which promoted the rapid development of astronomy in China.
After decades of development, all units of the Observatory System of Chinese Academy of Sciences have made indelible contributions to the re-emergence of astronomy in China.
Guo Shoujing telescope, FAST, 65m Tianma telescope,13.7mm telescope, 1m solar tower ... advanced astronomical observation facilities with independent intellectual property rights have mushroomed in China, and China astronomy finally has a place on the international stage.
Nevertheless, the development crisis faced by astronomers in China seems to be that of not fade away.
"There is a joint meeting of directors between several observatories to discuss and negotiate public and * * * * affairs in the astronomical field of the Chinese Academy of Sciences." Zhao Gang, director of the Astronomical Science Center of China Academy of Sciences, secretary of the Party Committee of the National Astronomical Observatory and director of the LAMOST Scientific Committee, said frankly, "But there was no normalization mechanism at that time. As a discipline as a whole, the astronomical units of the Chinese Academy of Sciences still lack the resources and institutional support for overall management. "
Zhao Gang's feeling stems from the particularity of astronomy.
In many people's minds, when it comes to astronomy, it seems that a poetic picture of "a pot of sake, looking up at the starry sky" will emerge.
In fact, in recent ten years, the crux of astronomical competition has become the competition of astronomical observation equipment.
As an experimental science, with the continuous upgrading of major astronomical observation devices, the international mainstream advanced astronomical research model has entered the era of great scientific research, that is, relying on the cutting-edge scientific and technological research of major astronomical observation devices, it has continuously spawned major astronomical discoveries and continuously innovated human understanding of the universe.
According to statistics, most of the most important research achievements in recent years come from observation and research relying on major astronomical observation devices.
Papers published in the international astronomical field from 2009 to 20 13 are sorted by cited frequency. Most of the first 0. 1% papers (8 1%) are based on major astronomical observation devices.
"In order to pursue higher sensitivity, higher spatial/temporal/spectral resolution and larger field of view, countries around the world spend hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to build various major ground and space astronomical observation facilities." Chang Jin, deputy director of the Astronomical Science Center and director of the Purple Mountain Observatory, commented, "Simply put, whoever wants to see more, farther, darker and clearer than others must have a more advanced and sensitive telescope. Astronomy has indeed become more and more expensive and more dependent on large equipment. This is the characteristic of this discipline. "
"Astronomical observation needs time domain, space domain and baseline length, which makes astronomy one of the most interactive and international disciplines. Modern astronomical observation equipment is expensive, advanced in technology and complex in system, and the best observation sites are found all over the world for construction. " Shen Zhiqiang, deputy director of the Astronomical Science Center and director of the Shanghai Observatory, introduced the special significance of international cooperation to astronomy. "Taking the first photo of a black hole captured by human beings as an example, China is participating in the observation through international cooperation. The Astronomical Science Center is one of the important funding channels for China to participate in this international cooperation. "
However, due to historical reasons and institutional constraints, the National Astronomical Observatory, the Purple Mountain Observatory and the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory are all independent legal persons, and a series of barriers have been built invisibly.
"A unit implements overall management including itself, which is both an athlete and a referee."
"The future development of each unit is relatively independent, lacking overall planning and top-level design."
"Human and financial resources are relatively scattered, and there is no * * * enjoyment, which affects concentration on doing big things."
"Each device has its own independent operation and maintenance team with uneven strength."
"In some technology R&D platforms, the phenomenon of low-level redundant construction and repeated purchases between units has occurred frequently."
"There is no close integration between devices, platforms and scientific research, and it is difficult to form a unified organic innovation chain."
……
With the passage of time, all kinds of questions and questions come one after another, and astronomers feel more and more that they can no longer sleep on the credit book. They must make a choice again.
Fast panorama
"The power of the observatory system is unified"
"Reform is a real challenge and an opportunity for development. Challenges cannot be avoided, and opportunities are fleeting. " At a meeting on 20 14, Bai Chunli, President of Chinese Academy of Sciences, appealed to the whole hospital-
There is no "way out" without reform, and it is difficult to "take the lead" without breakthrough!
