Webb Telescope Approved for Development/Launch

On July 10, 2008, NASA formally approved the JWST project to move into its implementation phase. This decision followed a successful Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in March 2008 and a Non-Advocate Review in April. While all the science instruments and the "long lead" items like the primary mirror segments are already being manufactured, this approval marks the transition of the program into Phase C (Final Design and Fabrication). Phase D covers system assembly, integration and testing and launch.   Read more...

Research over the last decade has revealed definitively that the fundamental power source in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is gravitational accretion onto supermassive (greater than one million solar masses) black holes at the centers of galaxies, that supermassive black holes lie at the centers of virtually all spheroidal systems, and that there are strong empirical correlations between properties of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. Feeding AGNs is a recognized problem of long-standing; We now understand that the difference between active and quiescent galaxies is not whether or not there is a black hole at the center of the system, but whether or not the black hole is currently accreting matter at some reasonable fraction (~0.1) of the Eddington rate. Yet, lacking in all of this is a detailed understanding of the physics at work. IAU 267 will bring together researchers from different specializations to better define the current global landscape on understanding the problem of feeding active galactic nuclei (AGNs), to confront theory and observation, and to motivate new lines of research.   Read more...