The next major step in millimetre astronomy, and one of the
highest-priority items in radio astronomy today, is a large millimetre
array with a collecting area 2 of up to 10 000 m . A project of this
scale will almost certainly require inter- national collaboration, at
least within Europe, and possibly with other major partners elsewhere.
In order to establish a focal point for this project within Europe, a
study has been undertaken by the Institut de Radio Astronomie Mil- Ii
met rique (IRAM), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), The Onsala
Space Observatory (OSO), and The Netherlands Foundation for Research in
Astronomy (NFRA). In the context of this project, a workshop attended by
some 100 participants was held at ESO Garching on December 11-13, 1995
to discuss the scientific advances such an array will make possible.
Throughout the three days of the workshop the strong enthusiasm for the
concept of a large millimetre array in the southern hemisphere (the
Large South- ern Array, or LSA) was obvious, and it became clear that
such a facility would have a profound impact on almost all areas of
observational astrophysics. It was particularly clear that, since their
main science drivers (cosmology, and the origins of galaxies, stars and
planets) are the same, and their angular resolutions and sensitivities
similar, the LSA and the VLT would strongly complement each other.