The AAS has had repeated requests from members for information on topics likely to be featured in the news media during and immediately after the national meetings of the Society. The most likely topics are those featured in press conferences at the meetings.

Here is a list of the press events anticipated at the Atlanta meeting, along with the abstract numbers of the related papers. It is emphasized that topics are selected on the basis of what we believe is newsworthy (likely to be reported widely) and that the Society does not endorse individual scientific results nor judge their scientific significance. All times are EST.

Photos may be freely downloaded for use by the news media and educators. Unless otherwise stated, all pictures are AAS Photos by Kelley Knight, copyright 2004 by American Astronomical Society.

Monday, 5 January 2004

9:30 AM Press Conference: THE GEMINI DEEP DEEP SURVEY

Based on papers #26.07 The Gemini Deep Deep Survey and Integrated Spectra of Galaxies in the Redshift Desert and #7.19 (rescheduled from #82.05) Exploring the Redshift Desert with the Gemini Deep Deep Survey

Gemini Deep Deep Survey team members who described evidence for early formation of massive galaxies, perhaps in contrast to "bottom-up" assembly of large galaxies from pre-existing small ones, were (left-to-right) Roberto Abraham (University of Toronto), Patrick McCarthy (Carnegie Observatories), Karl Glazebrook (Johns Hopkins University), Katherine Roth (Gemini Observatory), and Sandra Savaglio (Johns Hopkins University).

Links to News Stories:
USA Today
MSNBC.msn.com
Space.com
The Australian
Hilo Hawaii Tribune
Star-Bulletin
Sky and Telescope

11:00 AM Press Conference: THE BLACK HOLE BRIEFING

Based on papers #31.05 Unraveling a Precessing Jet: Forty Daily VLBA Observations of SS433 #31.06 Diagnostics of the Relativistic Jets of the Galactic X-ray Binary SS 433 Using the Chandra HETGS, and #81.04 Identification of the Mass Donor Spectrum in SS 433

Investigators reporting new findings on the famous binary system SS 433 were (left-to-right) Douglas Gies (Georgia State University), Herman Marshall and Laura Lopez (both, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Amy Mioduszewski and Michael Rupen (both, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM).  At far right is Bruce Margon (Space Telescope Science Institute) one of the key early researchers on this system.  Margon commented on the new findings at the press conference.

Links to News Stories:
Space.com
Sky and Telescope
MSNBC.msn.com

12:30 PM Press Conference: REMARKABLE STARS

Based on papers #33.03 PV Ceph: Young Star Caught Speeding? and #25.01 Infrared Observations of LBV 1806-20 and Nearby Cluster Stars

Stephen Eikenberrry (left, University of Florida, Gainesvile) described what may be the most massive and luminous star in the Milky Way.  Alyssa Goodman (center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Hector Arce (right, California Institute of Technology) discovered that a young star   raced at unusually high speed from the star cluster where it began to form across 30 light years to a molecular cloud where it is continuing the birth process.

Links to News Stories:
CBSNews
CNN
NYTimes
Space.com
Innovations-Report.com
Sky and Telescope

Tuesday, January 6

9:30 AM Press Conference: GALAXY TRANSFORMATION

Based on papers #47.05 Gone with the Wind: Watching Galaxy Transformation in Abell 2125

William Keel (left, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) and Q. Daniel Wang (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) discussed optical, X-ray and radio observations of a spiral galaxy with a huge gaseous tail. The object is said to be in the process of being stripped of its gas in a passage through the center of a rich cluster of galaxies, so that it will soon evolve into an S0 galaxy.

Links to News Stories:
Space.com

11:00 AM Press Conference: THE NOVA / SUPERNOVA TIPPING POINT

Based on paper #45.10 Semi-Steady Burning Evolutionary Sequences for CAL 83 and CAL 87: Super Soft X-ray Binaries are Supernova Ia Progenitors

Sumner Starrfield (Arizona State University) reported on the conditions under which accretion onto a white dwarf in a binary system produces a type Ia supernova rather than a nova.

12:30 PM Press Conference: THE TWIN OF THE SUN & THE FIRST SUNS

Based on papers #48.01 Rotation-Activity-Age Relations of Sun-like Stars: In Search of the Much Coveted Solar Twin #108.01 The First Stars and Quasars and the End of the Cosmic Dark Ages

Left-to-right: Volker Bromm (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) described the nature of the earliest sunlike stars in the Universe;  Edward Guinan, Ryan Hamilton, and Laurence DeWarf (all, Villanova University) determined that 18 Scorpii is a close "twin" of the Sun.
Links to News Stories:
CNN.com
Space.com
NY Times

Wednesday, January 7

9:30 AM Press Conference: THE "MAN BITES DOG PLANET

Based on paper #123.04 Chromospheric Activity Induced by Short-Period Planets

Left-to-right:  Evgenya Shkolnik, University of British Columbia presented impressive spectroscopic observations of HD179949 that show a persistent hot-spot on its surface produced by a Jupiter-mass planetary companion orbiting nearby.  If the spot is induced by the magnetic field of the planet, this may be the first evidence of a planetary field around an extrasolar planet.  Dr. Shkolnik, incidentally, complemented Press Officer Steve Maran on his clever name for this press conference, but noted that it should more properly be the "woman bites dog planet".  Gibor Basri (University of California Berkeley) discussed these results and their implications for further observations of extrasolar planetary systems.

11:00 AM Press Conference: FIRST LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE IN THE UNIVERSE OF GALAXIES

Based on paper #89.10 An 80 Mpc filament of galaxies at redshift z=2.38

Left-to-right: Harvey Teplitz (Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology), Gerard M. Williger (Johns Hopkins University, Pavilias Palunas (McDonald Observatory, University of Texas, Austion), and Bruce Woodgate (NASA Goddard Space Science Center) presented observations of a huge filament of luminous galaxies at high redshift, and discussed the evidence that large coherent structures form earlier in the universe than one would predict from standard cold-dark-matter theories. Robert Kirshner (Harvard University) provided comment on the implications of the work.

12:30 PM Press Conference: THE ANTENNAE GALAXIES

Based on papers #122.05 Deep Monitoring Chandra Observations of The Antennae #126.01 The Antennae in the Merging Sequence and #126.02 Stellar Populations in the Antennae

Left-to-right: John Hibbard (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) described VLA maps of the velocity structure of the Antennae Galaxies, and a new computer model that accurately reproduced both the morphological and kinematic properties of the colliding galaxies; Guiseppina Fabbiano (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) discussed maps of the chemical composition of the Antennae Galaxies derived from Chandra X-Ray observations; and Bradley Whitmore (Space Telescope Science Institute) described his studies of the formation of massive star clusters, and put this into the context of colliding galaxies like the Antennae, which are undergoing copious star formation.

Thursday, January 8

9:30 AM Press Conference: TEN THOUSAND HUBBLE GALAXIES

Based on papers #131.05 Ten Billion Years of Early-Type Galaxy Evolution with COMBO-17 and GEMS and #131.07 Bar-Driven Galaxy Evolution at Intermediate Redshifts

Eric Bell (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg) and Sharda Jogee (Space Telescope Science Institute) discussed evolution of elliptical and barred spiral galaxies respectively in the closing press conference of the meeting.