The HEAD Executive Committee has been busy over the past year working on a new revision to the bylaws that would allow for affiliate membership in HEAD, so that scientists who are members of other societies such as AGU or APS could join HEAD without being a full AAS member. This would bring HEAD into alignment with the other AAS Divisions and potentially increase HEAD membership. We are also now deep into planning for the April HEAD meeting, to be held in Monterey, CA -- we hope to see you there!
A quick primer on upcoming HEAD events at the January 2013 Long Beach AAS Meeting. All sessions are at the Long Beach Convention Center except for the HEAD Business Meeting on Tuesday night, which will be held in in Ballroom D of the Downtown Hyatt Long Beach.
Monday, 10 - 11:30 AM:
HAD III/HEAD I Special: Fifty Years of Celestial X-ray Astronomy
Chair(s): Hale V. Bradt (MIT) and Richard Rothschild (UC, San Diego)
Organizer(s): Hale V. Bradt (MIT)
In the 50 years since the 1962 discovery of the first extrasolar x-ray source, the field of x-ray astronomy has grown from a few unidentified sources to a full-fledged branch of celestial astronomy. This session brings together 19 researchers from the early decades who will share with each other and the audience highlights of their experiences in an informal setting. The session will consist of three panels, and will be videotaped for the historical record. Each panelist will make a brief statement after which the panelists will engage in free discussion.
Monday, 12:45-1:45 PM:
NASA Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) Gravitational Wave and X-ray Astronomy Town Hall
Organizer(s): Alan Smale (NASA GSFC) and Randall Smith (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory)
Chair(s): Alan Smale (NASA GSFC)
Monday, 2:00-3:30pm:
HEAD II: New Revelations from the Transient Sky
Organizer(s): Joshua Bloom (UC, Berkeley)
The transient sky has long been a driver for new astrophysical insights. The combination of large energies and short timescales of change allow for sensitive and innovative probes of physics beyond the established models for the fundamental forces. Indeed, over the past decade, satellites focused on high-energy transient phenomena have opened up new vistas on the violent and energetic universe: from probes of the innermost regions of black holes, to the internal structure of compact objects, to the microphysical processes in relativistic flow. With the advent of a new generation of facilities probing transient sources of gravitational waves and neutrinos, the coming multi-messenger era promises to expand the traditional boundaries of "high-energy astrophysics." This special session will explore the teeming, energetic universe as view through the pan-chromatic and trans-spectral lens.
Tuesday, 10:00-11:30am:
HEAD III: First Results from the NuSTAR Mission
Chair(s): Fiona Harrison (Caltech)
Organizer(s): Fiona Harrison (Caltech)
NuSTAR will be the first focusing high energy X-ray mission, opening the hard X-ray sky for sensitive study for the first time. NuSTAR will search for black holes, map supernova explosions, and study the most extreme active galaxies. This NASA Small Explorer Mission is scheduled for launch in the summer of 2012. This session will highlight the first results from the mission.
Tuesday, 4:30-5:20pm HEAD Rossi Prize: The Flaring Crab Nebula: Surprises and Challenges Marco Tavani Tuesday
5:30-6:30pm HEAD Business Meeting Regency Ballroom D (Downtown Hyatt Long Beach)