This is a preliminary announcement of a four-day International Conference on Comet Hale-Bopp, to be held on Tenerife, Canary Islands from February 2-5, 1998. This comet is the brightest object of its kind to appear since 1976 and after the introduction of modern observational techniques, including high quantum efficiency digital detectors.

It is organized by the Comet Hale-Bopp European Team which carried out a Canary Islands' Observatories International Time Project during March-April 1997 with support from the European Union. The meeting is supported by the European Union via this project, by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, IAC, as well as local authorities.

It is the goal of this conference to sum up the results of the world-wide observations of comet Hale-Bopp and to provide a useful forum for an exchange of information among the involved scientists. It may be advantageous to include also some results from Comet Hyakutake, another recent and well-studied comet.

The conference will feature a series of invited papers, each providing an overview of the individual research areas and the state of interpretation, 10 months after the perihelion passage, and at a time when the main observational campaign is over. There will also be a significant number of contributed papers as well as comprehensive poster sessions.

1. Introduction

a. Dynamical history
b. Early observations

2. The Nucleus

a. Dimensions and surface properties
b. Composition and structure
c. Activity

3. The Volatile Phase

a. Neutral gas (morphology, chemistry, isotopes)
b. Plasma (composition, dynamics)

4. The Dust Phase

a. Particle properties and composition
b. Morphology and dynamics

5. Dust-Gas Interrelation

6. Conclusions and Summary

The members of the Comet Hale-Bopp European Team will act as provisional Scientific Organising Committee (SOC). It is intended to establish a smaller Committee which includes some other cometary scientists. The Coordinator of the Comet Hale-Bopp European Team, Richard West (European Southern Observatory), will act as Chairperson of the SOC.

The Local Organising Committee (LOC) consists of IAC staff, namely: Mark Kidger (Chairperson), Ricard Casas, Ángel Gómez, Javier Licandro, Mónica Murphy, Nanci Sabalisck and Pablo Santos.

Printed versions of the invited talks, contributed papers and posters will become available in the conference proceedings. Publication is intended in one of the major professional journals or conference series. The Editors will soon be chosen by the SOC. The organisers will aim at speedy publication.

Potential participants are invited to pre-register by sending an email to the organisers at this address: mrk@ll.iac.es. This will ensure that you will be kept updated about the preparation for this conference and will automatically receive the following announcements.

It is planned to issue the next Announcement at the end of June 1997.

The text of this and future announcements is available on the WWW at:

http://www.iac.es/Hale-Bopp/hbitp98.html (IAC).

and

http://www.eso.org/comet-hale-bopp/hbitp98.html (ESO).

Hale-Bopp Conference Home Page.