The Very Large Array Today and Tomorrow: First Molecules to Life on Exoplanets

Thursday, 11 January 2018

Poster Session 342

9:00 am – 6:30 pm
Prince Georges Exhibit Hall

Oral Session 321

2:00 – 3:30 pm
Potomac D

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center
National Harbor, Maryland

The NRAO will convene a Special Session entitled The Very Large Array Today and Tomorrow: First Molecules to Life on Exoplanets on 11 January 2018 in National Harbor, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. during the 231st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

The Very Large Array (VLA) has had a major impact on nearly every branch of astronomy, and the results of its research are abundant in the pages of scientific journals and textbooks. Five years after the completion of the Expanded Very Large Array Project, the VLA has strengthened its position as the most versatile, widely-used radio telescope in the world. Rededicated in 2012 as the Karl G. Jansky VLA, the array continues to make cutting-edge discoveries across a broad range of disciplines. This Special Session will showcase that cutting-edge research. It will also address future transformative scientific opportunities that could be enabled by new capabilities that would ensure the instrument's pre-eminence well into the 21st century.

This Special Session will involve a session with invited oral presentations, and an associated poster session with contributed presentations.  

The confirmed oral presentations will include:

  • Dominik Riechers (Cornell), The Cold Side of Galaxy Formation: Dense Gas Through Cosmic Time
  • Brenda Matthews (NRC), Terrestrial Zone Exoplanets and Life
  • Rachel Osten (STScI), The Bursting Universe: New Tools for Cosmology and Physics
  • Mark McKinnon (NRAO), The Very Large Array: Pioneering New Directions in Radio Astronomy
  • Mark Lacy (NRAO), The VLA Sky Survey
  • Eric Murphy (NRAO), Frontiers of Radio Astronomy in the 2020s: The Next Generation Very Large Array

The Observatory encourages you to consider contributing to the associated AAS meeting poster session, also scheduled for 11 January 2018.  When submitting a contributed poster abstract to the AAS, you will have the option of requesting that your presentation be included in this Special Session. Eric Murphy is the organizer of this Special Session.

We look forward to seeing you at the January 2018 AAS!

Oral Presentations

Session IDPresenterTitle
321.01 M. McKinnon The Very Large Array: Pioneering New Directions in Radio Astronomy
321.02 M. Lacy The VLA Sky Survey
321.03 E.J. Murphy Frontiers of Radio Astronomy in the 2020s: The Next Generation Very Large Array
321.04 B. Matthews Terrestrial Zone Exoplanets and Life
321.05 R.A. Osten The Bursting Universe: New Tools for Cosmology and Physics
321.06 D.A. Riechers The Cold Side of Galaxy Formation: Dense Gas Through Cosmic Time

Poster Presentations

Session IDPresenterTitle
342.01 E.J. Murphy Key Science Goals for a Next-generation Very Large Array
342.02 M. McKinnon The Next-Generation Very Large Array: Technical Overview
342.03 A. Beasley Antenna Concepts for the Next-Generation Very Large Array
342.04 B. Shillue Antenna Electronics Concept for the Next-Generation Very Large Array
342.05 S. Srikanth Baseline Receiver Concept for a Next Generation Very Large Array
342.06 A. Wootten ngVLA Cryogenic Subsystem Concept
342.07 S. Spagna Smart Energy Cryo-refrigerator Technology for the next generation Very Large Array
342.08 A. Gill Characterization of a Compact Water Vapor Radiometer
342.09 B. Butler The Sensitivity of the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA)
342.10 K.I. Kellermann The Southwest Configuration for the Next Generation Very Large Array
342.11 B.S. Mason Getting the Big Picture: Design Considerations for a ngVLA Short Spacing Array
342.12 A. Kepley An Operations Concept for the Next Generation VLA
342.13 J. Kern Science Ready Data Products and the ngVLA
342.14 B.R. Kent The Very Large Array Data Processing Pipeline
342.15 S. Liu ngVLA Key Science Goal 1: Unveiling the Formation of Solar System Analogues
342.16 B. Matthews Polarization Science with the ngVLA: magnetic fields and dust properties in cores, disks and on larger scales
342.17 D. Wilner Debris Disk Studies with the ngVLA
342.18 R.A. Osten Quantifying the ngVLA's Contribution to Exo-Space Weather
342.19 T. Bastian Solar and Heliospheric Physics with the ngVLA
342.20 C. Brogan The extraordinary outburst in the massive protostellar system NGC6334I-MM1: dimming of the hypercompact HII region and destruction of water masers
342.21 T.R. Hunter The extraordinary outburst in the massive protostellar system NGC6334I-MM1: the mergence of Class II 6.7 GHz methanol maser emission
342.22 J. Di Francesco NGVLA Observations of Dense Gas Filaments in Star-Forming Regions
342.23 B. McGuire ngVLA Key Science Goal 2: Probing the Initial Conditions for Planetary Systems and Life with Astrochemistry
342.24 S. Croft The Search for Cosmic Company: SETI on ngVLA
342.25 D.A. Riechers ngVLA Key Science Goal 3: Charting the Assembly, Structure, and Evolution of Galaxies Over Cosmic Time
342.26 C.M. Casey Cold Gas in High-z Galaxies: The CO Gas Excitation Ladder and the need for the ngVLA
342.27 M.Lacy Measuring AGN & Starburst Wind Properties with ALMA
342.28 K. Nyland Revolutionizing Our Understanding of AGN Feedback and its Importance to Galaxy Evolution in the Era of the Next Generation Very Large Array
342.29 M. Gendron-Marsolais Probing the non-thermal emission in Abell 2146 and the Perseus cluster with the JVLA
342.30 W. Peters VLITE Surveys the Sky: A 340 MHz Companion to the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS)
342.31 G.C. Bower ngVLA Key Science Goal 4: Using Pulsars in the Galactic Center as Fundamental Tests of Gravity
342.32 T.W. Lazio ngVLA Key Science Goal 5: Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Stellar and Supermassive Black Holes in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy
342.33 J.M. Wrobel Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Globular Cluster Systems
342.34 S. Burke-Spolaor Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: Multi-Messanger Astrophysics and Long Baselines with the Next-Geeration Very Large Array

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