The Extreme sky 2009

News: The congress photos are now available on "Photos" web page

"The Extreme sky: Sampling the Universe above 10 keV"

13^th - 17^th October 2009

Otranto (Lecce) Italy, Castello Aragonese

All-sky surveys form the foundation of observational astronomy as they provide

statistics on the types and distribution of celestial objects which populate the Galaxy and the Universe
the ability to discover new classes of sources
a means of selecting specific types of objects for further studies/observations

With respect to other surveys, those at high energies (above 10 keV) are particularly interesting as they probe the energy domain where fundamental changes from thermal to non-thermal sources/phenomena are expected, where the effects of absorption are drastically reduced, and a clearer picture of the Universe is possible. This is also the energy range where most of the extreme astrophysical behaviour is taking place, e.g. cosmic acceleration, explosions and accretion onto black holes and neutron stars. Recently a number of surveys have been performed in the keV to TeV energy range.

The objective of this workshop is to gather all the knowledge collected so far above 10 keV, to compare and contrast the results obtained in the various bands in the light of physical models and ultimately provide indications for future progress. The meeting is aimed at bringing together scientists active across the high energy range in order to focus on the opportunities offered by this new window both from the observational and theoretical viewpoints, while a dedicated section will also be devoted to discuss future mission ideas. The meeting will consist of invited talks and contributions which are welcome as either posters or as short interventions. There will be time for open discussions throughout. Finally, this meeting is a perfect way in which to celebrate with friends and colleagues INTEGRAL's 7th birthday and 7 years of success in gamma-ray astronomy.

The workshop will be organized in sessions dedicated to:

The soft gamma-ray sky: Surveys and observations from: INTEGRAL, SWIFT, SUZAKU, MAXI etc
The high energy gamma-ray sky: Surveys and observations from: AGILE, FERMI, HESS, MAGIC etc
The search for counterparts: Synergies between surveys: The multi-waveband approach
Comparing and contrasting the two skies: Similarities and differences: which theoretical implications, New source typologies: what have we learnt
Prospects for future missions above 10 keV: Decadal Survey, Cosmic Vision national programmes etc.