NAI Planetary System Formation Focus Group Meeting

The NAI Planetary System Formation Focus Group (PSFFG) invites interested astrobiologists to participate in a review of the astrobiological value of upcoming and proposed NASA space telescopes relevant for the general question of planetary system formation. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Long Beach, California on January 4-9, 2009. For details about the AAS meeting, please see:

http://aas.org/meetings/aas213

The purpose of the PSFFG meeting is to prepare a White Paper for consideration by the National Academy of Sciences’ 2010 Decadal Survey. The plans for the Decadal Survey will be presented at the AAS meeting on Tuesday, January 6, 2009. The PSFFG will then meet on Wednesday, January 7, 2009, to begin to rank the importance of future NASA space telescopes with respect to what they will be able to discover about the formation and prevalence of habitable worlds in our galaxy. All interested parties are invited to attend and participate, regardless of their current, past, or future affiliation with NAI and its Science Teams.

The PSFFG meeting is currently scheduled to be held from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 in the Shoreline A room at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach Hotel, which is the host hotel for the AAS meeting. Partial funding of travel expenses for participation in this meeting may be requested by sending an email to [email protected].

If you are interested and able to attend, please send an email to [email protected].

Source: NAI Newsletter