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Announcements of Upcoming Meetings
Notice that this list is not meant to be all-inclusive, but concentrates
on meetings of potential interest to X-ray, gamma-ray, cosmic-ray, and
gravitational astrophysicists. The HEASARC also maintains a list of on-line proceedings
of high-energy astrophysics meetings.
Updates, corrections, and/or suggestions about meetings should be sent to
drake@olegacy.gsfc.nasa.gov
Other Sources of Information on Upcoming Meetings
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Liz Bryson's list of International Astronomy meetings
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Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Space Calendar
2008 September 17 - 19:
ESA International X-ray Observatory (IXO) Science Meeting (formerly
called `Exploring the Hot Universe with XEUS')
2008 October 20 - 23:
The 6th Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium
2008 October 20 - 22:
6th Chandra/CIAO Workshop
2008 December 2 - 5 (Revised Dates):
Second International SIMBOL-X Symposium
2008 December 7 - 14:
24th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics
2009 April 27 - 30 (Revised Dates):
The coming of Age of X-ray Polarimetry
2009 May 18 - 20:
Supersoft X-ray Sources - New Developments
2009 June 1 - 5:
The Monster's Fiery Breath: Feedback in Galaxies, Groups, and
Clusters
2009 August 3 - 5:
NEUTRON STARS: TIMING IN AN EXTREME ENVIRONMENT: JOINT DISCUSSION AT THE
XXVII IAU GENERAL ASSEMBLY
2009 September 7 - 11:
X-ray Astronomy 2009: Present Status, Multiwavelength Approach and Future
Perspectives
2008 October 13 - 17:
IAU Symposium 258: The Ages of Stars
2008 November 10 - 12:
Hot and Cool: Bridging Gaps in Massive Star Evolution
2009 January 7 - 10:
American Astronomical Society Meeting 213
2009 June 7 - 11:
American Astronomical Society Meeting 214
2009 January 3 - 7:
American Astronomical Society Meeting 215
High Energy Astrophysics meetings
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ESA International X-ray Observatory (IXO) Science Meeting (formerly
called `Exploring the Hot Universe with XEUS')
- Dates: 2008 September 17 - 19
- Deadline for Registration: 2008 July 30
- Place: Garching, Munich, Germany
IXO, the next generation X-ray observatory, has been selected as a candidate
Large-class mission as part of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme.
Active study of the IXO concept by ESA, JAXA, and NASA is now underway
in preparation for the Cosmic Vision downselection, expected at the end
of 2009. The purpose of this workshop is to gather together members of
the astronomical community with an interest in IXO, to discuss the
science we expect to be enabled by the mission. As well as summarising
the current status of the project, topics to be covered include:
- Evolution of black hole accretion and its relationship to galaxy
formation
- Growth and evolution of large scale structure
- Matter under extreme physical conditions around black holes and neutron
stars
- Dynamics and chemistry of cosmic plasmas
In addition, a major component of the workshop will be devoted to identifying
new science goals and drivers.
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The 6th Huntsville
Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium
- Dates: 2008 October 20 - 23
- Deadline for Abstract Submission: 2008 July 15
- Deadline for Hotel Reservations: 2008 September 19
- Place: Huntsville, Alabama, USA
This symposium will consist of presentations and posters on all aspects of
GRBs, including: (1) observations of the prompt and afterglow emission in all
wavelength regions, (2) progenitors of GRBs, (3) host galaxies, (4) cosmology,
as related to GRB observations, (5) theory and simulations related to GRBs,
and (6) instrumentation. Special emphasis will be given to early observations
from the GLAST mission, scheduled for launch in June 2008.
This GRB Symposium is jointly sponsored by the GLAST and Swift communities.
The GLAST Burst Monitor team, located in Huntsville, will host the meeting,
thus continuing the tradition of GRB Symposia initiated during the GRO/BATSE
era.
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6th Chandra/CIAO
Workshop
- Dates: 2008 October 20 - 22
- Place: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
This is the sixth in a series of workshops which started in 2001 and is aimed
at helping users to work with the Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations
(CIAO) software. CIAO is the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) software which was
developed for the analysis of Chandra data. However, CIAO is non-mission
specific (apart from a few instrument tools). More information on CIAO can be
found at CXC. This workshop
will be largely based on CIAO 4.0 which was released in December 2007 and any
software patch available at the time. A summary of the features in the CIAO4.0
software can be found in the release notes.
