News from Tuorla Observatory
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2011
PhD student
Samuli Kotiranta from Tuorla Observatory and
Mikko Tuomi from Hertfordshire University, UK, have found two new
planets orbiting distant stars. Both planets are roughly
Neptune sized and orbit very close to their stars. The first planet
is in a stellar system 212 lightyears from us in the constellation
Ophiuchus and the second one 121 lightyears form us in the
constellation Aries. Discovery of the new planets will officially
be published in
Astronomy and Astrophysics in the near future.
Elizaveta Rastorgueva's thesis defence will take place
in the Quantum building (Physics Department) on Saturday
15th October 2011 at 12:00. Elizaveta's thesis is on
"Multifrequency VLBI Observations of Selected Active Galactic Nuclei".
Her opponent is Dr.
Svetlana Jorstad from
the Institute for Astrophysical Research in Boston University,
Boston, the United States of America, and she was supervised by
Dr.
Kaj Wiik at Tuorla Observatory.
Open House Days on 19th-20th March 2011 in Tuorla Observatory and
Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO:
Very succesful open house days were held over the weekend of 19th-20th
March 2011, at Tuorla Observatory. During the same weekend a "Star
Days" event was organised at the university campus in the centre of
Turku.
Over 500 people from the local area (and also some visitors from
around the whole country) visited the observatory and were able to
view our telescopes (1.0 m and 0.7 m, the two biggest scientific
telescopes in Finland), the optical workshops and visit the
planetarium. The visitors also listened to a series of popular talks
on topics ranging from the biggest black holes in the Universe by
prof. Mauri Valtonen, E-ELT and ALMA by prof. Jari Kotilainen,
ultra-compact binary stars by Seppo Katajainen, and the Nordic
Optical Telescope and the European Southern Observatory by Heidi
Korhonen. On both evenings star gazing events with the 1.0 m
telescope were very popular, and on Sunday evening even the weather
was fine!
Thanks to all involved!
The Planck mission of the European Space Agency has finally advanced
to the point where scientific data has been released to the public.
First results and datasets of a survey of galaxy clusters using the
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect were published at a conference that
took place in Paris, France, from 10th to 14th January 2011.
The cosmology team at Tuorla Observatory has been involved in the
discovery made from this Early Sunyaev-Zel'dovich sample: the first
supercluster to be discovered through its Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.
For more information, see the
ESA Press Release.
MAGIC collaboration announces a discovery of very high energy gamma-rays
from BL Lac object 1ES 1215+303. The MAGIC observations were triggered by
the optical high state of the source, reported by the
Tuorla blazar monitoring programme.
This is already the eighth discovery of an extragalactic VHE gamma-ray emitter
that has been triggered by Tuorlans. The discovery was announced as
astronomer telegram #3100 on 6th of January 2011.
2010
A very succesful
open day was held over the weekend of 27th-28th March at Tuorla.
Over 500 people from the local area visited and were able to view our telescopes,
the optical workshops, visit the planetarium and listen to a series of popular
talks on topics ranging from the Milky Way galaxy by Rami Rekola, life in the universe by Harry Lehto, the solar system by Samuli Kotiranta,
Finland's membership of the European Southern Observatory by Jari Kotilainen and
variable stars by Seppo Katajainen. Thanks to all involved!
Programme (in Finnish).
A course will be given on
Galactic structure, dynamics and chemical evolution
by N. Y. Sotnikova from St. Petersburg State University. 32 h. lectures, 8
h. exercises, numerical projects. Contact
Aleksandr Mylläri for registration.
Course dates: Febr. 15 - Apr. 15,
room Qh314 (3rd floor),
Wednesdays 10-12,
Thursdays 8-10.
The course aim is to give a global view of the Milky Way as a galaxy and of
its formation history. Using the Milky Way as a guide the course presents an
introduction to the dynamical processes responsible for the formation,
structure, evolution, and present-day appearance of galaxies and the stellar
systems they contain. Listening to lectures will not be the main method of
learning. We will fulfill several galactic dynamics projects connected with
basic points of N-body simulations (methods for constructing equilibrium
models, relaxation processes, etc).
A course will be given by Seppo Katajainen on ESO telescopes
and their instrumentation in period III, starting January 10th, 2010. Contact Seppo
for further details.
