Third millimetre-science workshop

The ATNF held its third annual millimetre workshop on 8 December 2003 at the Marsfield site. Approximately thirty participants came to learn about recent develop-ments at the Compact Array and Mopra, and to discuss future directions. There was a greater emphasis on Mopra than in previous years, reflecting the importance of the hardware and software upgrades in progress and the key role the telescope now plays as the only 3-mm single-dish facility in the southern hemisphere.

The day began with reviews of the current status of Mopra and the ATCA by Tony Wong and Stuart Robertson, followed by a review of star-formation studies with millimetre telescopes by Michael Burton, who drew heavily on the proceedings of the recent IAU Symposium 221 in Sydney. Next came a series of science talks, covering ATCA observations of star-forming regions (Jim Caswell, Tracey Hill and Maxim Voronkov), a search for biomolecules in the Sagittarius B2 cloud (Paul Jones), the Mopra survey of hot molecular cores (Cormac Purcell), and imaging of dense gas in the starburst galaxy NGC 4945 (Maria Cunningham). We also heard from Chris Wright and A-ran Lyo of UNSW@ADFA about projects involving infrared observations of young stars, which are in many ways complementary to millimetre studies.

The final session on future directions was led off by Ilana Klamer, who discussed an ongoing project to detect CO at high redshift with ATCA. Ned Ladd and Tony Wong then led a discussion on large "key" projects with Mopra, an idea that is presently attractive given the desire to increase the user base and scientific impact of the telescope, as well as focus energy on improving the usability of the instrument. A couple of projects, including a survey of a portion of the Galactic plane and mapping of the Chamaeleon molecular clouds, were suggested. Rounding out the day were Mark Wardle, who discussed theoretical aspects of massive star-formation, and John Storey, who presented various proposals for Australia to take part in a sub-millimetre telescope in Antarctica.

The slides for most of the presentations are available online at www.atnf.csiro.au/whats_on/workshops/mm_science2003/ . For information about the workshop, or about the Mopra key science planned for 2004, contact Tony Wong (Tony.Wong@csiro.au). Hope to see you next year!

Tony Wong
(Tony.Wong@csiro.au)