Announcements of Upcoming Meetings

AstroNuc 2026 will be held on March 10-13, 2026 at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.

The workshop will bring together observers, theorists and experimentalists working in nuclear astrophysics. Our goal is to discuss advancements in stellar and explosive nucleosynthesis, including their role in enriching galaxies with heavy elements, leveraging insights from recent time domain astronomy initiatives.

JWST and LSST have begun releasing remarkable new data on transients, making an understanding of the nuclear processes in their final stages essential for accurate interpretation. Complementing these efforts, SDSS-V is delivering all-sky spectroscopic observations that provide critical insights into chemical enrichment and evolution. In the coming years, gravitational-wave detections of compact object mergers with LVK and Cosmic Explorer are expected to shed light on the formation of heavy elements and the rate of key nuclear reactions in stars, which will be further constrained in new laboratory measurements. At the same time, the growing use of machine learning in both data analysis and simulations, which is manifested in new institutes like SkAI and CosmicAI, and a growing number of publications, is opening new avenues for nuclear astrophysics research. Together, these recent and anticipated advances are transforming our ability to study nucleosynthesis in stars and stellar explosions.

We will review the current state of the field and explore opportunities for new collaborations, building a bridge across the different communities. Through a combination of presentations, hands-on introductory sessions, and discussions, we will identify the most pressing open questions, highlight key issues such as nuclear reaction rate uncertainties and computational challenges, and develop strategies to address them from a multidisciplinary perspective, with a particular focus on the use of machine learning approaches.

Amongst the topics of interest are: stellar archeology, chemical evolution, machine learning applications, time domain astronomy, reaction rates measurements, mass measurements, r-process, s-process, i-process, core collapse supernovae, type 1a supernovae, and more...

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

As we enter the era of multi-wavelength and multi-messenger surveys with rich but disparate datasets, there is a growing need to revisit the software infrastructure required to push the limits of time-domain science. Building on the legacy from the past decades of optical time-domain surveys, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has opened its eye to the dynamic sky and will unleash a wave of millions of alerts per night. High-energy space missions such as Fermi and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory are capturing the most energetic astrophysical explosions. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will launch no later than May 2027, is set to unveil the transient universe in the infrared (IR). New surveys on the horizon such as DSA-2000 and ULTRASAT will push our multi-wavelength survey coverage into the radio and near-UV. Now is therefore the ideal time to revisit and address the software infrastructure needed to pursue breakthrough science enabled by low-latency alerts, multi-wavelength/messenger discovery, machine learning, and science platforms / alert brokers / marshals.

We invite the time-domain community to a four-day Hot-wiring the Transient Universe meeting hosted by the RAPID Project Infrastructure Team at Caltech. In this meeting, we will address the following key questions:

• What have we learned from existing alert streams and Rubin alerts?
• Are we ready for alerts from Roman and beyond?
• How do we optimize transient discovery with multi-wavelength and multi-messenger alert streams?
• How do we effectively utilize machine learning for time-domain science?
• What physics of stellar explosions/eruptions/variability can be revealed with rapid, multi-wavelength/messenger observations?

The science topics in the meeting will focus on relativistic explosions, stellar variables, supermassive black hole transients, IR / “gap” transients, and supernovae.

The meeting will occur March 23 through 26, 2026. A list of invited speakers will be provided soon. Registration and abstract submission will be open in Early October 2025.

If you have any questions, you can email us at rapid[AT]ipac[DOT]caltech[DOT]edu.

SOC: Ryan Lau (co-chair, Caltech/IPAC), Matthew Graham (co-chair, Caltech), Azalee Bostroem (U Arizona), Ilaria Caiazzo (Inst. Sci. Tech., Austria), Wen-Fai Fong (Northwestern), Sebastian Gomez (U Texas, Austin), Mansi Kasliwal (Caltech), Ashish Mahabal (Caltech), Anais Moller (Swinburne U., Australia), Rob Seaman (U Arizona)

LOC: Schuyler Van Dyk (chair), Frank Aragon, Wendy Burt, David Imel, Jacob Jencson, Sean Kindt, Ryan Lau

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

We are delighted to announce the latest in the series of ESA-sponsored conferences, in collaboration with STScI, which highlight the scientific impact of the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. With both missions in science operations, we are unlocking many of the mysteries of the Universe, in what is a tremendously exciting time for astronomy.

A key topic that underpins a broad range of current research is the chemical evolution of the Universe, from the production of heavy elements in the first stars, the enrichment over successive generations of star-formation and stellar death in galaxies, and the complex chemistry in the interstellar medium and stellar environments which build-up the molecules we are now probing in exoplanet and solar system planetary atmospheres.

Hubble has recently celebrated its landmark 35th anniversary of its launch. The Hubble mission, a multi-decade partnership between NASA and ESA, continues to surprise and excite us with its discoveries, and its ultraviolet-visible capabilities will remain unique for years to come. The NASA/ESA/CSA Webb mission, now into its fourth year of science operations, is also transforming the astronomical landscape with its unprecedented infrared imaging and spectroscopy. An excellent example of how the two missions are working in scientific synergy is the ongoing Rocky Worlds Director’s Discretionary Time program.