2009
:
Two new books are out by
Tuorla staff. They are
Matkalla avaruuteen - Avaruustutkimuksen historia ja tekniikka by
Hannu Karttunen - a comprehensive history of space research and technical
developments. The second is
Universumi
tietokoneesa by Leena Tähtinen, Chris Flynn and Esko Valtaoja - a
look at the role simulations play in astrophysics. Both are published in
Finnish.
Prof. Nikolai Voshchinnikov (St. Petersburg State University) will give a
lecture course
PHYSICS OF INTERSTELLAR DUST during November 2 - 13,
2009. Contact
Aleksandr Mylläri for further details.
Galileian Nights at the Tuorla
Observatory. Weather permitting, we will be pointing Finland's largest
telescope, and the Turku Ursa's movable telescope towards the heavens,
starting at 7PM. The purpose is to look at the objects that Galileo Galilei
once looked at, Jupiter and its moons. Extra shows will be presented at the Tuorla
Planetarium, where adult's tickets are the same price as a child's ticket.
Galileian Nights is one of the cornerstone-projects of the International
Year of Astronomy.
Prof. Konstantin V. Kholshevnikov from the Sobolev Astronomical Institute
(St. Petersburg State University) will be giving a short course on "Dynamics
of Extrasolar Planets". Contact Aleksandr Mylläri for details.
Congratulations to Tuorla Observatory PhD student
Veli-Pekka Hentunen,
who participated in supernova research published in the
Nature
magazine. (If you have access to Nature web service,
check
the article here.
Tomi Hyvönen's thesis defence will take place in the Quantum
building (Physics Department) on Saturday 9th May 2009 at 12:00. Tomi's
thesis is on "Evolution and stellar content of AGN host galaxies".
His opponent is Dr.
Knud Jahnke from the Max-Planck-Institute for
Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany, and he was supervised by Dr.
Jari
Kotilainen at Tuorla Observatory. In his thesis work, Tomi has
studied the evolution and stellar populations of the host galaxies of
active galactic nuclei. The main results of the work are the link between
nuclear activity and enhanced star formation in the host galaxy, and the
link between nuclear radio loudness and the luminosity of the host galaxy.
More here in Finnish.
Tuorla welcomes
Cristina Romero-Canizales, who is visiting for three
months from Granada, Spain. Cristina will be working with Seppo Mattila on
infrared properties of supernovae.
Congratulations to
Seppo Mikkola, who has been appointed as
an Editorial board member of
The Open Astronomy Journal, on on-line journal which covers all areas
of astronomy and astrophysics.
Congratulations to Esko Gardner, Chris Flynn, Samuli
Kotiranta, Pekka Heinämäki, Aleksi Halkola, Elizaveta Rastorgueva,
Laura Portinari and Pasi Nurmi, all of whom have received
funding for research and travel from the
Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation,
and to Heidi Lietzen who has obtained funding for the
Finnish Cultural Foundation.
Welcome to
Juliet Datson, who joins Tuorla to do a
PhD under the supervision of
Chris Flynn and
Laura Portinari.
Juliet comes to us from MPIA in
Heidelberg, and will be working on the star formation history of the Milky Way.
Congratulations to
Seppo Mikkola, who has just been elected to the
Organising Committee of the
International Astronomical
Union's
Commission 7
Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, to serve in the period 2009-2012.
Welcome to Riho Reinthal, who joins Tuorla to do a PhD under the
supervision of Elina Lindfors. Riho comes to us from Tartu in
Estonia. Welcome!
2008
Two PhD positions are currently available at Tuorla
Observatory. The PhD positions offer funding of about EUR 20,000 per year, and
are offered in the
field of infrared extragalactic astronomy, to work on active galaxies and
supernovae, respectively. Interested applicants are invited to contact
Drs.
Jari Kotilainen
(active galaxies) and/or
Seppo Mattila
(supernovae).
Congratulations to Professor
Mauri Valtonen and his
research team, whose work has been rated by
Discover magazine in the "Top 100
Stories of 2008" at position #40.
The First Known Binary Black
Hole System.
:
Congratulations to
Aleksi Halkola,
Erkki
Kankare,
Aleksandr Mylläri,
Aimo Sillanpää,
Tommi Vornanen and
Mauri Valtonen, all of whom recieved funding
in the latest round of grants from the
Väisälä
Foundation.
