The reviews and highlights included in this book of proceedings of the plenary sessions, of the Joint European and National Astronomical Meeting (2002), cover some of the major fields and projects which will determine the research in astronomy in the next decades. The highlights have been presented by young astronomers from several European countries, selected from a list of proposals submitted by different institutions across Europe.

This book reflects the multi-disciplinarity and interaction that took place in the meeting. By including reviews on space and ground-based observational programmes, the scientific topics are associated with the new observational efforts in instrumentation. These projects, under development, are expected to drive the research in the coming decades. With such a wide and interdisciplinary coverage this book provides a comprehensive review on the present status and expectations for some of the major fields in astrophysics.

This work is of great relevance for students and researchers alike, as it provides an introductory approach to a wide range of fields in Astronomy, but also includes some detailed reviews for the major topics in each field.

The Joint European and National Astronomical Meeting (JENAM) of 2002, was held in Porto - Portugal (2-7 September 2002), corresponding to the I ph Meeting of the European Astronomical Society (EAS) and the IJ! En- contra Nacional de Astronomia e Astroftsica (12ENAA) of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Astronomia (SPA). Portugal has a small and young community of researchers in Astronomy. This meeting have had an important role in marking the beginning of what we expect to be a new phase for Astronomy in Portugal. The fact that we have chosen to address '"the future" reflects this will of the Portuguese com- munity to share and discuss our commitment for the next decades with our colleagues. The meeting, titled "The Unsolved Universe: Challenges for the Fu- ture", aimed at discussing some of the major research programmes and objec- tives for the next decades. The scientific programme included the plenary ses- sions (invited reviews and highlight talks), whose contributions are published in this book, and several workshops on more specific topics.

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