Events

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) officially kicked off during opening ceremonies at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, on January 15th and 16th, and Chandra was there to help.

With the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and UNESCO's International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) almost here, the Albert Dock in Liverpool, UK recently hosted the first event displaying breathtaking images from an IYA2009 Cornerstone Project, "From the Earth to the Universe".

Part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Series: Hearing rumors about the Bhutanese prince's presence around the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was exciting. I spoke with other members from the NASA group about the etiquette when being nearby or meeting the prince. For the next week there would be hundreds of NASA and NASA related scientists, engineers, managers, and other personnel volunteering their time to talk about what they do and what drives them.

Well, you won't get to shake hands with the spacecraft, of course, because it's doing its job thousands of miles above the Earth's surface. You can, however, see a giant model of Chandra, view large-scale images, and meet many people who have worked on the mission during this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

During last week's AAS meeting in St. Louis, a "meeting within a meeting" was held to discuss plans for next year's International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009). One of the projects that Chandra plays a major role in is "From Earth to the Universe", also known lovingly as FETTU.

This week, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) holds its biannual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. The AAS is the largest professional organization in North America and their meetings are intended to give scientists a chance to share their latest results through talks and poster sessions. This will be the 212th meeting and you can find out what's being talked about by looking here: https://aas.org/meetings/aas212/videos

This week, the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) meeting is taking place at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, California. What exactly is HEAD?

Last week, the American Astronomical Society held its bi-annual meeting in Austin, TX.  (The AAS, as it's known, always has a winter meeting in early January and then a spring meeting around Memorial Day.)  The AAS meetings are important because the AAS is the largest professional group of astronomers in the US and so they often bring some of their most exciting results to share.