: New book coming in December: "The Evolving Universe
and the Origin of Life" by Pekka Teerikorpi, Mauri
Valtonen, Kirsi Lehto, Harry Lehto, Gene Byrd and
Arthur Chernin. "The Evolving Universe and the Origin of Life"
describes a journey through the history of the universe as interpreted by the
expanding body of knowledge of humankind. From subatomic particles to the
protein chains that form life, and expanding in scale to the entire universe.
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:
A very successful Finnish Astronomers' Day 2008 was held today at Tuorla. Programme available
here.
: Two short courses are coming: "Astronomical
Distances" -- by
Prof. A. Rastorguev (Moscow Univ.) - December 7 - 17,
2008 and "Evolution of Galaxies 1" by
Prof. V. Reshetnikov,
St. Petersburg State Univ. -- January 13 - 30, 2009. Registrations can be made
to
Aleksandr Mylläri.
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4 November 2008
Leena Tähtinen and Chris Flynn's book,
"Universumin pimeä puoli" or "The Dark Side of the Universe" has just been
published by URSA.
The book discusses the discovery of dark matter and dark energy, and how they lead
us to believe that 95 percent of the Universe is still unseen.
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15 October 2008 Dr. Leonid Sokolov (St. Petersburg State Univ.)
will give a short course on "Close approaches and collisions of celestial
bodies". October 27th - November 5th, 2008. Registrations can be made to
Aleksandr Mylläri (alemio@utu.fi).
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15 September 2008
Congratulations to Elina Lindfors and Jia-Qing Zheng, both of whom recieved
funding from the Academy of Finland in its latest round, for their work on
active galaxies and solar system dynamics.
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25 August 2008 Welcome to Sarah Bird, who will be
doing her PhD at Tuorla in Galactic Dynamics, and will be working
with Mauri Valtonen and Chris Flynn. Sarah comes to us from the
University of Missouri. Welcome Sarah!
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20 August 2008 Research Highlight
The "Maasai shield" map of triple dynamics
The characteristics of a special three body system has been studied in unprecedented detail
by astronomers at Tuorla Observatory and the University of Moscow, resulting in a
map which recalls the splendid shields of the Maasai.
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1 August 2008
A partial solar eclipse was seen on Tuorlan sky in the afternoon of
1st August 2008. PhD student Perttu
Keinänen used a combination of the Tuorlan Astronomical
Society 70mm Meade telescope and a web camera to provide live coverage
on the observatory home page. Images on the right are from the series
taken during the eclipse: image on the left was taken at the beginning
of the eclipse, the one in the middle during the largest covering at
12:46:12 local time, and the one on the right at the end of the eclipse.
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25 June 2008
How Transparent Is the Universe? Gamma rays from a quasar 5 billion light
years away constrain the background light in the universe, using the
MAGIC telescope, in research
published in the journal Science.
Press releases:
in English and
in Finnish.
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21 June 2008 Research Highlight
Compact objects
New observations a faint white dwarf star V405 Auriga, show it has a very
high magnetic field, the highest known for a star of its kind.
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5 June 2008 Congratulations to
Seppo Katajainen who
has been selected to serve as the Finnish representative on the ESO
Users Committee.
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7 May 2008 Luca Casagrande's thesis defence took place in
the Quantum building (Physics Department) on Saturday 22/09/07 at 12:00
noon on the topic "The Cosmic Production of Helium". The thesis focuses
on the properties of stars less massive than the sun, and how they may be
used to trace the amount of Helium which has been produced in stars.
Luca's supervisors are Tuorla Observatory researchers Chris Flynn and
Laura Portinari and his opponent is Professor Bengt Gustafsson from
Uppsala University.
Further info (in Finnish).
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17 April 2008 Sherry Suyu will be visiting Tuorla
from the Argelander-Institut fuer Astronomie in Bonn, visiting for two
weeks from 24th April-6th May. She works on mass modelling of
gravitational lensing systems. It is a pleasure to welcome back
Kimmo Innanen, who will be visiting us from Toronto, from April
20th until early June. Kimmo works on kinematics of galaxies, low mass
stars and solar system dynamics.
