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J-PAS XIII: The Science Awakens

2016-09-05 09:00
Opening session of the 13th J-PAS Meeting in Teruel

Opening session of the 13th J-PAS Meeting in Teruel

Over 70 astronomers both Spaniards and foreigners are attending

The XIII Scientific Meeting of the Javalambre Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) will be held in Teruel, in the headquarters of the Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA) between the 5th and 9th September. This meeting, which is part of a series of meetings usually celebrated twice a year, expects the attendance of about 70 professional astronomers both from Spain and foreigners.

The J-PAS project is a survey of 8500 degrees2 which will be carried out with the JST250 telescope at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ), during the next years and which will provide an unprecedented 3D map of the Universe. The main scientific goal is to improve the knowledge on the nature of the Dark Matter, the expansion history of the Universe, the formation and evolution of galaxies, characterisation of stellar populations or the detection of minor bodies in the Solar System.

For five days, Teruel will be the focus of scientific discussion in which members of the J-PAS collaboration will be updated on the last advances of the OAJ project and in which the different research groups will analyse the challenges which are left in the way to the exploitation of the data of the survey.

During the meeting, there will be plenary sessions as well as workshops in the different research areas of the collaboration: Theoretical Cosmology, Observational Cosmology, Galaxy Evolution, Stars and Compact Objects, and Transient Objects. Within the plenary sessions, there will be talks focussed on the status of the OAJ project, as well as the J-PLUS survey, lead by CEFCA and which will be used to calibrate the scientific data obtained in J-PAS. Moreover, a special session is planned to discuss joining efforts with large international projects like Euclid, eROSITA, and WEAVE.

The sessions will be hosted at CEFCA headquarters and in the meeting rooms of the Fundación Caja Inmaculada and the Obra Social Ibercaja. Some members of the collaboration, which is made up of more than 150 researchers, as well as some of the invited spearkers representing the other international projects will connect remotely.