Angsana Resort, Palm Cove, Queensland, 5-8 May 2009

Overcoming Great Barriers in Galactic Archaeology

An AAO Workshop

And Celebration of the Contributions of Mike Bessell and John Norris

In association with the Astrophysical Institute, Potsdam, the Australian National University, and the University of Sydney

Scroll down for Workshop Photos!

DRAFT SCIENCE PROGRAM

The latest version of the Science Program can be seen here

ABstracts

Abstracts are here.

PARTICIPANTS

To see a list of registered participants, click here. Click on participants' names to download their presentations.

AIM:

This workshop will bring together key international players in the rapidly growing field of galactic archaeology—the study of the history of our Milky Way Galaxy and the Local Group using large-scale surveys of the velocities and physical parameters of stars.

This meeting will address the major questions facing galactic archaeologists today. What was the sequence and process of formation of the Galaxy? What can we learn from substructures identified in the disc and halo of our Galaxy? How do galactic bulges form? Can we find examples of the first stars in our Galaxy, and how do they relate to the formation of the metal-poor galactic halo? How is the chemistry of stars related to their ages? And, most fundamentally, what can our Galaxy tell us about the validity of our cosmological standard model (and thus the nature of dark matter and dark energy) on small scales?

This workshop will provide a unique forum in which our current knowledge can be assessed, and future strategies defined. It will also have the pleasant additional function of celebrating the contributions of two of Australia's most eminent practitioners in the field, Professors Mike Bessell and John Norris of the Australian National University. The workshop format will be relaxed, with a generous afternoon break, to allow delegates and their families to enjoy the tranquillity of Palm Cove. There will also be a specially arranged reef trip on the Saturday after the workshop (9 May).

Numbers attending the workshop will necessarily be limited, and attendance will be by invitation. For full information on the workshop, including the draft science programme and travel and accommodation details, download the information package (800 KB pdf). Note that all costs are quoted in Australian dollars.

Scienctific organising committee:

Matthias Steinmetz (Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam)—Chair of the Scientific Organising Committee, Joss Bland-Hawthorn (University of Sydney), Gary Da Costa (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, ANU), Annette Ferguson (Institute for Astronomy, Edinburgh), Ken Freeman (Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, ANU), Connie Rockosi (UC Santa Cruz), Kim Venn (University of Victoria) and Fred Watson (Anglo-Australian Observatory).