Support for IAU Symposium 258, "The Ages of Stars"; October 13-17, 2008; Baltimore, MD

该奖项将部分支持将于2008年10月13日至17日在马里兰州巴尔的摩举行的IAU研讨会258，“恒星的时代”。恒星年龄在各种各样的天体物理环境中扮演着重要的角色，从跟踪恒星的演化到限制行星形成的过程，再到解开银河系的历史和结构。恒星及其物理理论模型的最新发展(更好的反应速率、扩散处理、包括自转效应等)再加上对白矮星冷却序列等年龄的新观测测试，以及理解年轻端年龄(即恒星和行星形成)的日益重要，使现在成为这次会议的理想时间。为此，本次会议将讨论几个重要问题，并将讨论一些天体物理学问题，这些问题一旦能够估计出单个或一组恒星的年龄就可以得到回答。这笔支持将用于与会者的旅费(优先面向美国和职业早期研究人员)、会议基础设施(投影仪租赁、海报展板等)和会议记录的传播。

This award will partially support the conference IAU Symposium 258, "The Ages of Stars" to be held in Baltimore, MD, 13-17 October, 2008. Stellar ages play an important role in a wide variety of astrophysical contexts, from following the evolution of stars to constraining the process of planet formation to disentangling the history and structure of the Milky Way. The recent developments in theoretical models of stars and their physics (better reaction rates, treatments of diffusion, inclusion of rotation effects, etc.) coupled with new observational tests of ages such as white dwarf cooling sequences, and the ever-increasing importance of understanding ages at the young end (i.e., star and planet formation), make now an ideal time for this conference. Towards this end, several significant questions will be addressed during this meeting and a number of astrophysical questions that can be answered once ages of single or groups of stars can be estimated will be discussed. The support will be used for travel costs of attendees (preferentially directed at US and early career researchers), meeting infrastructure (projector rentals, poster display boards, etc.), and disseminating the proceedings.