Initial registration for this workshop is limited to 30 participants. In the
event that the organizers receive a greater reponse than the workshop can
accommodate, other registrants will be notified that they are on a waiting
list.
Potential workshop talks include:
* Introduction to X-Ray Data Analysis
* Introduction to CIAO
* Sherpa: CIAO's Modeling and Fitting Application
* Source Detection
* Statistics in the X-ray Regime
* ChaRT: the Chandra Ray Tracer
* Chandra Calibration
* Analysis of Point-Like Sources
* Grating Analysis
* Analysis of Extended Sources
* Timing Analysis
* Python and S-Lang in CIAO
* Pileup Modeling
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Second International
SIMBOL-X Symposium
- Dates: 2008 December 2 - 5 (Revised Dates)
- Deadline for Abstract Submission of Oral Contributions: 2008 October 12
- Place: Paris, France
Simbol-X is a high energy astrophysics mission dedicated to hard X-ray imaging
and spectroscopy in the ~ 0.5 - 100 keV X-ray band with, for the first time,
excellent angular resolution and sub-microCrab sensitivity. Simbol-X is
jointly developed by the French and Italian space agencies, with a
participation of Germany. The mission has just successfully completed a phase
A study, and is entering in 2008 a phase B development in view of a launch in
the middle of 2014.
The several orders of magnitude improvement in angular resolution and
sensitivity provided by Simbol-X over all instruments which have operated
so far in the hard X-ray range is obtained by using state of the art grazing
incidence optics and imaging detectors in a very long focal length telescope.
This is possible thanks to the use of the new formation flying technology.
This breakthrough in instrumentation power will open a new window in
astrophysics and cosmology, and will offer a very large discovery space.
Simbol-X will, in particular, provide crucial advancements in the two domains
which define the core science objectives of the mission: that of black hole
physics and census, and that of particle acceleration mechanisms.
The first aim of this second workshop, after the first held in 2007 in Bologna,
is to discuss the evolution of the science issues to be tackled by Simbol-X.
Presentations of new results in relation with Simbol-X goals, from operating
instruments and in particular from the recently launched missions Agile and
GLAST, will be encouraged. The second aim is to present to the international
community the advancement of the project from the technical point of view, on
both aspects of instrumentation and on mission implementation.
The meeting organizers can be contacted at simbolx2008@apc.univ-paris7.fr.
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24th Texas Symposium on
Relativistic Astrophysics
- Dates: 2008 December 7 - 14
- Deadline for Abstract Submission & Early Registration: 2008 October 1
- Place: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Following the tradition of past Texas Symposia the talks will emphasize recent
developments in Cosmology, High Energy Astrophysics and the frontiers between
these and Gravitation and Particle Physics. The symposium will include invited
plenary talks, oral contributed talks and poster presentations on topics,
including:
* Cosmology
* Compact Objects
* Particle Astrophysics
* Early Universe
* Gamma Ray Astronomy
* Active Galaxies
* Cosmic Rays
* Supernovae
* Dark Energy
* Tests of Gravity
* Numerical Relativity
* The Galactic Centre
* Gravitational Waves
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The coming of Age of
X-ray Polarimetry
- Dates: 2009 April 27 - 30 (Revised Dates)
- Place: Rome, Italy
The advent of a new generation of X-ray polarimeters, to be combined with
large area X-ray telescopes, has renewed interests in the X-ray polarimetry,
as demonstrated by the several polarimetric missions recently proposed to
various space agencies. The possibility to have a X-ray polarimetric mission
operating in the near future is indeed concrete, not forgetting that a
polarimeter is one of the candidate instruments to be part of the focal
plane of the International X-Ray Observatory (IXO). After more than four
years from the last X-ray Polarimetry Workshop (February 2004),
the organizers believe it is time to hold a conference
with the aim of discussing the present status and perspectives of
instruments as well as to review and discuss the theoretical models. They
would like not only to gather the community actively involved in X-ray
polarimetry (both on the instrumental and theoretical sides), but also and
foremost to stimulate the interest in a wider community, hampered so far by
the lack of observational perspectives.
