June 13-16, 2011
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
About The Event
A general theme to the top recommendations of the Astro2010 Decadal Survey is the importance of wide-area surveys. These surveys will provide data that are much deeper and covering larger solid angles than previous surveys, opening new parameter space for discovery. However a dilemma is that many future very large area surveys (Ω > 20,000 sq. deg.) are photometric and so spectroscopic follow-up will be essential to realize their full scientific potential. This will be particularly acute in the area of time-domain astronomy where sample selection for immediate spectroscopic follow-up will have to be made on very short time frames and probably be performed automatically. Another critical issue is having sufficient broadband coverage to interpret the physics of the sources. This workshop aimed to address two key topics: what science can be done by integrating current and future very wide-area surveys and what plans can be made for providing spectroscopic coverage. The overall structure included talks and panel discussions. "Tiger teams" were asked to summarize the conclusions in white papers that will help motivate future strategic plans to address these issues.
Follow the online discussion on the VeryWide Wiki.
Confirmed Speakers
- J. Gunn (Princeton University)
- M. Haynes (Cornell University)
- D. Hogg (New York University)
- A. Hopkins (Australian Astronomical Observatory)
- M. Jarvis (University of Hertfordshire)
- N, Kaiser (University of Hawaii)
- J. Kalirai (STScI)
- C. Martin (California Institute of Technology)
- S. Murray (Harvard University)
- R. Quimby (California Institute of Technology)
- G. Richards (Drexel University)
- P. Rosati (Eurpoean Southern Observatory)
- D. Schlegel (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
- A. Soderberg (Harvard University)
- M. Strauss (Princeton University)
- C. Veillet (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope)
- S. Warren (Imperial College)
- V. Wild (University of Edinburgh)
- M. Wood-Vasey (University of Pittsburgh)
- N. Wright (UCLA)
- L. Walkowicz (University of California, Berkeley)
- Y. Zhao (National Astronomical Observatories of China)
Scientific Organizing Committee
- Chairs: A. Ptak (NASA Goddard) & M. Robberto (STScI)
- H. Ferguson (STScI)
- T. Heckman (Johns Hopkins University)
- A. Hopkins (Australian Astronomical Observatory)
- N. Reid (STScI)
- N. Brandt (Penn State University)
- B. Nichol (University of Portsmouth)
- M. Jarvis (University ofHertfordshire)
- G. Meurer (University of Western Australia)
- S. Murray (Johns Hopkins University)
- D.Schneider (Penn State University)
- M. Strauss (Princeton University)
Local Organizing Committee
- M. Robberto
- A. Ptak
- R. Baxter
- B. Bozek
- S. Gezari
- K. Gordon
- K. Kuntz
- S. LaMassa
- C. Ly
- S. Pryce
- I. N. Reid
- N. Da Rio