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15 April 2008 Congratulations to
Esko Valtaoja, who
has won a major state prize, announced today by the Ministery of
Education, for communication of science. Esko Valtaoja was
particularly cited for his trilogy of books on the cosmos and our
place in it.
Press release (in Finnish).
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6 March 2008
"Cosmology: Foundations and Frontiers"
by Gene Byrd, Arthur Chernin and Mauri Valtonen, has been published by
Editorial URSS. The book provides an easy introduction to both classic
foundations and modern developments in cosmology, particularly "dark
energy", for students, as well as interested physicists and astronomers
working in other fields.
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3 February 2008 Tuorla welcomes
Christian Reppel, who
will work with Seppo Mikkola on an EU funded project on "Formation
flying and attitude dynamics of satellites". Welcome!
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30 January 2008 This
image of asteriod 2007TU24 was
captured by Harry Lehto on 29th January 2008, as it made a close approach
to the Earth. The image is the sum of twenty three 30 sec exposures
taken at about 23.48-24.00 local time. Image Credit: Harry
Lehto/Tuorla Observatory.
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24 January 2008 Tuorla welcomes two new arrivals: Aleksi
Halkola and Juha Reunanen. Aleksi comes to us from the
Argelander Institute for Astronomy in Bonn, and works on galaxy
clusters, while Juha returns to Tuorla after postdoctoral stints in
Germany at Garching, and in Holland at Leiden, working on active
galaxies. Welcome!
2007
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21/12/07
Anatomy of a Bird Finnish and South African astronomers use
the Very Large Telecope's NACO instrument to reveal a cosmic triple
collision. An Academy of Finland Press Release is available
here.
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14/12/07 Two new books are
out by Tuorla astronomers --- Ihmeitä, by Esko Valtaoja and
Miljoonan vuoden yksinäisyys by Pekka Teerikorpi.
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14/11/07 Two one-week courses to be held in November on
celestial mechanics by Profs Konstantin V. Kholshevnikov and
Vladimir B. Titov (St Petersburg University). The courses count for
3op/1.5ov and the course coordinator is Aleksandr Mylläri. Full
details, including contact and registration information
here.
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14/11/07 Marian Douspis from Laboratoire Astrophysique
de Toulouse will visit Tuorla Observatory 19th-22nd November.
Marian is visiting Pekka Heinämäki and works on large-scale
galaxy correlations and dark energy.
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13/11/07 The first meeting of the Joint Cosmology Seminar
Series of Tuorla Observatory and the Department of Physics will take
place at 10.15 am in Quantum room 179 with a talk by Elina Lindfors
(Tuorla) on "MAGIC results on quantum gravity and dark matter".
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23/09/07 Congratulations to
Jari Kotilainen,
Leo Takalo and
Esko Valtaoja,
all of whom have been awarded funding by the Academy of Finland. Jari
Kotilainen's research project is on Active Galaxies, Leo Takalo's for
Astrophysics at the Nordic Optical Telescope, and Esko Valtaoja's for
Planck Satellite research at Tuorla and
Metsähovi.
Congrats to all three!
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23/09/07 Janne Holopainen's thesis defence took place in
the Quantum building (Physics Department) on Saturday 22/09/07 at 12:00.
Janne's thesis is on "Investigations of structure in dark matter halos"
and his opponent is Dr. Joakim Edsjö of the Department of
Physics, Stockholm University, and he was supervised by Dr. Chris
Flynn at Tuorla Observatory. Janne's thesis work has covered several
aspects of dark matter --- on one hand the possibility (which he
showed is unlikely) that the dark matter of the Milky Way is in the
form of huge numbers of white dwarf stars. The second part of the
thesis concerned how dark halos could affect lensing of galaxies seen
at very large distances.
Link
to further info in Finnish.
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19/09/07 The Sampo group met at Tuorla Observatory,
with guests Richard Hook and Martino Romaniello, both of
ESO. A talk was given on ongoing projects in the Sampo framework.
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13/9/2007 Marie-Curie "Early State Researcher" 3-year
position open for EU nationals (excluding Finland) to work with
Dr. Seppo Mikkola on "Formation flying
and attitude dynamics of satellites". Link to application announcement
here (pdf file).
