The Galactic Center (GC) plays a pivotal role in the evolution of the Milky Way. It is instrumental in mapping and understanding the central regions of quiescent galaxies since it is the closest galactic nucleus to us. It serves as a unique test bed for both stellar dynamics in an extremely dense environment as well as magnetohydrodynamics in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). It is fundamental for studying star formation, because the conditions of its interstellar medium (magnetic fields, temperature, turbulence) are unlike any other place in the Milky Way. Despite many detailed multiwavelength studies of the central regions of our Galaxy, we still have many open questions concerning its history and future evolution.
This symposium will bring together experts working on both observational and theoretical studies of the Galactic Center so that they can “traverse” this exciting region from Sgr A* and the surrounding dense nuclear star cluster to the central molecular zone and back, covering about eight orders of magnitude in spatial length. Looking at the Galactic nucleus from this vantage point will uncover details of its past processes and potential future.
We will explore the remarkable progress made since the last major meeting of the community—the Galactic Center Workshop in Granada (April 24–28, 2023).
We will examine exciting new results, including those from JWST, GRAVITY/ERIS at the VLT, Keck telescopes, X-ray telescopes (Chandra, XMM-Newton, IXPE, XRISM) as well as insights from ALMA and MeerKAT. Given the increasing importance of multi-messenger astronomy (gravitational waves, cosmic rays, neutrinos), we will dedicate more attention to these observations and related results.
| Michal Zajaček, Masaryk University, Czechia (chair) |
| Rainer Schödel, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain (co-chair) |
| Roland Crocker, Australian National University, Australia |
| Bożena Czerny, Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland |
| Soňa Ehlerová, Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Astronomical Society |
| Anja Feldmeier-Krause, University of Vienna, Austria |
| Reinhard Genzel, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany |
| Andrea Ghez, University of California, Los Angeles, USA |
| Izaskun Jiménez Serra, Center of Astrobiology, Spain |
| Cornelia Lang, University of Iowa, USA |
| Sera Markoff, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Smadar Naoz, UCLA, USA |
| Nadine Neumayer, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany |
| Tomoharu Oka, Keio University, Japan |
| Florian Peißker, University of Cologne, Germany |
| Bart Ripperda, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Canada |
| Michal Zajaček, Masaryk University, Czechia (chair) |
| Jiří Dušek, Brno Observatory and Planetarium, Czechia (co-chair) |
| Jan Janík, Masaryk University, Czechia (co-chair) |
| Václav Pavlík, Astronomical Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences (GC Newsletter, editor-in-chief) |
| Vladimír Karas, Astronomical Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences (GC Newsletter, editor) |
| Petra Suková, Astronomical Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences (GC Newsletter, editor) |
| Maitrayee Gupta, Astronomical Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences (GC Newsletter, editor) |
| Václav Glos, Masaryk University, Czechia (PR, media) |
| Dominik Alvaro Rada, Masaryk University, Czechia (website administrator) |
| Henry Best, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Izzy Garland, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Tereza Jeřábková, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Zuzana Kuljovská, Brno Observatory and Planetarium, Czechia |
| Petr Kurfürst, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Matúš Labaj, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Marko Mesarč, Brno Observatory and Planetarium, Czechia |
| Zdeněk Mikulášek, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Tomáš Ondro, Mendel University, Czechia |
| Tomáš Plšek, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Lýdia Štofanová, Masaryk University/Czech Aerospace Research Center, Czechia |
| Monika Viskotová, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Norbert Werner, Masaryk University, Czechia |
| Miloslav Zejda, Masaryk University, Czechia |
The Symposium of the International Astronomical Union (IAUS 405) Traversing the Galactic Center in Space and Time builds upon the series of previous regular conferences focused on the center of the Milky Way that are known as Galactic Center (GC) Workshops in the community. They have been taking place every 3-4 years since 1980s. The first conference (Workshop on the Galactic Center) was organized on January 7-8 in 1982 at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, where 92 participants took part. In subsequent years, the GC workshop was organized all over the world, including the places such as Los Angeles, La Serena, Kyoto, Tucson, Hawai'i, Shanghai, Santa Fe, Cairns, Yokohama, and Granada. We are proud to host the upcoming "GC workshop" in Brno, Czech Republic, the birthplace of such personalities as Ernst Mach and Kurt Gödel and the place where Gregor Johann Mendel laid the foundations of genetics. Below we provide the list of previous GC workshops kindly compiled and provided by Mark Morris.
