International Astronomical Union Symposium 234 Planetary Nebulae in our Galaxy and Beyond

AST-0608753年4月3日至7日在夏威夷的大岛举行的国际天文学联合会第234届会议“我们银河系中的行星状星云“。自1967年以来，每隔5-10年举行一次国际天文学联合会行星状星云（PN）专题讨论会。 在最近一次此类会议（2001年，澳大利亚堪培拉，天文学联盟第209次专题讨论会）上，常设网络工作组一致接受了夏威夷天文学研究所的邀请，在夏威夷举行下一次天文学联盟常设网络专题讨论会。 这是对美国天文学家在PN研究领域做出的重大贡献的认可，也是对自1977年以来没有在美国举行过IAU PN专题讨论会的认可。 这个非常负盛名的会议混合了来自世界各地的理论家，观察员和计算建模者，将我们目前对PNs的理解水平定义为大多数恒星后期演化的关键阶段，作为研究原子，分子，尘埃和等离子体过程的理想天体物理实验室，并作为研究星系和附近星系团星系间介质的动力学和质量分布的运动学探针。 大力鼓励初级研究人员参加，夏威夷大学马诺阿校区的一些公开讲座与这次会议有关。

AST-0608753MendezInternational Astronomical Union Symposium 234"Planetary Nebulae in our Galaxy and Beyond"The Big Island of Hawaii, April 3rd to 7th, 2006.The planetary nebula (PN) community has a history of very successful IAU symposia at intervals of 5-10 years since 1967. At the most recent such meeting (IAU Symposium 209, Canberra, Australia, 2001), the PN Working Group unanimously accepted the invitation by the Institute for Astronomy, Hawaii, to hold the next IAU PN symposium in Hawaii. This recognizes the significant contributions made by U.S. astronomers to the field of PN research, and the fact that an IAU Symposium on PNs had not been held in the U.S.A. since 1977. This very prestigious conference mixes theorists, observers and computational modelers from all over the world, defining our current level of understanding of PNs as a key phase in the late evolution of most stars, as an ideal astrophysical laboratory to study atomic, molecular, dust and plasma processes, and as kinematic probes to study the dynamics and mass distributions of galaxies and the intergalactic media of nearby clusters of galaxies. Participation of junior researchers is strongly encouraged, and some public lectures at the Manoa campus of the University of Hawaii are associated with this meeting.