8.8 Scientific Category

Specify one Scientific Category from the list below. Please adhere strictly to our definitions of these categories. If you find that your proposal fits into several categories, then please select the one that you consider most appropriate. If you are submitting a Calibration Proposal, then choose the Scientific Category for which your proposed calibration will be most important. The following are the available categories:

• SOLAR SYSTEM: This includes all objects belonging to the solar system (except the Sun and Mercury), such as planets, comets, minor planets, asteroids, planetary satellites, Kuiper-belt objects, etc.
• STAR FORMATION: This includes forming and newly-formed stars, the material surrounding them, studies of proto-planetary disks, extra-solar planets, early evolution, pre-main sequence stars, T-Tauri stars, HH objects and FU Orionis stars.
• COOL STARS: This applies to stars with effective temperatures less than 10,000 K. It includes subdwarfs, subgiants, giants, supergiants, AGB stars, pulsating/variable stars, brown dwarfs, stellar activity (coronae/flares), atmospheres, chromospheres, mass loss and abundance studies.
• HOT STARS: This applies to stars which spend a significant fraction of their observable lives at an effective temperature higher than 10,000 K. It includes OB stars, neutron stars, white dwarfs, Wolf-Rayet stars, blue stragglers, central stars of PN, variable hot stars, luminous blue variables, hot subdwarfs, supernovae, pulsars, X-ray binaries and CVs.
• ISM AND CIRCUMSTELLAR MATTER: This applies to the general properties of the diffuse medium within the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, including planetary nebulae, nova shells, supernova remnants, stellar jets (except star formation), winds and outflows, HII regions, giant molecular clouds, diffuse and translucent clouds, ionized gas in the halo, diffuse gas observed in emission or absorption, dust, dust extinction properties, dark clouds and deuterium abundance studies.
• STELLAR POPULATIONS: This includes resolved stellar populations in globular clusters, open clusters or (OB) associations, in the Milky Way and in other nearby galaxies. Studies of color-magnitude diagrams, luminosity functions, initial-mass functions, internal dynamics and proper motions are in this category.
• GALAXIES: This includes studies of galaxies in the Hubble sequence, galaxy mergers and interactions, starburst galaxies, IR-bright galaxies, dwarf galaxies and low-surface brightness galaxies. Also included are studies of galaxy structure, morphology and dynamics, and observations of unresolved stellar populations and the globular clusters of galaxies.
• AGN/QUASARS: This encompasses active galaxies and quasars, including both studies of the active phenomena themselves, and of the properties of the host galaxies that harbor AGNs and quasars. The definition of AGN is to be interpreted broadly; it includes Seyfert galaxies, BL Lac objects, radio galaxies, blazars and LINERS.
• QUASAR ABSORPTION LINES AND IGM: This includes the physical properties and evolution of absorption line systems detected along the line of sight to quasars and of other diffuse IGM. It includes spectroscopy and imaging of damped Ly-alpha systems.
• COSMOLOGY: This includes studies of the structure and properties of clusters and groups of galaxies, strong and weak gravitational lensing, galaxy evolution through observations of galaxies at intermediate and high redshifts (including for example, the Hubble Deep Fields), cosmology in general, the structure of the universe as a whole, cosmological parameters and the extra-galactic distance scale.