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3 Sep 2007 First Announcement: Tuorla and Tartu Observatories'
Autumn Meeting in cosmology and large scale structure, to be held 4-5
October 2007
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15 Aug 2007 Elina
Lindfors defended her PhD thesis on Saturday 18th August.
Her thesis is entitled "Modelling the Emission Mechanisms in Relativistic
Jets", and her opponent was Professor Alan Marscher (Boston
University). Elina was supervised by Professor Esko Valtaoja
(Tuorla Observatory) and her thesis makes extensive use of both
EGRET and
MAGIC observations of
quasars in the gamma-ray region, as well as in the optical and
radio. A highlight of her thesis work is the discovery that gamma-ray
emission from the quasar 3C279 cannot be understood in terms of
existing models of the system, implying that the emission mechanisms
are quite different to what has been assumed to date. Very few sources
have been studied in the level of detail which 3C279 has been in this
thesis, and it is not yet known if the models fail for this one source
only or the problem is a general one, but studies she is planning with
the upcoming GLAST satellite should start to address this issue in the
next few years.
Link
to further info in Finnish.
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14 August 2007 Workshop on a solar event, held in Room
XVII in the Physics Department, from 10:15 AM. The event discussed is
from 2 May 1998.
Programme
10:15-10:30 Introduction (E. Valtonen)
10:30-11:15 Summary of SRL previous results (L. Kocharov)
11:15-11:45 Electromagnetic emissions observed in the 2 May 1998 flare-CME event (S. Pohjolainen)
11:45-12:45 Lunch
12:45-13:30 SEP transport through proton-amplified waves (T. Laitinen/R. Vainio)
13:30-14:00 Instrumental issues (in anisotropy measurements?) (O. Saloniemi) (and other related?) (E. Riihonen)
14:00-15:00 Discussion and plans for the future research of the 2 May 1998 and other SEP events (All)
15:00-15:10 Conclusions and closing
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8 Aug 2007 Niina Lehtinen defended her PhD thesis on
Wednesday 8th August at 12:00 (in the Quantum building at the Department
of Physics). Niina has been working on solar eruptions, solar flares, and
CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections), mainly using satellite observations, among
them data from ESA's SOHO mission and the Japanese YOHKOH mission. Niina's
opponent was Lidia van Driel-Gesztelyi (Observatoire de Paris), and her
thesis work has been supervised by Silja Pohjolainen at Tuorla Observatory.
Niina has concentrated on the Helium-3 isotope and its properties in
ejection events from the Sun, and has succeeded in obtaining the first
spectrum of He-3 at higher energies (15-30 MeV band).
Link
to further info in Finnish.
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30 July 2007: Tuorla welcomes three new staff
members. Dr. Alexander Mylläri, who returns in the
beginning of August after a long stay in the Department of Information
Technology at the University of Turku. Welcome also to Dr. Seppo
Mattila who is moving from Queen's University of Belfast to Tuorla
Observatory also at the beginning of August. Dr. Svetlana
Berdyugina will shortly be moving from the Institute for Astronomy at
Zurich to Tuorla Observatory. Welcome all!
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26/7/2007 COMING EVENTS : Three thesis defences are coming
up over the next two months. Niina Lehtinen will be
defending her thesis "Multiwavelength studies of solar eruptions"
on August 8th, 2007. Elina Lindfors defends on August
18th, her topic being "Modelling The Emission Mechanisms in
Relativistic Jets". In September, Janne Holopainen will
defending his thesis work on dark matter and microlensing in
cosmological simulations.
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3/7/2007 Tuorla welcomes Laura Dunn, who has taken
up a postdoctoral research position funded by the Academy of
Finland. Laura has just completed her PhD at Mount Stromlo
Observatory in Canberra, Australia, where she worked on
determining the distances to dwarf galaxies. Welcome!
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1/5/2007 Tuorla welcomes Wu Jianghua and Roger
Firbo. Wu Jianghua is visiting us for two weeks from Beijing
Observatory, and is working on AGN with Leo Takalo and Aimo
Sillanpää; Roger Firbo hails from the Institute for High
Energy Physics in Barcelona, and is working on AGN with Elina
Lindfors. Roger is staying until the end of June. Welcome both!
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15/3/2007 Massive galaxies and black holes form and evolve together.
