Reminder to register (sent on May 04, 2009) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE MILKY WAY AND THE LOCAL GROUP - NOW AND IN THE GAIA ERA Dates: August 31 - September 4, 2009 Venue: University of Heidelberg, Germany URL: http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/meetings/milkyway2009/ E-mail: milkway09@ari.uni-heidelberg.de The submission deadline for talks has been extended to June 1, 2009 (i.e., to the same date as the early registration deadline). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE Our Milky Way, M31, and the other galaxies of the Local Group allow us to study galaxy properties and evolutionary processes at a level of detail that is not accessible in more distant galaxies. This makes these nearby galaxies an indispensable laboratory for, e.g., testing cosmological scenarios, for conducting galactic archaeology, or for investigating currently ongoing processes such as star formation in unprecedented detail. Tremendous progress has been made in these areas over the past few years, which is in part due to major ground-based and space-based surveys and to the availability of 8-10m class telescopes. These observational advances are accompanied by significant progress in N-body, SPH, and chemodynamical modeling of galaxy formation and evolution. The cornerstone space mission Gaia (launch: 2012) will provide high-precision phase-space information for about one billion stars in our Galaxy and its surroundings, along with the physical parameters and the chemical composition of many of these stars. Heidelberg astronomers are leading the German part of the preparation of this mission. Gaia will turn the coming decade into a golden age for Galactic astronomy and will revolutionize our understanding of the origin, evolution, structure, and dynamics of the Milky Way as a whole and of its components. Our conference focuses on the substantial recent advances in our understanding of the evolution of the Milky Way and of the Local Group, both from the theoretical and observational point of view as well as in terms of new facilities and surveys. Special emphasis will be placed on the prospects of the forthcoming Gaia mission. For more information, please see http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/meetings/milkyway2009/rationale.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. CONFERENCE TOPICS I. Formation of the Milky Way and of the Local Group: Cosmology, reionization, theoretically expected properties, signatures of infall, missing satellites. II. The least massive Local Group inhabitants: Dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Census and global properties, evolutionary histories, detailed chemistry, orbits and disruption. III. The Galactic halo: halo structure, kinematics, chemistry; inner/ outer halo dichotomy, detailed element abundances, extremely metal- poor stars, globular clusters, the gaseous halo, accretion signatures and streams. IV. The Galactic bulge, bar, center: Ages, star formation history, chemistry, structure, kinematics. Halo vs. bulge. V. The Galactic thin and thick disk: Structure, ages, chemistry, gradients, origin, overdensities, moving groups. VI. The Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way: Global properties and structure of the Clouds, chemical evolution and star formation history, orbits and interaction. VII. M31 and M33: The giant stream, structure and properties of halo and disk, and of M31's bulge; chemistry, evolution. VIII. Gaia: The Gaia mission, Gaia science overview, Galactic research with Gaia. IX. Other space astrometry survey projects: Nano-JASMINE, JASMINE, SIM; scientific prospects and interplay with Gaia. X. Other Galactic survey projects: SDSS, RAVE, Pan-STARRS, LAMOST, SSS, LSST, EUCLID, ...; scientific prospects and interplay with Gaia. XI. Gaia techniques and challenges; and ELSA. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. CONFERENCE FORMAT, TALKS, and POSTERS The conference will last five days starting on Monday morning and ending on Friday after lunch. We will have plenary and parallel sessions. The typical duration of the talks will be 20 and 30 minutes, respectively. We expect to be able to accommodate up to 120 talks. There is also plenty of space for poster presentations. The number of participants in this conference is not limited. We are not planning to have proceedings, but electronic versions of the talks and posters will be made available on the web. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. VENUE Heidelberg is a beautiful city in a valley at the Neckar river. It is famous for its well-preserved old town with many historical buildings, for its castle, for its "Philosophers' Walk" and for its university, which is one of the oldest in Europe. The University of Heidelberg hosts the largest center for astronomy of all German universities. This center, the "Zentrum fuer Astronomie der Universitaet Heidelberg" (ZAH), consists of three institutes focusing on many different aspects of Galactic astronomy, dynamics, star formation, galaxy evolution, and cosmology, topics that are central to our conference. Heidelberg also leads the German efforts in the preparation of the Gaia satellite mission. Our conference will take place on the natural sciences campus of the University of Heidelberg in the Neuenheim district, easily reachable by public transport. We will have a building with two large lecture halls at our disposal, along with ample space for posters. Free wireless internet will be provided throughout the conference. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. ABSTRACTS AND REGISTRATION If you are interested in giving a talk, please submit your abstract to Ms. Karin Seibel (seibel@ari.uni-heidelberg.de) *by June 1, 2009* using the LaTeX template available from the conference web site (http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/meetings/milkyway2009/abstracts.html). Registration and hotel reservations are handled by UniTT Conference Management via the conference web pages. The early registration fee is 250 Euros (150 Euros for students). Lunch will be provided for free during the conference. The early registration deadline is June 01, 2009. Payment can be made by credit card or via bank transfer. For more information, see http://www.milkyway2009.unitt.de/milkyway/dboutput/stdoutput.hei?table=eventpageshttp://www.milkyway2009.unitt.de/bookingcontext=365http://www.milkyway2009.unitt.de/bookingnr=4540http://www.milkyway2009.unitt.de/bookinglang=1http://www.milkyway2009.unitt.de/bookingcontext=365/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. IMPORTANT DATES June 01, 2009: Abstract submission deadline for talks (NEW). June 01, 2009: Early registration deadline. June 30, 2009: Abstract submission deadline for posters. July 19, 2009: Hotel booking deadline. August 23, 2009: Late registration deadline. August 29, 2009: Informal dinner in the old town of Heidelberg. August 30, 2009: Beginning of the conference. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Coryn Bailer-Jones (MPIA, Germany) Ulrich Bastian (ZAH, Germany; co-chair) Norbert Christlieb (ZAH, Germany) John S. Gallagher (U. Wisconsin, USA) Eva K. Grebel (ZAH, Germany; co-chair) Francois Mignard (OCA, France) Timo Prusti (ESA, Netherlands) R. Michael Rich (UCLA, USA) Volker Springel (MPA, Germany) Matthias Steinmetz (AIP, Germany) Guido Thimm (ZAH, Germany) chairs the Local Organizing Committee. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Please circulate this message to interested colleagues. We apologize if you receive this notice more than once. If you do not wish to receive further announcements regarding this conference, please send e-mail to milkyway09@ari.uni-heidelberg.de. Also, any questions regarding scientific aspects of the conference can be sent to milkyway09@ari.uni-heidelberg.de.