ALMA Special Session at the 219th AAS

ALMA Cycle 0 Early Science and Capabilities for Cycle 1 Science Special Session, organized by the North American ALMA Science Center
219th American Astronomical Society Meeting | Austin, TX
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 | 10:00 AM CST

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) will provide an unprecedented combination of sensitivity, image fidelity, and resolution at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths (0.3 to 3 mm, 950 to 84 GHz). It will open new scientific frontiers by observing the first stars and galaxies, directly imaging planet formation, and studying the energy output from supermassive black holes in starburst galaxies. In limited but still groundbreaking form, ALMA has been taking data since spring 2011 and is now available to the community. We propose a special session to update the community on the status of ALMA, explain the capabilities and support offered to the community for the next proposal call, present early results, and highlight prospects for the next few years.

ALMA released its first call for Early Science (“Cycle 0”) on 30 March 2011, with ~600 hours available to the community and observations set to begin around 30 September 2011 or shortly thereafter. In parallel, the observatory has been pursuing a wide-ranging science verification program since spring 2011, with ~20 well-known disks, galaxies, and star-forming regions expected to be observed by fall 2011. Thus by fall 2011 we expect to have significant data in-hand and concrete demonstrations of ALMA’s initial capabilities. A major goal of this special session will be to convey these capabilities and the nature of the support offered to the community by the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) at the NRAO for the second call for proposals, (“Cycle 1”) due in spring 2012.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Alison Peck (Joint ALMA Observatory), Meredith Hughes (University of California-Berkeley), Yancey Shirley (University of Arizona), Carol Lonsdale (National Radio Astronomy Observatory), and Al Wootten (National Radio Astronomy Observatory).

Our confirmed speakers will update the status of ALMA through its first Early Science observations (Alison Peck) and describe the opportunities and capabilities associated with the Cycle 1 call for proposals (Al Wootten). Three speakers will present first observations and near-term prospects for science with ALMA in the fields of planet formation and disks (Meredith Hughes), Galactic star formation (Yancey Shirley), and galaxies across cosmic time (Carol Lonsdale).

ALLOW CONTRIBUTED ORALS? NO.

ASSOCIATED POSTER SESSION: YES.