First Announcement: The Warm & Hot Universe

[Karen Smale <karen.smale@nasa.gov>]

Dear colleague,

First announcement of `The Warm & Hot Universe',
May 7-9, 2008, Columbia University, New York City.
http://warmhot.gsfc.nasa.gov

X-ray astronomy is in preparing itself for the next
Decadel Survey of the US National Academy of Science.
The field came to life as a result of two discoveries:
a point source and a diffuse emission component.  While
the former represents our violent Universe, the latter
contains vital information about an `invisible' Universe
where as many as half the baryons at low redshifts take
refuge.

Today, in the era of precision cosmology, X-ray
astronomers are just as excited about future prospects as
they were in 1962.  Whether one thinks about black holes
and galaxy formation, evolution of clusters, AGN and
other non-thermal activities in the intergalactic medium,
or the `missing baryon' problem that infuriates all
cosmologies, X-ray observations will continue to be
a prime driver of astronomy in the years to come.

The purpose of this conference is to enlist and discuss
those important recent achievements in the field, with
a view to the design of future instruments that can best
answer the vital unsettled problems.  Like all branches of
astronomy, the X-ray wavelength also holds the key to some
big questions of the Universe, as it is generally believed
that the missing baryons are hidden in a `warm hot intergalactic
medium', or WHIM, that emits primarily in soft X-ray energies.

All astronomers are encouraged to participate, especially
with the purpose of disseminating their ideas on what the
next generation of X-ray observatories should be like.
Our overall aim, as already stated, is to present the NAS
with the most comprehensive picture of how the X-ray wavelength
remains an indispensable branch of astronomy that must be
pursued to move human understanding of the cosmos into the
next decade.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Lieu (SOC chair)



--
The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Huntsville, AL-35899


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