The Universe under the Microscope: Astrophysics at High Angular Resolution

High angular resolution techniques at infrared and centimeter to millimeter wavelengths have become of ever increasing importance for astrophysical research in the past decade. They have led to important breakthroughs, like the direct imaging of protoplanetary discs and of the first exoplanets, the measurement of stellar orbits around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, or the detection of sub-parsec-scale jets in low luminosity AGN. With adaptive optics in a mature state, infrared/optical astronomy is pushing toward extreme adaptive optics, extremely large telescopes, and infrared/optical interferometry with large aperture telescopes. At longer wavelengths, large arrays start to conquer the sub-millimeter window, with the mid-term goal of global VLBI at sub-millimeter wavelengths. These new techniques will have enormous impact on the field because they will enable us to address issues such as directly measuring the properties of exoplanets, imaging the surfaces of stars, examining stellar dynamics in extremely dense cluster cores, disentangling the processes at the bottom of black hole accretion flows in the jet launching region, or testing general relativity in the strong gravity regime near the event horizon of supermassive black holes. The conference The Universe under the Microscope: Astrophysics at High Angular Resolution, held at the Physikzentrum of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft in Bad Honnef, Germany, on 12–25 April 2008, aimed at an interdisciplinary approach by bringing together astrophysicists from the three great branches of the field, instrumentation, observation, and theory, to discuss the current state of research and the possibilities offered by the next-generation instruments. Editors of the proceedings Rainer Schodel Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia -CSIC, Granada, Spain Andreas Eckart I. Physikalisches Institut der Universitat zu Koln, Koln, Germany Susanne Pfalzner I. Physikalisches Institut der Universitat zu Koln, Koln, Germany Eduardo Ros Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, Bonn, Germany Scientific organizing committee Dennis Downes Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimetrique, France Wolfgang Duschl University of Kiel, Germany Andrea Ghez University of California, Los Angeles, USA Vladimir Karas Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic Andreas Eckart University of Cologne, Germany Sera Marko University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Susanne Pfalzner University of Cologne, Germany Sebastian Rabien Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany Daniel Rouan Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France Eduardo Ros Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany Rainer Schodel Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia -CSIC, Spain Zhiqiang Shen Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, China Anton Zensus Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany Local organizing committee Sebastian Fischer University of Cologne, Germany Devaky Kunneriath University of Cologne, Germany Leo Meyer University of Cologne, Germany Koraljka Muzic University of Cologne, Germany Rainer Schodel University of Cologne, Germany/IAA -CSIC, Spain Christian Straubmeier University of Cologne, Germany Mohammad Zamaninasab University of Cologne, Germany