----------------------------------------------------------------------------- FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT International conference on PLANETARY NEBULAE AS ASTRONOMICAL TOOLS GDANSK (Poland) from Tuesday 28 June morning to Saturday 2 July evening 2005 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * CONTACT e-mail: pngdansk@ncac.torun.pl http://www.ncac.torun.pl/~pngdansk/ * IMPORTANT DATES: Pre-registration and abstract submission deadline 28 February 2005 Final list of participants and second announcement 1 April 2005 Deadline for hotel reservation 28 May 2005 Conference 28 June - 2 July, 2005 * SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE: Planetary nebulae, which are produced in the late stages of solar-type stars evolution, have traditionally been considered by specialists as testbeds for theories of stellar evolution and laboratories to study the physics of warm nebular gases. The interest of the astronomical community in planetary nebulae has considerably increased in recent years, after it has been demonstrated that planetary nebulae can be used as standard candles to measure the distances of galaxies, as test particles to measure the masses of galactic haloes or to reveal the presence of stars between galaxies. A growing number of astronomers, previously working in different fields (e.g. stellar atmospheres or dynamics of galaxies) now become involved in research programmes based on planetary nebulae. Instruments have been specially designed for the study of extragalactic planetary nebulae, like the planetary nebulae spectrograph. Observational techniques (e.g. crowded-field 3D spectrophotometry) have been improved to study planetary nebulae in external galaxies. Recently, it has been suggested that planetary nebulae may have to do with planets, after all. Some theories speculate that the formation and shaping of planetary nebulae is linked with the presence of massive planets around the progenitor stars. In another respect, it has been suggested that clumps in planetary nebulae are residuals of planets or asteroids. If this proves to be true, this could make planetary nebula research more popular among astronomers, in this epoch were the search and exploration of extrasolar planets is one of the most booming fields in astronomy. This conference aims to explore the entire potential of planetary nebulae as tools for astronomy. This is the first time that such a conference is explicitly and exclusively devoted to this aspect. It is intended both for astronomers who exploit or plan to exploit planetary nebulae as tools in their field, and for planetary nebulae specialists who wish to orientate their research for the use of a wide astronomical population. These different communities do not know each other well, and one of the purposes of the conference is to make them exchange their knowledge and experience. The Hubble Space Telescope Heritage Project has popularized images of planetary nebulae. However, these images are often used by the media without appropriate comments. One of the aims of our conference will also be to discuss in depth how planetary nebulae can be used to convey major ideas of physics and astronomy, and to initiate a reflexion about the evolution of the Universe among the public. We plan to accompany the conference with a series of outreach events, closely related to the theme of the conference. * SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Grazyna Stasinska France Chair Bruce Balick US Corinne Charbonnel France Robin Ciardullo US Romano Corradi Spain Bohdan Paczynski US/Poland Miriam Pena Mexico Peter Storey UK Monica Tosi Italy Romuald Tylenda Poland Klaus Werner Germany * LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Ryszard Szczerba Torun (N. Copernicus Astronomical Centre) Chair Slawomir Kruczkowski Gdansk (Hewelianum) Jaroslaw Rybicki Gdansk (Gdansk University of Technology) Agnieszka Witkowska Gdansk (Gdansk University of Technology) Robert Glebocki Gdansk (University of Gdansk) Magda Kozuchowska Warszawa (N. Copernicus Astronomical Centre) Slawomir Gorny Torun (N. Copernicus Astronomical Centre) Jurek Borkowski Torun (N. Copernicus Astronomical Centre) Natasza Siodmiak Torun (N. Copernicus Astronomical Centre) Marta Pulecka Torun (N. Copernicus Astronomical Centre) * SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION: Each session will be composed of invited reviews, contributed oral presentations and posters. The number of invited reviews is small, so as to offer an important space to contributed presentations. Authors of posters will be given the opportunity to advertise their work by one transparency. Posters will be at display during the entire conference and there will be ample time for poster viewing during breaks. The selection of oral presentations among the proposed contributions will be made on the basis of the abstract, so as to serve at best the aim of the conference. Thematic discussions will take place at the end of each day, introduced by a specialist. Proceedings of the conference will be published, including reports of the discussions. In addition, we plan to issue a CD-rom containing all the electronic presentations and the contents of all the posters. * CONFERENCE OVERVIEW Planetary Nebulae as tests of stellar evolution theories Planetary Nebulae as tests of stellar nucleosynthesis theories Planetary Nebulae as tests of stellar atmosphere models Planetary Nebulae as test of photoionization models Planetary Nebulae as tests of radiation hydrodynamics Planetary Nebulae and the interstellar