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WFIRST Town Hall Meeting
Programme Meeting Code of Conduct
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ONE-Day Meeting @ AAO, Sydney

4th December 2017, 10am-4pm

 

Following the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, WFIRST will be NASA’s next flagship mission, providing extraordinarily deep and wide field optical and near-infrared imaging at high spatial resolution, wide-field grism spectroscopy, the possibility of integral field spectroscopy, and a coronagraph for direct imaging and spectra of exoplanets.

Its science goals include: cosmology, galaxy evolution, nearby galaxy studies, exoplanet studies, and gravitational wave follow-up, amongst many other exciting science programs.

WFIRST is scheduled for launch in 2026 and will operate predominantly in survey mode (75%), with some time available for specific supported programs (25%).

NASA is exploring a potential partnership which would allow Australian Astronomers to participate in this exciting facility, from the critical survey design phase through to operations and science exploitation.

The purpose of this Town Hall meeting is to provide awareness of this opportunity, understand the capabilities of the facility, and to discuss the potential for science outcomes either from WFIRST alone or in combination with other facilities available to Australian astronomers and in particular: SKA, ESO, 4MOST, LSST, and eROSITA.

All members of the Australian scientific community are welcome, with numbers limited to 50 due to room size.

To register your interest please fill in the form below.

CONFIRMED speakers include:

  • Dr Jason Rhodes, An overview of  the WFIRST mission, NASA JPL (WFIRST Deputy Project Scientist)
  • Dr Alina Kiessling, Cosmology from WFIRST, NASA JPL
  • Prof Simon Driver, Galaxy Evolution with WFIRST, ICRAR UWA
  • Dr Michele Trenti, First light with WFIRST, Univ. Melbourne
  • Prof Chris Tinney, Exoplanets with WFIRST, UNSW Sydney
  • Prof Barnaby Norris, Exoplanet imaging with WFIRST, Univ. Sydney
  • Dr Jeff Cooke, Gravitational Wave searches with WFIRST, Swinburne
  • Dr Chris Lidman, SN studies in the WFIRST era, Australian Astronomical Observatory

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