In 20 14, the Chinese academy of sciences launched the "go first" plan, which opened the prelude to the classification reform of scientific research institutes through the scientific deployment of institutional mechanisms and policy arrangements.
After receiving this news, the heads of the National Astronomical Observatory, the Purple Mountain Observatory and the Shanghai Observatory responded positively and discussed the reform plan for the first time.
On March 201May 13, the President's Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences approved the start of the preparatory work for the astronomical science center, and set up a preparatory group, with Wang Enge, then vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the team leader, and staff from relevant departments of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and people in the field of astronomy as members.
The first question they face is what kind of organization is more suitable.
"In the beginning, the goal of intuition was the center of Excellence, because astronomy is a very cutting-edge science." Bruce Xiu, assistant director of the National Astronomical Observatory and director of the basic scientific research department, said, "But then everyone agreed that astronomy is not just theoretical research, and scientific research is increasingly dependent on scientific instruments; The long-term development of the discipline can not only rely on the traditional PI system. The positioning of the Center of Excellence does not actually meet our needs. "
Throughout the world, countries and scientific research institutions with advanced astronomy basically adopt the mature model of big science center, with a set of mechanisms for overall scientific development and efficient operation and management, a powerful distributed observation network composed of several first-class scientific instruments, and first-class operation and maintenance, technology research and development, and scientific research teams, which are interlocking.
"This model is conducive to the scientific and orderly development and efficient open operation of observation devices and equipment, and then becomes the birthplace of major astronomical discoveries, the incubator of cutting-edge observation technologies and methods, and the driving force for the leap-forward development of disciplines." Zhao Bing, director of the comprehensive management department of the Astronomical Science Center and director of the Strategic Planning Office, said.
Take the European Southern Observatory as an example. Its headquarters is in Germany, and its main observation facilities are located in lassila, Parina, Nord Chananto, Serua Amazons and other stations in Chile.
By organizing the cooperation of European governments, Ounantai has realized the overall integration and allocation of manpower, financial resources, material resources, technology and professional knowledge, and designed and built a number of world-leading ground-based astronomical observation facilities.
This institution co-ordinates and represents the European astronomical community in international cooperation, and coordinates and absorbs the world's innovative resources, such as leading the European Very Large Telescope and jointly leading the world's largest millimeter wave/submillimeter wave array and other projects.
Finally, through a series of measures, the European Southern Observatory successfully supported European astronomers to reach the "new height of astronomy", and together with CERN and the European Space Agency, it was hailed as three institutional measures to revitalize European science and technology.
Bruce Xiu believes that the model of "big science center" is suitable for these astronomical units of Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Earlier, several units were scattered and could not form a big resultant force. It is necessary to establish a mechanism to unite the strength of the observatory in the hospital and concentrate on doing great things with limited resources. "
In response to this proposal, the three units hit it off.
However, the establishment of the four types of institutions is a stock reform. The first three observatories still retain entities, while the newly established center operates as an unincorporated unit.
"Don't interfere in each other's internal affairs, but also have a platform and a mechanism for everyone to sit together. The major event in the field of astronomy is by no means' reform for reform', but to really play the role that everyone expects of it. " Zhao Bing said.
The "expected role" soon appeared.
A few years ago, the national key R&D plan "Frontier Research of Scientific Instruments" solicited the opinions of the astronomical community, and the Astronomical Science Center assumed the function of overall organization. Through discussion, we reached a consensus on which directions should be concentrated and which projects should be given priority support.
"Without this platform, it is conceivable that such a project will soon evolve into a situation of' you fight for me'." Bruce Xiu said frankly, "But our whole discussion process was very peaceful, and everyone felt that important work was supported."
Through real projects, the Astronomical Science Center has gradually gained the trust of astronomers and science and technology managers.
And this trust even goes beyond the natural isolation of the department-whether it is within the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the astronomical research strength of universities across the country, as long as there is something that needs to be negotiated, it can be proposed to be supported by the Astronomical Science Center.