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Supersoft X-ray Sources - New Developments
- Dates: 2009 May 18 - 20
- Place: Villafranca, near Madrid, Spain
After the discovery of supersoft X-ray sources (SSS) with the Einstein
Observatory, the detection of about a dozen luminous SSS in the Magellanic
Clouds in the ROSAT all-sky survey data established luminous SSS as a class
of objects. Later, ROSAT pointed observations revealed SSS also in the Milky
Way and other nearby galaxies.
XMM-Newton and Chandra have been in orbit for about one decade. High-resolution
X-ray spectra of SSS are crucial for our understanding of the emission process
in these systems. With their high-sensitivity instrumentation SSS can be
investigated in more distant galaxies. XMM-Newton and Chandra surveys of M 31
revealed that most SSS in M 31 are identified with optical novae with various
durations of the SSS state lasting from months to more than 10 years.
Monitoring observations with Swift allow us to investigate the spectral
evolution during the SSS state.
The aim of the workshop is to summarise the present status of
supersoft X-ray sources research from the observational as
well as the theoretical side in order to identify the most critical
unsolved problems.
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The Monster's Fiery Breath: Feedback in Galaxies, Groups, and
Clusters
- Dates: 2009 June 1 - 5
- Pre-Registration: Open
- Place: Madison, Wisconsin, USA
The past decade has shown that black hole growth and the formation of large
scale structure are intimately linked. With the astrophysical community
having largely converged on this view, the scientific task at hand is
to determine the nature, strength, and ultimate relevance of this link.
In honor of the 10th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which
has been instrumental in demonstrating the importance of feedback and in
anticipation of the first year of GLAST, which will be instrumental in
making the next step towards a consistent picture of how black hole growth
and large scale structure formation are coupled, as well as the next
generation of low frequency radio telescopes, the 2009 Wisconsin meeting
on feedback from galaxies to clusters will bring together a broad group
of researchers with one common goal: To lay the path for the next decade
of work on feedback in structure formation.
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NEUTRON STARS: TIMING IN AN EXTREME ENVIRONMENT: JOINT DISCUSSION
AT THE XXVII IAU GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
- Dates: 2009 August 3 - 5
- Place: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Astronomical systems harboring a neutron star, from isolated and binary radio
pulsars to magnetars and accreting X-ray binaries, constitute a unique tool
for the study of matter under extreme conditions. Testing General Relativity
in the strong-field regime and the determination of the equation of state of
neutron matter are major goals which appear more and more within reach. The
availability of high-energy missions such as XMM-Newton, Chandra and Suzaku
for energy spectra and RossiXTE for fast time variability, as well as the
discovery of a new binary radio pulsar, have spurred these lines of research.
The results from high-energy Cherenkov experiments like MAGIC and HESS are
opening a new window to study the extreme environment close to compact objects.
Agile and GLAST will be fully operational, providing an unprecedented view of
this type of systems. The proposed Joint Discussion aims at getting together
experts in these fields for an analysis of the current situation and a view
toward future prospects. 2009 will be the fourteenth year of operation of
RossiXTE and it will mark the 10-year anniversary of the launch of XMM-Newton
and Chandra. The Indian satellite for X-ray astronomy ASTROSAT will be in
orbit, providing crucial fast-timing information. In addition, ESA, NASA and
JAXA are currently analyzing the possibility of joining forces by merging the
two major X-ray programs (Constellation-X and XEUS) into one large mission
and we expect that the conclusions reached in this JD will help shape up the
science program for it. All these constitute an ideal milestone for such a
meeting. The proposed program includes ten major topics for which two
solicited talks are envisioned, together with a small number of selected
contributed talks. An additional session, distributed through the two days,
will address future instrumentation for timing analysis. A poster session is
also envisioned. A IAU JD provides an ideal setting for such a meeting and
will allow discussions focused to these topics. Although the emphasis is on
time variability, all aspects will be addressed, from radio observations to
high-resolution spectra and high-energy emission.
