Astrophysics Conferences Across The Globe Inaugurate International Year Of Astronomy

International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009 is off to a fast start, with a torrent of media and new research concerning the cosmos coming out of the American Astronautical Society's 213th meeting in Long Beach CA last week. Among primary findings is that the Milky Way Galaxy (T) is more massive and spins faster than astronomers previously believed, making it similar in size to the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, which is about 2 million light years away. The news flow is expected to continue this week with several conferences being held worldwide, including the official 'Opening Ceremony of IYA2009' in Paris, France on Jan 15-16. Other conferences in California, Mexico, Germany, Chile and New Zealand this week will discuss current findings and ongoing research in the fields of cosmology and astronomy to examine the way humans on Earth relate to the universe around us. Topics to be discussed include galactic and extragalactic globular clusters, gamma-rays and neutrinos, extrasolar planets, dark matter, black holes, the mapping of the universe and the next generation of Earth and space-based telescopes, among many others. IYA2009 is an initiative of the United Nations and the International Astronomical Union to raise awareness of the importance of astronomy and to advance science and cosmos education. Pictured (B): European Extremely Large Telescope. (Credit: ESO, NASA, IAU)

The 'Inaugural Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG)' will take place on Jan 12-13 in Adelphi MD, followed by the 'ESA Workshop on Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) for Small Body Missions' in Noordwijk, Netherlands on Jan 14-15. Small bodies are celestial objects smaller than planets and dwarf-planets, including most asteroids, trans-Neptunian objects, comets, interplanetary dust and centaurs. SBAG is NASA's community-based forum established in March 2008 to garner scientific input for planning and prioritizing small body missions throughout the Solar System. Faith Vilas (TL), director of the MMT Observatory, is the current chair of the SBAG. The group, which is open to all interested scientists, reports its findings to the Planetary Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council. The main theme of the ESA workshop is Descent, Landing and Orbiting Around Small Bodies of the Solar System. Worldwide experts in all GNC-related disciplines will gather at the workshop to discuss and establish what the most feasible strategies are for future missions. The ESA Rosetta mission is currently on its way to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and the JAXA Hayabusa mission is now bringing samples back from asteroid Itokawa. Another mission currently in an assessment phase, 'Marco Polo' (B), intends to bring back samples from a primitive body in the Near-Earth population. (Credit: NASA, ESA)