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Basel/Heidelberg Workshop on the
Structure and Evolution
of the Milky Way
and Its Surroundings
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Summary:
The Milky Way, M31, and their companions allow us to study properties and
evolutionary processes at a level of detail that is inaccessible in more
distant galaxies. This makes these nearby galaxies an indispensable
laboratory for testing cosmological scenarios such as galaxy formation
through the hierarchical merging of smaller substructures. These studies
have seen tremendous progress over the past few years. By observationally
constraining the number, times, and masses of past merger events we can
directly test the paradigm of galaxy formation. Detailed studies of the
chemical abundances and element ratios in the various Milky Way components
and in nearby galaxies reveal how early star formation and chemical
enrichment progressed. The kinematics of the various substructures and
satellites tell us about the dynamical evolution and mass distribution,
including dark matter content. Several large surveys concentrating on
the exploration of the Milky Way and its surroundings are currently being
carried out, and additional ground-based initiatives are being developed.
ESA and NASA are preparing two major space missions (GAIA and SIM) that
will commence in approximately 2010. These observational advances are
accompanied by significant progress in N-body, SPH, and chemodynamical
modelling of galaxy formation and evolution.
Our workshop aims at bringing together active workers in this exciting
field who explore galaxy structure and evolution with a wide range of
techniques, both observational and theoretical. Special emphasis will
be placed on what the current state of knowledge tells us about galaxy
assembly.
Topics include:
- The structure, composition, and kinematics of the
Galactic thin and thick disk
- The Galactic bulge and bar
- The large-scale distribution and properties of the different phases
of the interstellar medium
- The Galactic halo and tidal streams
- Milky Way models, chemodynamics, and cosmology
- The Magellanic Clouds and other satellites as part of the Milky Way
system
- M31 and M33: structure, properties, streams
Click here to view the workshop program.
SOC:
Eva K. Grebel (U Basel, chair), John S. Gallagher (U Wisconsin),
Ortwin Gerhard (U Basel), David Martínez-Delgado (MPIA),
Hans-Walter Rix (MPIA)
LOC:
Susanne Koltes-Al-Zoubi, David Martínez-Delgado, Daniel Zucker (MPIA),
Daniel Harbeck (U Wisconsin), Peter Englmaier, Andrea Kayser, Andreas Koch,
Thorsten Lisker (U Basel)
Proceedings:
There will be no proceedings. Instead we are making available copies
of the presentations shown during the workshop (to the extent
that the speakers made these available to us). You can download these
presentations via this
link.
Links:
Eva K. Grebel
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