The principal topics to be discussed:
* quasi-periodic oscillations from mHz to kHz
* X-ray bursts and superbursts
* millisecond X-ray pulsars
* AXP/SGR and magnetars
* isolated neutron stars
* very-high energy emission from neutron stars
* gravitational waves from neutron stars
* neutron-star equation of state and strong gravity
* future instrumentation for timing
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X-ray Astronomy 2009:
Present Status, Multiwavelength Approach and Future Perspectives
- Dates: 2009 September 7 - 11
- Place: Bologna, Italy
Third in a decadal series of X-ray astronomy conferences in Bologna, this
meeting will highlight the contribution of XMM-Newton and Chandra
observatories, ten years after their launch. Emphasis will be given on cosmic
source multiwavelength studies and associated synergies with major facilities
at all wavelengths, and on the perspectives for future high energy
astrophysics missions.
Other Selected Astronomy, Physics and Space Science
meetings
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IAU Symposium
258: The Ages of Stars
- Dates: 2008 October 13 - 17
- Deadline for Travel Grant Applications: 2008 June 23
- Deadline for Early Registration: 2008 July 15
- Place: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
How old is that star? That is one of the most difficult questions to
answer in Galactic astrophysics. We have ways of determining the ages of
ensembles of stars (groups and clusters), but critical astrophysical questions
can only be addressed if we can estimate the ages of individual stars in the
field. Stellar ages lie at the heart of astrophysics, and stellar evolution
is all about time and how stars change with time. We want to know time-scales
for physical processes such as angular momentum loss, nucleosynthetic
processing, changes in magnetic fields, and the like, or we wish to compare
objects or groups of objects at different stages in their lives. Stellar and
galactic evolution cannot be understood without some knowledge of ages.
If we could pin ages on individual stars we could determine the star formation
history of the Galaxy and its principal components, and we could understand
the physics of low-mass stars much better. The well-studied spin-down of stars
like the Sun and the concomitant decline of observed activity indices makes it
possible to estimate rough ages for individual stars, but the scarcity and
remoteness of older clusters makes calibrating and testing the activity-age
relation problematic.
Ages of Resolved Populations: The discovery and study of multiple
populations of stars in clusters and other resolved objects in recent years
has been a major accomplishment of HST and has led to changing views on how
clusters form and evolve. In some cases there is evidence for multiple ages,
in others for differences in composition. A full and complete understanding
of the nature and ages of groups of stars is vital to stellar astrophysics.
Now is an appropriate time to examine the problem of stellar ages in detail.
It is time to bring together astronomers from the around the world to discuss
the current state of the problem of estimating ages of individual stars and
of populations, where the advances are now being made, and what the near
future offers.
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Hot and Cool: Bridging Gaps in Massive Star Evolution
- Dates: 2008 November 10 - 12
- Place: Pasadena, California, USA
This meeting aims to bridge the gap between researchers studying stars in the
upper blue and red sections of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD). While
morphologically separated, stars occupying these extremes of the HRD are
intimately related via evolution, as well as both having atmospheric
properties affected by extension and stellar wind outflow. At cosmological
scales, like in distant starburst galaxies, the historical distinction
between blue and red stellar populations becomes obsolete, and understanding
the complex relation between the red and blue parts of the HRD is mandatory.
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American
Astronomical Society Meeting 213
- Dates: 2009 January 4 - 8
- Deadline for Early Registration: 2008 September 30
- Deadline for Regular Registration: 2008 November 30
- Deadline for Hotel Reservations: 2008 December 7
- Deadline for Late (Off-Site) Registration: 2008 December 21
- Place: Long Beach, California, USA
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American
Astronomical Society Meeting 214
- Dates: 2009 June 7 - 11
- Place: Pasadena, California, USA
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American
Astronomical Society Meeting 215
- Dates: 2010 January 3 - 7
- Place: Washington, DC, USA
Selected Astronomy-related Technology (e.g., Detectors)
meetings
- None
Selected Astronomy-related WWW, Computational, Data
Analysis, Software or Statistics meetings
- None
Selected Space Science-related Education and Public
Outreach meetings
- None
Page Author:
Stephen Drake
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