20 17123 October, the acceptance meeting of the experimental engineering construction expert group of the astronomical science center was held.
The expert group agreed that the strategic positioning of the center is accurate, the layout of the field direction is reasonable, the pilot construction objectives have been fully completed, and it has passed the acceptance.
Subsequently, after the president's office meeting of Chinese Academy of Sciences 13, the Astronomical Science Center passed the acceptance. At this point, after more than two years of preparation, the Astronomical Science Center finally entered the formal operation stage.
Nan (third from left), former chief scientist and chief engineer of FAST project, was at the project site.
The power of "5+2"
The Astronomical Science Center constantly explores the mechanism of "five overall plans and two * * * enjoyment" for major issues in the astronomical field of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"Five overall plans" refers to the overall allocation of team resources, the overall planning of major facilities, the overall organization of major frontier research, the overall operation of major observation devices and the overall development of major technical platforms, and "two * * * * *" refers to the efficient opening and sharing of observation devices and technical platforms.
This governance structure and working mechanism, to a great extent, make the major problems in the field of astronomy in China and the related top-level layout design coordinated.
In terms of devices, the Astronomical Science Center has combined the major astronomical observation devices that are being operated, constructed and planned in various parts of China with the international advanced telescopes that China participated in the operation and construction, and organized and formed four major device clusters: optical/infrared, radio, sun and celestial bodies.
Each equipment cluster runs as a whole, giving full play to its own cluster advantages; At the same time, all equipment clusters can jointly fight to form multi-band complementary advantages and support major astronomical frontier research.
Taking the management of "Special Fund for Equipment Renewal and Major Instruments and Equipment Operation of Observatory of China Academy of Sciences (Special Project of Astronomy and Finance)" as an example, the Center strengthens the scientific goal orientation, pays more attention to the important needs with strong consciousness, overall situation and universality, and strengthens the performance evaluation. Zhao Gang said: "This is the consensus of several Taiwan Province leaders."
"The overall coordination is not' sprinkling pepper noodles'." Zhao Bing explained the operational performance evaluation. "For devices with good operation effect and more scientific output, the support will be greatly improved; For devices with poor effect and unsatisfactory output, they will be used for teaching, popular science and other purposes in time, and will no longer be supported by astronomical financial projects through the way of "shutting down and turning". The general principle is to realize the inclination of resources to the output of major achievements and ensure the efficiency of capital use. "
In terms of talent team construction, the Astronomical Science Center has made full use of various talent plans and gradually established a high-level scientific research, technology and operation and maintenance management team with reasonable structure through the combination of introduction and training.
In the core group of FAST debugging, a group of young talents, such as Peng Jiang, Pan Gaofeng, Yue Youling and Lei Qian, have been supported by the excellent backbone of FAST high-end user program and the special program for young researchers of Astronomical Science Center, and they have also accelerated their growth in the process of reform. Jiang Peng is currently the chief engineer of FAST.
Zhao Jingkun, Liu Chao, Li Haining, Yuan Haibo, Li Yinbi, Xing,, Xiang, the outstanding backbones of LAMOST high-end user plan, have achieved scientific breakthroughs in LAMOST.
"There are actually many excellent technicians in our own team, who are mainly responsible for the connection of scientific data and equipment." Wang Dan, deputy director and office director of LAMOST Operation and Development Center, said, "The work of these people is actually particularly critical, but they have been making wedding dresses for others for a long time, and their achievements are hard to reflect."
What's more, due to the limitation of system and mechanism, the personnel funds in the operation funds of major national scientific and technological infrastructure, large scientific projects and space science satellite projects are seriously insufficient.
Zhang Haiyan, director of the FAST Electromagnetic Environmental Protection Center and deputy director of the Engineering Office, added, "This makes the income of some technicians low, which is not conducive to maintaining the enthusiasm and stability of operation and maintenance and technical support personnel."
Tian Bin, director of the Office of the Comprehensive Management Department of the Astronomical Science Center, said frankly from another angle, "Researchers working around scientific instruments have another feature, that is, they have made very core contributions, but when they open their resumes, they find that they have suffered a lot in the number of published papers."
