The study of planetary nebulae
has enjoyed an amazing resurgence in the last fifteen years. This resurgence
has primarily been driven by the striking asymmetries and organised
complexities revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope in images of these objects
and their immediate predecessors. A series of international conferences (APN I
- IV, 1994 to 2007) have brought together hundreds of participants with the
goal of understanding the formation of such structure.
But we are still very far from
achieving this goal. Over more than a decade,many popular candidates for the relevant physical
mechanisms have been discussed, e.g. jets and disks, with magnetic fields, fast
stellar rotation, and binarity playing a direct or
indirect role in inducing these phenomena. Bold new initiatives are now needed
in order for us to unambiguously select or discard competing hypotheses, and
come up with entirely new ones if necessary. The aim of the workshop is to
critically review the current status of this field and identify key
observational and theoretical strategies which will help
speed up our progress towards this goal.
Our hope is that the workshop
will result in a research "roadmap" for the next 5-10 years, with
well-defined near-term goals and milestones, which will make the best use of
upcoming technological advances in instrumentation and computing. The workshop
will also provide a venue for forging new alliances between observers and
theorists which can help us move forward in novel ways
towards understanding the behavior of aging stars as they shed their envelopes nd shape their outflows.
We hope that you will be able to
join us in Rochester.
Sincerely,
the SOC:
Bruce Balick,
U. Washington
Eric Blackman, U. Rochester
Orsola De Marco, American Museum of Natural History
Adam Frank, U. Rochester
Joel Kastner,
Rochester Institute of Technology
Raghvendra Sahai, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Caltech
Lodging is available at
the Strathallan Hotel, site of the conference. The studio rate is $119.00 per night, and the one
bedroom rate is $129.00 per night.
Please reserve your preferred accommodation by calling the hotel at
(585) 461-5010 or emailing them at
reservations@strathallan.com Please be sure to identify yourself as
part of the Planetary Nebula
Workshop. Online reservations can
be made at www.strathallan.com,
however it is imperative that you mention the Planetary Nebula Workshop in the
ÒnotesÓ section.
Reservations
must be made by May 19, 2009 in order to be assured the meeting rate.