The science program will feature a combination of invited and contributed talks, posters, and breakout discussions with the objectives to:

Scientific organizing committee:

Chris Evans, Chair (ESA); Angela Adamo (Stockholm University); Sudeshna Boro Saikia (University of Vienna); Annalisa De Cia (European Southern Observatory); Ylva Götberg (Institute of Science & Technology Austria); Maximillian Günther (ESA); Arshia Jacob (University of Cologne); Chiaki Kobayashi (University of Hertfordshire); Mercedes López-Morales (STScI); Pascal Oesch (University of Geneva); Els Peeters (Western University); Colin Snodgrass (University of Edinburgh)

Local organizing committee:

Paule Sonnentrucker, co-chair (ESA);Manuel Güdel, co-chair (University of Vienna); Vera Flasch (University of Vienna); Maria Gunnarsson (ESA); Sherita Hanna (STScI); Oliver Herbort (University of Vienna); Jean-Baptiste Regnard (AURA/STScI for ESA); Simon Schleich (University of Vienna); Gwenaëlle Van Looveren (University of Vienna); Sofia Velasco (ATG for ESA)

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

In the modern era, time-domain observations are one of the main driving forces in astronomy, with the proliferation of large all-sky surveys, fast-response instrumentation, and global multi-wavelength and multi-messenger networks dedicated to catching astrophysical transient events. In the near future, we will be probing the Universe much deeper and in finer detail than ever before, with the unprecedented light-gathering power and angular resolution promised by the next generation of extremely large telescopes. As we are entering this exciting new era, transient astrophysics must also seize new opportunities by exploring hitherto uncharted regions of parameter space – in depth, time cadence, wavelength coverage, and spectroscopic and spatial resolution – and by leveraging cutting-edge technologies and instrumentation, along with novel techniques in observations, theory, and analysis. A strong synergy between observations and theory will certainly drive the field forward.

The landscape of observational astronomy in 2026 and onwards will be a thriving habitat for transient astrophysics. By that time, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Vera Rubin Observatory will have started science operations and delivered its first discoveries. This will be concurrent with new transient-optimized instrumentation such as the Son of X-Shooter (SOXS) spectrograph on the ESO New Technology Telescope (NTT). At that time, the community will also be preparing for the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA O5 observing run with improved capabilities for gravitational wave detections, planned to start in 2027. Within a short couple of years, around 2028, the ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the first of the giant telescopes, will be commissioned and thus open completely unprecedented opportunities for observations in terms of depth and spatial resolution. During the very active period preceding and following 2026, a number of other facilities, many with significant components for time-domain astronomy, will be commissioned or launched, resulting in an unprecedented coverage of most of the electromagnetic spectrum – and more – by the mid-2030s. These include the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) at very high-energy gamma rays; the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) in the radio; new space missions including UVEX and ULTRASAT in the ultraviolet; the Roman Space Telescope in the optical and near-infrared; THESEUS and NewAthena missions in the high energy domain; and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) in gravitational waves. ESO will also decide on the 2040s post-ELT projects between 2027-2028, which will make the Symposium timely for this discussion as well.

As exemplified by the gravitational wave event 170817 and the accompanying kilonova, rapid-timescale response on a global scale is critical for the fastest-evolving transients. The future facilities are expected to improve on this, along with a significant increase in the depth of observations. One example of an outstanding challenge in transient astrophysics is the identification of high-redshift supernovae associated with population III stars. Synergy between wide-field surveys and extremely large telescopes will be crucial for probing these events and their host stellar populations. Coordinated multiwavelength observations will also illuminate the nature of transients such as superluminous supernovae and fast blue optical transients (FBOTs), potentially powered by magnetars or central engines. Alongside these advancements, novel theoretical approaches are essential for interpreting and guiding the observations, addressing unresolved questions such as gamma-ray burst energy extraction and jet formation, and the origins of fast radio bursts.

With this Symposium, we thus aim to address the challenges presented by this new era by gathering together a balanced ensemble of researchers worldwide, with expertise on transient phenomena including supernovae, kilonovae, tidal disruption events, gamma-ray bursts, X-ray transients, fast radio bursts and various types of rare transients with debated origins, over a wide range of wavelengths from radio to infrared, optical and UV to X-rays and gamma-rays as well as in the gravitational-wave and neutrino domains. We will seek the insights of experts on a range of observational techniques from spectroscopy and polarimetry to interferometric observations providing the highest available angular resolution, as well as experts on modelling and simulations to explain the observations and to anticipate future discoveries of new types of transient events. As the new facilities are bound to bring about a flood of data that mere humans will have a hard time sifting through to find the most interesting events, we also aim to cover novel machine-learning methods and broker services that can optimize this process. The symposium will therefore consist of presentations providing a multi-wavelength and multimessenger view of the transient field, making use of the already-existing state-of-the-art instrumentation while looking into the technologies available in the near future and the best ways of using them. They will include highlights on intriguing individual events and their interpretations, as well as theoretical predictions showing us what to expect and where to look next, in preparation for a new era of discovery.

Being at the intersection of observations, theory, and computational techniques, this symposium offers a comprehensive overview and preview of the field, which will benefit the community and drive the science and technology forward. New insights will be emerging and collaborations forged, which in the end will be crucial for ensuring the optimum use of future facilities.

Key Topics:

• Multiwavelength and multimessenger observations of extragalactic transients
• Rates and physical mechanisms of supernovae, tidal disruption events, and related transients
• Physics of the transients and their progenitor systems, remnants, and host galaxies
• Transient surveys, statistical analyses and machine-learning techniques
• Opportunities and challenges offered by new ground-based and space instrumentation with time-domain coverage
• Intermediate-sized telescopes in the era of extremely large telescopes
• Strategies in rapid and multiwavelength observations of fast transients across all wavebands from gamma-ray bursts to fast radio bursts
• Novel theoretical approaches in multi-dimensional explosion modeling
• Central engine activities, accretions, and shocks as power sources in transients
• Citizen science and community involvement in transient science

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

Approximately 150 meetings covering the fields of COSPAR Scientific Commissions (SC), Panels, and Task Groups, with SC E: Research in Astrophysics from Space offering several relevant sessions, which can be found at this link.

Selected papers published in Advances in Space Research and Life Sciences in Space Research, fully refereed journals with no deadlines open to all submissions in relevant fields.

For additional questions, please see the conference website.