In order to change this situation, the Astronomical Science Center has become an explorer to break the "four Wei".
When recommending national and college-level related talent plans, a principle of promoting Excellence is to give priority to recommending key talents who have made important support and contribution to the construction and operation of large-scale devices.
This move has been welcomed by researchers.
Li Yong believes that the Astronomical Science Center has given inclined support to these people by setting up corresponding talent programs, which not only increased their income, but also enhanced their sense of honor and belonging, which played a key role in uniting and stabilizing the team.
Jiang Peng thinks that the Astronomical Science Center has played an important role in the reserve of scientific and technological talents in related fields.
The researchers took a group photo in front of the LAMOST mirror.
Great centers do great things.
In the early morning of April 30th, Nature-Astronomy published an important achievement of Sino-Japanese cooperative research led by the National Astronomical Observatory online. Using LAMOST's powerful ability to survey the sky, a star with high content of heavy elements (including silver, europium, gold, uranium, etc.). ) was discovered in the Milky Way, revealing the accretion origin of such rare stars for the first time, deepening the understanding of the mechanism of heavy elements, so as to identify nearby dwarfs according to the chemical composition of stars.
In recent years, LAMOST has shown an explosive and blowout trend of scientific research output, searching for strange celestial bodies, capturing the information of distant universes and "re-painting" the Milky Way.
Since 2003, he has been the general manager of LAMOST project, and Zhao Yongheng, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has mixed feelings.
"Although one of our priorities is to operate and maintain the telescope efficiently and stably, it is not enough to be satisfied with good operation, but also to attract and encourage more scientists and users to use our data for research. Otherwise, even a piece of gold will be covered with dust if no one knows it. "
With the support of China Academy of Sciences, the Astronomical Science Center has implemented a special visiting researcher program, and hired top astronomers at home and abroad to carry out in-depth cooperation around the construction, operation and research of the center facilities.
The center also implemented the naming project for professors and outstanding scholars for high-end users, attracted high-level users at home and abroad, and led the team to carry out in-depth scientific and technological research based on LAMOST and FAST.
Up to now, 769 users of 124 scientific research institutions and universities in China, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and other countries and regions have used LAMOST data to carry out research work, published 438 research papers on visibility sci, which have been cited for more than 4,200 times, and achieved a series of influential research results.
Thanks to the "blessing" of the Astronomical Science Center, the observation ability of the device cluster has been greatly improved, and major scientific achievements have emerged continuously, making the service more efficient:
-20 17 1 1 The dark matter satellite Wukong obtained the most accurate spectrum of TeV electron cosmic rays in the world, which not only expanded the window for scientists to observe the universe, but also played a key role in judging whether some electron cosmic rays came from dark matter.
……
"In fact, in the years when LAMOST was just built, we were under great pressure." Zhao Yongheng said with emotion, "In contrast, the achievements in recent years can be said to be explosive. This fully shows that putting the data there and waiting for others to find it, and actively organizing everyone to do things together, the effect is completely different. "
After four years of preparation and operation, the Astronomical Science Center of China Academy of Sciences has developed into a brand in the field of astronomy in China.
Facing the future, the Astronomical Science Center will continue to explore new mechanisms conducive to promoting the output of major achievements, opening up to the outside world and enjoying them efficiently, become the birthplace of major astronomical discoveries and important astronomical technological breakthroughs, and make continuous progress in building a distinctive and internationally renowned astronomical science research center.
"In the layout of astronomical disciplines in China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has the characteristics of' centralized equipment, centralized fields and centralized teams'. It is the' national team' representing the national astronomical research level and the' locomotive' leading the development of astronomical disciplines in China." Zhao Gang said, "On the road of China's efforts to develop into an astronomical power, the Astronomical Science Center will shoulder the mission of leading China's astronomical cause to leapfrog development, which is also our unshirkable responsibility."
China science journal (20 19-05-28 4th edition documentary)
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