New research led by Tuorla Observatory's Jari Kotilainen, who is an
Academy of Finland Senior Researcher.
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15/3/2007 A new textbook
"Complete Course in Astrobiology", edited by Gerda
Horneck and Petra Rettberg and published by Wiley, features chapters
by the University of Turku's
Harry Lehto (Tuorla
Observatory) on "From the Big Bang to the Molecules of Life" and by
Kirsi Lehto (Department of
Biology) on "From Molecular Evolution to Cellular Life ".
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10/3/2007 The
7th European Workshop
on Astrobiology. The workshop takes place on the 22nd to the
24th of October, 2007, at the University of Turku, in Turku,
Finland.
The workshop will address all the main topics of astrobiology,
such as Interstellar chemistry, Chemical evolution, Early Earth
and Mars, Origins of life, Life during the Archean, The limits of
life - Extremophiles, Search for life in the Solar System,
Exoplanets, Habitability, Biomarkers, Education and public
outreach.
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5/3/2007 Welcome to Carolin Villforth, who has begun her PhD
studies at Tuorla. Carolin comes to us from the Landessternwarte in
Heidelberg, where she worked with Jochen Heidt on quasar host galaxies
in the FORS deepfield, and she will be studying polarisation of QSOs
and blazars wth Kari Nilsson at Tuorla. Welcome!
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1/2/2007 Well done to Elina Lindfors, Sami-Matias
Niemi and Samuli Kotiranta, for obtaining funding from
the Vaisala Foundation. All are working on their PhDs at Tuorla
Observatory. Elina is working on gamma ray sources in active
galaxies, Sami-Matias on cosmological simualtions of galaxies and
galaxy groups, while Samuli is studying planetary orbital
stability and effecs on exobiology.
2006
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20/10/2006 Research Highlight
OJ287 never fails to surprise
Long term monitoring of OJ287's optical brightness now indicates that
the system may be precessing very rapidly, setting a record for general
relativistic precession of orbits.
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20/10/2006 Congratualtions to Samuli Kotiranta, who has
obtained funding for his PhD studies from the Wihuri Foundation. Samuli
has just returned from the 6th European Workshop on Astrobiology
at ENS Lyon. (The 7th workshop will be in Turku in October,
2007.) Samuli presented results of dynamics and habitability of a
counter-rotating planetary system.
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20/09/2006
Tuorla observatory researchers have obtained funding from the Academy of Finland in
its September funding round. Congratulations to Drs. Seppo Katajainen and Erik
Zackrisson, who have both obtained three year research positions for 2007-2009.
Seppo is working on cataclysmic variables, and Erik on microlensing of dark
matter halos. Chris Flynn has obtained funding for dwarf galaxy studies.
Congratulations to all three!
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18/09/2006 The Finnish prime minister, Matti
Vanhanen, kindly accepted an invitation by the Tuorlan Astronomical Society to
visit Tuorla Observatory and was entertained with presentations of
the observatory history and research, large telescopes abroad, and
world famous optical laboratory, Opteon Ltd. Photos of the visit are
available.
Huom: pääministeri Vanhasen
vierailusta on nähtävillä myös kuvasivu suomeksi ja
Turun yliopiston tiedote.
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10/08/2006 Research Highlight
Stability limits on quasi-satellites
An international team of astronomers have found that the angle between the
orbit of the planet and the orbit of the asteroid as they circle the Sun
plays an important role in the formation and lifetime of quasi-satellites.
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1/06/2006
Johan Holmberg leaves Tuorla and takes a postdoc position at MPIfA in
Heidelberg. We wish him well!
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30/05/2006
Magic collaboration, with Tuorlan participation, has reported
a detection of variable gamma-ray emission above 100 gigaelectron
volts from the microquasar LS I +61 303. Microquasars are binary star
systems with relativistic radio-emitting jets. They are potential
sources of cosmic rays and laboratories for elucidating the physics of
relativistic jets.
Find more information from the
Magic web site.
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17/05/2006
Congratulations to Professor Esko Valtaoja, whose application
for a centre of excellence, has been accepted into the final
evaluation round by the
Academy of Finland. The centre's research focus is cosmic and solar
plasmas.