medium Planetary Nebulae and progenitors as sites of cosmic dust formation Planetary Nebulae as observational constraints for models of galaxies chemical evolution Planetary Nebulae to determine the total masses of galaxies Planetary Nebulae to detect stellar populations in the intergalactic space Planetary Nebulae to test dynamical evolution/build up of galaxies Planetary Nebulae as cosmological candles Planetary Nebulae as a subject for public outreach * INVITED SPEAKERS Reviews: -------- Theory of post-AGB evolution Falk Herwig Hot star atmospheres: composition, ionizing fluxes, and winds Adi Pauldrach New advances in photoionization codes : how and what for? Barbara Ercolano Problems in gaseous hydrodynamics Michal Rozyczka The cosmic dust cycle Eli Dwek The role of intermediate mass stars in the chemical evolution of galaxies Francesca Matteucci Observational tests of models for the chemical evolution of galaxies Nikos Prantzos Stellar population synthesis including planetary nebulae Paola Marigo Stellar populations in the intergalactic space Magda Arnaboldi The dark matter problem Konrad Kuijken The build up and dynamical evolution of galaxies Lia Athanassoula The extragalactic distance scale Robin Ciardullo Planetary nebulae: a subject for public outreach Julieta Fierro Discussion topics ----------------- Can we ignore magnetic field in studies of PN formation, shaping and interaction with the ISM? introduced by Noam Soker How well do we understand the evolution from an AGB star to a PN? introduced by Sun Kwok Galactic versus extragalactic PNe: two different views of the same phenomenon ? introduced by George Jacoby Summary and perspectives ------------------------ Holland Ford * PARTICIPATION: For technical reasons, attendence is limited to 160 persons. In case that the number of preregistrations before the deadline exceeds this number, a selection of participants will be done, based on the expressed motivations and proposed abstracts. * FEES: The conference fee will be about 200 Euros. * CONFERENCE LOCATION: The conference will take place in Gdansk (http://www.gdansk.pl/en/), a city with a population of half a million located in northern Poland, on the Baltic Sea. Gdansk is a large centre of economic life, science, and culture. The city is a thousand years old. With its Hanseatic tradition, it has for ages played a major role in the commercial relationships between Northern and Western Europe on the one hand, and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe on the other hand. It is also the place were the first Independent Trade Union in Eastern Europe "Solidarity" was born in 1980. Gdansk is also the town of the famous seventeenth century polish astronomer Heweliusz (see about his atlas at http://www.lindahall.org/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/stars/hev.htm). The center of Gdansk harbours beautiful old-style buildings, most of them reconstructed after the war, and is a popular tourist destination. Gdansk offers numerous cafes, restaurants, museums, concerts, fairs, exhibitions, and street theatrical events. From there, one day excursions can be done to places such as Malbork, the largest brick castle in Europe and former capital of the Teutonic Knights, or the impressive, 40m high sand dunes in Leba. The conference will take place in the center of Gdansk, on the Olowianka Island, in the buildings of the Academy of Music. * TRANSPORTATION Gdansk is easily reachable by plane through the Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport http://www.airport.gdansk.pl/newserv/ which has regular connections with Warsaw, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Munich, and Hamburg. Another possibility is to take a plane to the Warsaw F. Chopin Airport http://www.lotnisko-chopina.pl/?lang=en (which is directly connected to many more cities in the world) and then either a plane or a train to Gdansk. The train station in Warsaw can be reached in 20 min by taxi from the airport. The trip by train to Gdansk takes about 4 hours. * LODGING Two hotels have been reserved for the conference participants, close to the conference place. Prices for single/double rooms are approximately 30/40 euros for one of them and 60/80 euros for the other. More information on lodging will be provided in the second announcement. * WEATHER At this time of the year, the days in Gdansk are very long, providing a pleasant evening atmosphere in the streets. The weather should be warm and sunny (but this cannot be guaranteed). * SOCIAL EVENTS (not yet fixed) * PUBLIC OUTREACH PROGRAMME During the conference, one or two open lectures on Planetary Nebulae will be given in Polish for the local public. An exhibition on Planetary Nebulae, opening on June 9, will take place in fort Grodzisko, the exhibition center of the future park of science and technology of the Hewelianum project. An art contest on Planetary Nebulae will be open for school children, and the works will be on display at the conference place. * PRE-REGISTRATION AND ABSTRACT SUBMISSION If interested in attending the conference, please pre-register and provide an abstract of your proposed contribution using the pre-registration form to be found on the web at http://www.ncac.torun.pl/~pngdansk/ The deadline for pre-registration is ********************* * 28 February, 2005 * ********************* ______________________________________________________________________________ Conference on Planetary Nebulae as Astronomical Tools Gdansk (Poland) 28 June-2 July 2005 mail: pngdansk@ncac.torun.pl http://www.ncac.torun.pl/~pngdansk