American Astronomical Society - Divisions

Divisions

Because the field of astronomy is diverse, several divisions have been formed each of which promotes and enables a different branch of astronomy or astronomy-related science as well as working within the overall charter of the AAS. Many of the divisions hold separate meetings in addition to meeting with the main group. The divisions of the AAS, together with their main research interests, are:

• The Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) supports planetology and exploration of the solar system.

• The Division on Dynamical Astronomy (DDA) supports research on the dynamics (orbits, evolution, and history) of astronomical systems from the solar system to superclusters of galaxies on cosmological scales.

• The High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) supports knowledge about high energy events, particles, quanta, relativistic gravitational fields, and related phenomena in the astrophysical universe.

• The Historical Astronomy Division (HAD) supports topics relevant to the history of astronomy as a field, and research using historical astronomical records to solve current problems in astronomy.

• The Solar Physics Division (SPD) supports solar physics (astrophysical research on the Sun), and its interactions with the Solar system and Earth.

• In 2012, a new Division was formed the Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) to advance our understanding of the Universe through the promotion of fundamental theoretical and experimental research into the underlying processes that drive the Universe.