A Kavli–IAU workshop called “Probing the Universe from far-infrared to millimetre wavelengths: future facilities and their synergies” is scheduled to take place from 26 to 28 March 2024 in Pasadena, USA. This by-invitation-only event is part of an ongoing collaboration with The Kavli Foundation to organise triennial workshops of the IAU Executive Committee working group on Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics. Previous workshops have focused on Future Space-Based Ultraviolet-Optical-Infrared Telescopes (Leiden, 2017) and on International Co-ordination of Multi-messenger Transient Observations in the 2020s and Beyond (Cape Town, 2020).

Where and how stars and planets form depend on the physical conditions and structure of interstellar and circumstellar media. Both star formation and black hole-driven activity, in return, have a dramatic effect on the interstellar medium, affecting galaxy evolution. The far-infrared to millimetre region of the spectrum contains important cooling lines of the interstellar medium, as well as key molecular diagnostics. This is also where the thermal emission from cold dust, and more generally the energy output from star-forming clouds and galaxies, peaks.

These wavelengths therefore provide unique probes of relatively cool, dense interstellar material, central to studying nascent stars, protoplanetary discs, and young forming exoplanets. On larger scales they probe dust and dense neutral gas in the interstellar medium of galaxies and around highly obscured accreting supermassive black holes. The far-infrared to millimetre region is therefore essential to research in many branches of astrophysics.

Additionally, this spectral region is particularly rich in lines of a wide variety of molecules in gaseous and solid form, from simple species like water to increasingly complex molecules including sugars, ethers, cyanates, and aromatic hydrocarbons. By tracing these molecules in evolving structures, from clouds to planet-forming discs to mature planets, astronomers can elucidate the role they play in the emergence of life.

Planning is underway for a new generation of facilities to observe at these wavelengths. The James Webb Space Telescope is now operating, probing the mid-infrared out to 30 microns, hopefully for the next 10–20 years. ALMA continues to observe at millimetre wavelengths, and will be upgraded by 2030, although there are no plans yet for further enhancements beyond 2030.

Following on from the pioneering work of the Spitzer Space Telescope and Herschel Space Observatory, multiple space agencies are showing great interest in a probe-class/medium-class far-infrared space mission, with multiple mission concepts in development. The next-generation VLA is a proposed millimetre-centimetre facility that may have 10 times the sensitivity of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. At the lowest frequencies where ALMA operates, it may have baselines 30 times longer, yielding milliarcsecond angular resolution.

The goal of this Kavli–IAU workshop is to examine the needs and requirements of different facilities observing in the far-infrared to centimetre wavelengths from 2030 onwards (taking financial and programmatic constraints into account). The workshop will also consider the synergies and complementarities among these facilities, and explore how to maximise the scientific insights from the data they will yield.

The main science topics of the workshop will include:

• Galactic star formation
• Physical and chemical structure and evolution of planet-forming discs, young exoplanets
• Astrochemistry and the origin of life
• Solar System studies
• Time domain studies
• Characterization of the interstellar medium in galaxies and connection to star formation
• Feedback processes in galaxies and obscured accretion onto black holes
• High-redshift galaxies and cosmology

A summary of the workshop will be presented at the XXXII IAU General Assembly in Cape Town in August 2024 as part of the Global Coordination Working Group sessions. Note that the IAU facilitates discussions but does not endorse any particular mission or facility more or less than another.

Further details of the workshop are as follows:

Venue: Caltech campus, Pasadena, CA, USA
Dates: 26–28 March 2024
Estimated scale: 50 participants, by invitation
Co-organisers: George Helou and Jonas Zmuidzinas
Scientific Organising Committee: Alberto Bolatto, Ilse Cleeves, Daniel Dale, Ewine van Dishoeck, George Helou, Kentaro Motohara, Patrick Roche, Linda Tacconi & Jonas Zmuidzinas.

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

Links

• IAU Executive Committee working group on Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics

Contacts

Ewine van Dishoeck
Past President of the IAU
Email: ewine@strw.leidenuniv.nl 

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Director of Communications
Cell: +1 520 461 0433/+49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars.christensen@noirlab.edu