59th IAC In Scotland To Observe 10 Years Of ISS, Examine Future Of Space Exploration

The International Astronautical Federation (IAF), in cooperation with the British Interplanetary Society, holds the '59th International Astronautical Congress (IAC)' between Sep 29 and Oct 3 in Glasgow, Scotland. The theme for this year's event is 'From Imagination to Reality,' with a special focus on the new technologies that will create the future of space travel and exploration. The Congress begins with a meeting of the heads of international space agencies, including Steve MacLean of CSA / Canada, Sun Laiyan of CNSA / China, Jean-Jacques Dordain of ESA / Europe, G Madhavan Nair of ISRO / India, Keiji Tachikawa of JAXA / Japan, Anatoly Perminov of RSA / Russia, and Mike Griffin of NASA / USA. Sessions of the Congress will deal with a variety of space-related topics, including exploration, law and policy, medicine and commercial spaceflight. Special plenaries will focus on the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS), science fiction influences on modern space travel methods, and space exploration beyond the Vision for Space Exploration. The IAC will be preceded by the '18th United Nations / IAF Workshop' on Sep 26-27 and the 'International Academy of Astronautics Academy Day' on Sep 28. The UN Workshop, jointly organized by the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and the European Space Agency (ESA), will address the use of space-based and related technologies to support sustainable development programs and hazard management on Earth, as well as strengthen regional and global cooperation in those areas. (Credit: IAF)

Milky Way Galaxy research of the next decade is the focus of 'Back to the Galaxy 2,' a conference hosted by the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) on the campus of UC Santa Barbara from Sep 29 to Oct 3. As a follow up to the 1992 symposium 'Back to the Galaxy,' this conference will bring together researchers from the various sub-fields of current Milky Way research to facilitate a cross-exchange of new results and ideas. The conference is the main event in the KITP program 'Building the Milky Way,' running from Sep 15 to Dec 12, which intends to synthesize the detailed data available on the Galaxy into the larger context of galaxy formation models and cosmology. Among the distinguished speakers at the conference are Leo Blitz (BL), an expert in galaxy formation research; Bernard Sadoulet, an instrumentalist working on dark matter detection; and Andrea Ghez (BR), best known for her research on the Galactic Center. Ghez was recently one of 25 recipients of the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation annual 'genius' fellowship, which will provide US$500,000 to support her research. She answered one of astronomy's most important questions by proving that a black hole, 3 million times more massive than Sun, dwells at the center of our Galaxy, about 26,000 light years away. Her current research involves using Laser Star Guide adaptive optics on the Keck 2 Telescope of Hawai`i Island to advance the study of galaxies, black holes, and the formation and evolution of the universe. (Credit: NASA, UCLA, UC Berkeley)