2nd Announcement (June 10, 2024)
2nd Announcement (Final Program)
Black Hole Explorer Japan Workshop
June 24-25, 2024 at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Website: https://sites.mit.edu/bhex-japan-workshop-2024/
Dear colleagues,
This is the 2nd announcement of the international hybrid conference “Black Hole Explorer Japan Workshop” to be held at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan from June 24-25, 2024.
Now the final program meeting has been released at the website. While the registration for in-person attendees was now formally closed, we are accepting the registration of remote attendees until Monday, June 17, 2024, for remote attendees. Please register from the conference website if you are interested in the BHEX mission.
# Meeting Rationale
The Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) is a space mission concept being developed for the NASA Explorers Program. BHEX will produce the sharpest images in the history of astronomy by extending submillimeter Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) to space. The primary objective of BHEX is to detect and measure a black hole’s “photon ring,’’ composed of rays of light that have orbited the black hole before escaping. The photon ring traces a narrow region of space just outside the black hole’s event horizon, which is a unique probe for its spacetime and enables direct measurements of the black hole’s spin. BHEX will achieve these goals by extending the existing ground-based millimeter/submillimeter VLBI arrays (EHT and GMVA) to space at the observing frequencies of 86, 230, and 345 GHz.
The Japanese community has been a major contributor to the mission concept development from science to instrument design. This community plans to co-propose the mission to JAXA as a collaborative US-Japan space program.
This workshop features keynote speakers from the BHEX team and the broader astronomical community to summarize the mission concept development and crucial contributions from Japan. We are additional oral and poster contributions regarding topics that are broadly relevant to the mission science, technology, and instrumentation.
# Important Dates
February 13, 2024: Registration & Abstract Submission opens
April 1, 2024: Registration deadline for oral contributors
May 1, 2024: Registration deadline for poster contributors and other attendees
June 10, 2024 (this announcement): Announcement of the final program
June 24-25, 2024: The Black Hole Explorer Japan Workshop
# Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Michael Johnson (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Alex Lupsasca (Vanderbilt U.)
Dan Marrone (U. Arizona)
Janice Houston (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Eliad Peretz (NASA GSFC)
Tirupati Kumara Sridharan (NRAO)
Edward Tong (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Hannah Rana (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Ranjani Srinivasan (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Jade Wang (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)
Sara Issaoun (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Dom Pesce (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Kazu Akiyama (MIT Haystack Observatory)
Tomohisa Kawashima (University of Tokyo ICRR)
Shoko Koyama (Niigata University)
Yoshiaki Hagiwara (Toyo University)
Yuh Tsunetoe (Harvard University Black Hole Initiative)
Aya Higuchi (Tokyo Denki University)
Hidetoshi Sano (Gifu University)
Dimitar Kolev (NICT)
Kazuhiro Hada (Nagoya City University)
Hiroshi Imai (Kagoshima University)
Noriko Yamasaki (ISAS / JAXA)
Yoshinori Uzawa (NAOJ ATC)
SOC: Kazu Akiyama (MIT, SOC Chair), Akihiro Doi (ISAS/JAXA), Kazuhiro Hada (NAOJ), Janice Houston (CfA), Mareki Honma (NAOJ), Sara Issaoun (CfA), Michael Johnson (CfA), Peter Kurzynski (NASA GSFC), Dan Marrone (U. Arizona), Kotaro Niinuma (Yamaguchi U.)
LOC: Kazu Akiyama (MIT), Elika Prameswari Fariyanto (U. Tokyo / NAOJ), Kazuhiro Hada (Nagoya City University), Mareki Honma (NAOJ, LOC Chair), Kenzo Kawamura (U. Electro-Communications / NAOJ), Yutaro Kofuji (U. Tokyo / NAOJ), Akiyo Komori (NAOJ), Kenta Nakamura (U. Tokyo / NAOJ), Yoshinori Uzawa (NAOJ)
1st Announcement (February 13, 2024)
1st Announcement (Registration open, Call for oral & poster contributions)
Black Hole Explorer Japan Workshop
June 24-25, 2024 at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Website: https://sites.mit.edu/bhex-japan-workshop-2024/
Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce the international conference “Black Hole Explorer Japan Workshop” to be held at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan from June 24-25, 2024.
The Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) is a space mission concept being developed for the NASA Explorers Program. BHEX will produce the sharpest images in the history of astronomy by extending submillimeter Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) to space. The primary objective of BHEX is to detect and measure a black hole’s “photon ring,’’ composed of rays of light that have orbited the black hole before escaping. The photon ring traces a narrow region of space just outside the black hole’s event horizon, which is a unique probe for its spacetime and enables direct measurements of the black hole’s spin. BHEX will achieve these goals by extending the existing ground-based millimeter/submillimeter VLBI arrays (EHT and GMVA) to space at the observing frequencies of 86, 230, and 345 GHz.
The Japanese community has been a major contributor to the mission concept development from science to instrument design. This community plans to co-propose the mission to JAXA as a collaborative US-Japan space program.
This workshop features keynote speakers from the BHEX team and the broader astronomical community to summarize the mission concept development and crucial contributions from Japan. We are additional oral and poster contributions regarding topics that are broadly relevant to the mission science, technology, and instrumentation.
# Important Dates
February 13, 2024 (this announcement): Registration & Abstract Submission opens
April 1, 2024: Registration deadline for oral contributors
May 1, 2024: Registration deadline for poster contributors and other attendees
June 1, 2024: Announcement of the final program
June 24-25, 2024: The Black Hole Explorer Japan Workshop
# Confirmed Keynote Speakers
Michael Johnson (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Alex Lupsasca (Vanderbilt U.)
Dan Marrone (U. Arizona)
Janice Houston (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Eliad Peretz (NASA GSFC)
Tirupati Kumara Sridharan (NRAO)
Edward Tong (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Hannah Rana (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Ranjani Srinivasan (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Jade Wang (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)
Sara Issaoun (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Dom Pesce (Harvard & Smithsonian CfA)
Kazu Akiyama (MIT Haystack Observatory)
Tomohisa Kawashima (University of Tokyo ICRR)
Shoko Koyama (Niigata University)
Yuh Tsunetoe (Harvard University Black Hole Initiative)
Aya Higuchi (Tokyo Denki University)
Hidetoshi Sano (Gifu University)
Dimitar Kolev (NICT)
Kazuhiro Hada (NAOJ Mizusawa VLBI Observatory)
Yoshiaki Hagiwara (Toyo University)
Hiroshi Imai (Kagoshima University)
SOC: Kazu Akiyama (MIT, SOC Chair), Akihiro Doi (ISAS/JAXA), Kazuhiro Hada (NAOJ), Janice Houston (CfA), Mareki Honma (NAOJ), Sara Issaoun (CfA), Michael Johnson (CfA), Dan Marrone (U. Arizona), Kotaro Niinuma (Yamaguchi U.)
LOC: Kazuhiro Hada (NAOJ, LOC Chair), Kazu Akiyama (MIT), Mareki Honma (NAOJ), Akiyo Komori (NAOJ), Yoshinori Uzawa (NAOJ)