Astronomers from all over the world will be meeting on La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain from 7 to 11 May to attend an international conference on the central kiloparsec of nearby galaxies. This conference will review recent progress and discuss the future strategies on this remarkable research field.

Recent advances in high-resolution observations, theory and modeling have focused our attention on the central kiloparsec regions of nearby disk galaxies, which often show profound starburst and/or nonstellar activity, accompanied by intricate gas and dust morphologies and kinematics. The origin and evolution of the phenomena occuring in these central regions, their possible causal interrelationships, links to the host galaxies and the appropriate role they play in galaxy evolution, form an intriguing subject which fuels an explosive rate of research publications. 

The future: Something on AO and AO at ING.

The conference, which is the first scientific conference organised by the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes,  is co-sponsored by the Excmo. Cabildo Insular de La Palma (local government) and the Patronato de Turismo de La Palma (local tourist board). 

The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) is an establishment of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) of the United Kingdom and the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) of the Netherlands. The ING operates the 4.2 metre William Herschel Telescope, the 2.5 metre Isaac Newton Telescope, and the 1.0 metre Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope. The telescopes are located in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos on La Palma which is operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). 

PICTURES 

Caption:. This image, obtained on 1 August, is a 100-second exposure with the Wide Field Camera of the 2.5 metre Isaac Newton Telescope. This section of the full image measures 4.5 arcminutes, equivalent to 110,000 km at the comet. This image is processed to show faint details in the coma of the comet. This is by far the best and deepest image of the broken-up nucleus that exists and gives us a clear idea of how and why the comet disintegrated. No features are seen in the image, which implies that no significant individual fragments more than a few metres across still emit gas. This demonstrates the catastrophic disruption of the nucleus. Unlike comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, the only remnant that remains is an expanding dust cloud. 

Picture credit: Dr. Mark Kidger, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. 

Available formats:
JPEG (425×738 pixels, 323 K)
 
 

Caption:. This image, obtained on 1 August with the Wide Field Camera of the 2.5 metre Isaac Newton Telescope, covers a field of view of 22 arcminutes and is processed to show the faint tail of the comet, which extends well beyond the edge of the field of view. 

Picture credit: Dr. Mark Kidger, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. 

Available formats:
JPEG (512×512 pixels, 102 K)
 

Caption: The 2.5 metre Isaac Newton Telescope. 

Picture credit: Nik Szymanek and Ian King. 

Available formats:
GIF (600×390 pixels, 107 K)
LZW compressed TIFF (1820×1182 pixels, 6,309 K)
 
 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: 

Dr. Mark Kidger 
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias 
E-mail: mrk@ll.iac.es
Phone: +34 922 605200 
Fax: +34 922 605210 

Mr. Javier Méndez 
Public Relations Officer
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes 
E-mail: jma@ing.iac.es
Phone: +34 922 425464, +34 616 464111 
Fax: +34 922 425401 

More information on ING: 

http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/ING/PR/

More information on this news can be found in IAU circular 7472. 

Other web sites: 

Mark Kidger's comet web pages: http://www.iac.es/galeria/mrk/
Comet LINEAR's web pages: http://www.cometlinear.com/

Kiloparsec: ....