Science with large spectroscopic surveys of Galactic OB stars: getting ready for Gaia


22 June 2015

Venue: La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the EWASS 2015 Special Session #7

Science with large spectroscopic surveys of Galactic OB stars: getting ready for Gaia

to be held in La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain on Monday 22 June 2015

Feel free to share this announcement with anybody who may be interested on this topic

Deadline for abstract submission: 10 March 2015
Deadline for early registration: 30 April 2015

See the EWASS2015 webpage (http://eas.unige.ch/EWASS2015/index.jsp) for more info about registration, abstract submission, and the complete programme for the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science 2015

Aims and scope

In the last decade, several spectroscopic surveys of Galactic OB stars have been conducted independently by different groups (GOSSS, OWN, IACOB, CAFE-BEANS, NoMaDs, GES, MiMeS, BOB). The scientific exploitation of this unique observational material, using the most modern tools, is currently under way and will without any doubt quantitatively change our view of the properties (temperature, gravities, abundances...) and evolution of massive stars. However, the picture will not be complete until we have access to accurate distances (hence being able to compute luminosities, stellar radii, masses, and ages).

The Gaia mission will provide the needed key to open the frontiers of a new era in the study of Galactic OB stars. Successfully launched in 2013 december 19, the first data release (not yet including distances) is planned for summer 2016. Hence time is ripe to:

(a) establish synergies between the various on-going spectroscopic surveys of Galactic OB stars;
(b) discuss the best strategy to share all available observational information about Galactic OB stars in preparation for the Gaia era;
(c) identify the best tools to extract information about rotation, stellar and wind parameters and abundances from large samples of Galactic OB stars; and
(d) identify the interplay between current spectroscopic surveys and Gaia in the context of the understanding of massive stars properties and evolution.

This special session aims at gathering experts in observations, analysis, and modelling of massive OB stars and key speakers involved in the Gaia mission with this scope.

Programme

- Modern tools and techniques for the investigation of Galactic OB stars
- Past, on-going, and future surveys of Galactic OB stars: getting ready for Gaia
- Open questions in our knowledge of Galactic OB stars in the Gaia context

Both contributed talks and posters are foreseen

Invited speakers

- Y. Frémat (Royal Observatory of Belgium)
- J. Maíz Apellániz (Astrobiology Centre, Spain)
- G. Meynet (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
- J. Puls ( Munich University Observatory, Germany)
- F.N.R. Schneider (University of Oxford, UK)
- M.A. Urbaneja (University of Innsbruck, Austria)

We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts!

The organizers

S. Simón-Díaz (IAC, Spain) & F. Martins (LUPM, France)

Weblink: http://eas.unige.ch/EWASS2015/session.jsp?id=Sp7

Email: ssimon@iac.es