The Origin of Galaxies remains one of the big questions in astrophysics, primarily because births of the first galaxies is largely hidden by (astrophysical) dust, tiny fragments of solid material in interstellar space. This dust hides the fundamental processes responsible for galaxy formation from traditional optical telescopes, as much of the optical light generated by the stars forming in the first galaxies is absorbed by the dust. However, this light is then re-radiated at longer wavelengths, mostly in the sub-millimetre (sub-mm) and far-infrared (far-IR) part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Three new (or renewed) telescopes will largely provide European astronomers with data in the sub-mm and far-IR wavebands: ESA will soon launch the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO), and SCUBA-2 will be fully operational on the renewed James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Also, within the next few years the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) will start to come into operation. Located at 5500 metres in the Atacama desert in Chile, ALMA will be an array of 64 telescopes designed for high-resolution observations in the submm waveband. It is the most expensive ground-based project ever. The HSO is also a major European investment (about 1 billion Euros), but is a special case in that the HSO will have a time-limit to its operations, requiring careful planning of the observations.

It is therefore timely to bring together a number of of the European (near-future) users of these new facilities, along with some of their non-European counterparts, to discuss how to best exploit these new datasets in new windows to the distant Universe. Much of the planning is already underway, but it will only be just before the telescopes and instruments are actually ready to take data that final plans can be drawn up, including changes due to new theoretical insights into galaxy formation models as well as changes in specification of the instruments and/or telescopes.

The meeting is not just planned as a place to show results, but as a working environment for preparing for the exciting results that should be delivered by HSO, ALMA and SCUBA-2. There will be invited and contributed talks, as well as poster sessions and open discussions. Young people are particularly encouraged to participate, as the meeting is very much looking forward to the future.


Posted by: Sean    Source

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