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17/05/2006
Congratulations to Professor Mauri Valtonen, who has been
awarded the prestigious E. J. Nyström prize by the
The Finnish Society of
Sciences and Letters. The prizewinner is elected annually from
among all members and is valued at 20,000 euros. Mauri Valtonen was
cited for his work (amongst others) on OJ287, a highly variable active
galaxy, which is thought to harbour a binary black
hole.
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6/05/2006
Joni Tammi has successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Particle
Acceleration and Turbulence Transmission in Relativistic Parallel Shocks".
The thesis presents a discovery of great differences between previous
results on "slow" shock waves, propagating only at speeds of thousands
of kilometres per second, and the new results on ultrafast shocks.
Joni's opponent was Professor John Kirk from Max-Planck-Institut für
Kernphysik.
Congratulations!
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2/05/2006 A frequent visitor to Tuorla, Chris Thom
finished his PhD in Swinburne University, Australia, and got a job
in Chicago. Chris was co-supervised by Brad Gibson at Swinburne
and Chris Flynn at Tuorla Observatory.
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4/04/2006 Research Highlight
BL Lacs reunited?
Astronomers at Tuorla Observatory and Metsähovi Radio Observatory,
have made a study of over 300 so-called "BL Lac" galaxies, concluding
that one of the standard explanations for these energetic emittors,
which divides BL Lacs into various subtypes, may be flawed.
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7/02/2006 Research Highlight
Colours of the Sun
measured
Direct measurements of the surface temperatures of stars have been made
using interferometry. The technique shows that surface temperature can be
measured consistently for faint stars and the Sun. This breaks through
the old impasse to using this technique for measuring the Sun's colours.
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2005
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26/11/2005
Congratulations to Leo Takalo, who has obtained funding from the
Academy of Finland for 50,000 euros for the project "Astrophysics at
the Nordic Optical Telescope".
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19/11/2005 Research Highlight
Thick accretion disk around W Ser?
An international team of astronomers have probed the
massive binary system W Serpentis in polarised light using telescopes
at La Palma. The observations have lead to the discovery of a hot
spot/jet at high latitudes on the primary star of the system...
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3/11/2005
Congratulations to Hannu Karttunen, whose new book,
"Tähdet ja Maailmankaikkeus" has just been published by Otava.
The book is a "what's what of stars and space". Published in Finnish.
Mauri Valtonen and Hannu Karttunen's book on
"The three body problem" will appear from Cambridge University Press
soon (January 2006).
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14/09/2005 Research Highlight
How far the galactic neighbours?
An international team of astronomers, including Rami Rekola, Chris
Flynn, Mauri Valtonen and Jari Kotilainen of Tuorla Observatory, have
calibrated methods for measuring distances to nearby galaxies.
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10/09/2005
Congratulations to Rami Rekola, who has been awarded a University of
Turku prize for an outstanding PhD thesis.
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30/05/2005 Research Highlight
Solar mini-explosions
An international team of astronomers, including Silja Pohjolainen of
Tuorla Observatory, have observed a type of explosion on the surface
of the Sun called a coronal mass ejection (CME). The fact that the CME
comes from a very small, rather than a quite large region on the Sun,
has come as a surprise to astronomers.
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20/05/2005
New pages have been opened on solar activity studies at Tuorla, and are
maintained by Solar Researcher Silja Pohjolainen. The pages can be found
here.
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2/05/2005 Research Highlight
OJ 287 campaign 2005-2008
The OJ 287 2005-2008 Project and ENIGMA Campaign pages now open.
Tuorla Observatory is co-ordinating a multi-observatory effort
to monitor the next outburst of this special object.
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25/04/2005
Congratulations to Leena Tähtinen and Silja Pohjolainen, whose book
Aurinko - tähden tarina has just been published by WSOY.
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25/04/2005
Congratulations to Pasi Nurmi, who was introduced as a GAIA member of the
Double and Multiple Stars Working Group and the Photometry Working Group.
GAIA is a European Space Agency mission which will map about one billion
stars in the Milky Way.
More
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19-22/04/2005
Renato Falamo from the Osservatorio di Padova visited Tuorla Observatory,
to work with Jari Kotilainen. Renato gave us a talk on "Redshifts of BL
Lac objects - results from VLT data", which included magnificent, high
signal to noise spectra of BL Lac objects, with redshift detections for
many from absorption lines in the host galaxy's stellar populations. They
have also together just set a new record for the
most distant
host galaxy detection.
