The International Workshopo on Astronomical X-Ray Optics took place in Prague during the second week of December 2010. Its goal was to present and discuss recent and forthcoming technologies for future X-ray astronomy missions, with an emphasis on IXO of ESA/NASA/JAXA. These missions require development mostly of innovative technologies, and invited speakers discussed the possibilities, results obtained so far, and new ideas in detail. It is ovious that the requirements of future large space X-ray astronomy missions are so demanding that they need a truly interdisciplinary approach through wide international collaboration. The technologies will include X-ray optics based on Si wafers, advanced glass forming for precise X-ray optics, but also other possible technologies, as well as related advanced metrology, measurements and tests. and Jana Poledniková.
This year´s summer school, held in Brno in September 1-11, 2015 attended by advanced MSc´s, PhD students, Postdocs and senior astronomers presented modern instruments available for observations in the Optical and IR domains, together with their scientific tasks and performances. Primarily, the ESO instruments (ESO - European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere), as well as those available through the Opticon Access Program were features. and Petr Kabáth, Vladimír Karas, Ernst Paunzen.
One of the best-known Czech scientists, theoretical astronomer Prof. Jan Palouš, a member of the Academy Council of the ASCR, continues his discourse in part two of an interview about differences between astronomy of the 19th and the 21 centuries, computer simulation of Space, about striking fact that the Sun is not a binary-star and the finiteness of Space. / and Marina Hužvárová.
A conference honored the late Prof. Zdeněk Švestka, one of the great defining personalities of twentieth-century solar physics. His main scientific interest focused on solar flares. During his year at Ondřejov, he became an expert in flare spectra. Later his interests extended into white-light flares, proton flares, and their radio signatures (type II and IV bursts), which were suggestive of shock-acceleration of particles. The conference, organized by the Astronomical Institute, took place on 23-27 June 2014 in Prague. Zdeněk Švestka, born on 30 September 1925 in Prague, passed away on 2 April 2013 in Bunschoten. and Petr Heinzel,Marian Karlický, František Fárník.
Účelem každoroční mezinárodní konference o optice pro rentgenovou astronomii AXRO (International Workshop on Astronomical X-Ray Optics) jsou přednášky a následné diskuse o technologiích pro astronomická pozorování v rentgenovém oboru spektra. Sympozium, které se konalo 8.-11. prosince 2014 v pražské vile Lanna za účasti 40 odborníků z EU, USA, Ruska, Číny, Saúdské Arábie a Japonska, prokázalo důležitost propojování základního a aplikovaného výzkumu. AXRO 2014 uspořádaly Astronomický ústav AV ČR, České vysoké učení technické v Praze a Ministerstvo dopravy ČR. and Vojtěch Šimon.
For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of space time called gravitational waves, arriving at the earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein´s 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecendented new window onto the cosmos. Gravitational waves carry information about their dramatic origins and about the nature of gravity that cannot otherwise be obtained. Physicists have concluded that the detected gravitational waves were produced during the final fraction of a second of the merger of two black holes to produce a single, more massive spinning black hole. This collision of two black holes had been predicted but never observed. The gravitational waves were detected on September 14, 2015 at 09.51 UTC by both of the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, USA. The discovery was made by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (which includes the GEO Collaboration and the Australian Consortium for Interferometric Gravitational Astronomy) and the Virgo Collaboration using data from the two LIGO detectors. Special prominence is given to this topic in the article by Dr. Vladimír Wagner of the Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS. and Vladimír Wagner.
Vědecký časopis Nature publikoval 14. listopadu 2013 článek Dráha, struktura a původ Čeljabinského tělesa (The trajectory, structure and origin of the Chelyabinsk asteroidal impactor) autorského týmu pod vedením astronomů z Oddělení meziplanetární hmoty Astronomického ústavu AV ČR. Pád malé planetky nad Ruskem 15. února 2013 (viz AB 3/2013) vyvolal celosvětovou pozornost a mnohé vědecké týmy nyní vzácnou událost analyzují. Čeští astronomové se jí věnují od počátku a již 23. února jako první na světě rigorózní metodou spočítali dráhu tělesa. and Pavel Spurný, Jiří Borovička.