The Unsolved Universe: Challenges for the Future

1. Stars and Planets.- Asteroseismology and Planet Finding: The Ultra High Precision Photometry European Road Map.- Extra-Solar Planets: Clues to the Planetary Formation Mechanisms.- Continuum Excess Emission in Young Low Mass Stars.- 2. Galaxies.- The Formation and Evolution of Field Massive Galaxies.- A “Clear” View of the Nucleus: the Megamaser Perspective.- Low Luminosity BL Lacs.- 3. Cosmology.- Cosmic Structures, Parameters & Temperature Anisotropies: Status and Perspectives.- Probing Dark Energy with Supernova Searches.- Cosmological Constraints from Chandra X-ray Observations of Galaxy Clusters.- Cosmological Parameter Estimation with the Galaxy Cluster Abundance.- 4. Challenges for the Future.- The VLTI: Challenges for the Future.

Whereas many published meeting proceedings are quite limited in relevance (they are rapidly superseded) and in audience (appealing only to specialists), I suspect this little book will appeal to a wider readership, for longer than most. It will stand as an historical record of what researchers considered important in this era. Perhaps in hindsight, future researchers will find the omission of solar-system topics from the list as astonishing, considering the future of humankind may well hinge on our ability to exploit or deflect near-Earth asteroids. Perhaps they will be shocked that the effects of solar activity on the Earth's climate were not worthy of examination. Perhaps they will laugh at our blindness to non-stellar baryons in the Universe. Write down your own list of unsolved astronomical problems, and compare it with those in this book a decade hence! The comparison can only prove enlightening.
(G.C.L. Aikman, The Observatory (124/1183/2004)