ABSTRACT:
In 1963, the combination of a new idea - gravitational collapse of very massive Objects - and a new observational discovery - the very large redshifts of the optical counterparts of Quasi-Stellar Radio Sources (now called quasars, even when they are radio-quiet) led to the convening of what became the First Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics in Dallas, in December 1963.
The 26th such symposium happened in Sao Paulo Brazil just before Christmas 2012. The talk will focus on some new observations and ideas concerning the care and feeding of active galactic nuclei, properties of neutron stars, attempts to make core-collapse supernovae actually explode, very high energy gamma rays, neutrinos, and cosmic rays (is there really a GZK effect?), dark matter and energy, the cosmic microwave background, and half a dozen or so other things, several concerning the Crab Nebula. This is clearly too much for a 52 minute talk, if each is to be prefaced by some explanation of what the words mean and why the new ideas and observations are important.
Folks who decide to attend will therefore probably be asked to vote between or among some topics. There will probably also be an explanation of my title.