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19/04/2005
CONGRATULATIONS to Opteon Oy! The Herschel mirror, which when
deployed in 2007 will be the largest sent into space, has now been
polished to perfection. The mirror has left Tuorla Observatory by Beluga
transporter for France.
More here on
this unique, record setting mirror
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2-3/03/2005
Erik Zackrisson from the University of Uppsala visited Tuorla
Observatory 2-3/03/2005 and discussed dark matter and galaxy evolution
with Chris Flynn's DARKSTAR research group. He also gave us a seminar
on the case for dark matter in compact objects.
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18/02/2005
Svetlana Berdyugina, who is a
senior scientist of the Academy of Finland and working at Oulu University,
visited Tuorla Observatory 18/02/2005. She gave a seminar about optical
support of the NASA/Stanford Gravity Probe B mission.
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28/01/2005
Juri Poutanen, professor of
astronomy at Oulu University, visited Tuorla Observatory 28/1/2005. He
gave a seminar about millisecond pulsars. Juri is also now a member of
the Tuorla Board. The visit was hosted by Esko Valtaoja.
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19-21/01/2005
A whole lot of people from Finland and Russia visited Tuorla observatory
19-21/01/2005. The occasion was a Finnish-Russian symposium, mainly on
radio astronomy and AGN research. Seven talks was given by our Russian
colleagues and 15+ short talks by Tuorla and Metsähovi AGN/Planck
people.
2004
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18/12/2004
Rami Rekola has successfully
defended his PhD thesis on "Distance Determinations to Nearby Galaxies".
The thesis used a range of distance determination techniques, including
planetary nebulae, surface brightness fluctuations and cepheid stars.
Rami's opponent was Professor Gene Byrd from the University of Alabama.
Congratulations!
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17/12/2004
Dr Aleksandr Riehokainen has been appointed to a tenured position at
Tuorla Observatory. Aleksandr works in solar physics, and has recently
been studying the difficult to observe polar regions of the Sun with the
Metsähovi radio telescope. Congratulations!
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22/11/2004
There will be a slightly unusual ceremony at Tuorla Observatory on
Wednesday, 24th of November at 10:15 am. Dr. David Jauncey (Australia
Telescope National Facility) and Dr. Martin George (Curator, Queen
Victoria Museum, Tasmania) will present us with a small metal box
containing a portion of cremated remains of Dr. Grote Reber, the father
of radio astronomy, who passed away two years ago. A similar box will be
presented to four other observatories in the U.K. and United States, so
we are the recipients of a rare honour. The distribution of these
memorial boxes is in accordance with the wishes of the Executor of the
Grote Reber Estate, Mr. Dale Blanchard, of Lauderdale, Tasmania. The
ceremony will be followed by a talk about Grote Reber and his
achievements, given by Dr. Jauncey.
Lisää
suomeksi.
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15/11/2004
Congratulations to Professor Esko Valtaoja, who has obtained four years
of funding from the Academy of Finland
for the project "High energy blazar astronomy".
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1/11/2004
Congratulations! "Nurkkaan Ajettu Jumala", by Juha Pihkala and Esko
Valtaoja, has won the Christian Book of the year prize for 2004.
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1/11/2004
NEW BOOK. "Avoin tie" by Esko Valtaoja has just been published. A
discussion of the future: for humanity, for the environment, for life
and for the cosmos. This is the third book by Esko Valtaoja, who was
the winner of the 2002 Science book of the year. Published in Finnish.
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1-3/09/2004 Tuorla Astronomers at the Turku Book Fair
Tuorla astronomers Leena Tähtinen and Esko Valtaoja were among
the many public speakers at the Book Fair this year in Turku. Leena
Tähtinen gave a talk on the Sun, our nearest neighbour, as well
as interviewing Academician Olli Lehto on his new book about the
Väisälä brothers,
one of whom
founded Tuorla. Tuorla director Esko Valtaoja spoke on his new
book on
the "god of the gaps" written with bishop Juha Pihkala.
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1/07/2004
The Herschel mirror has arrived safely at Tuorla Observatory's Opteon
Lab aboard ESA's Beluga transporter. The 3.5 metre main mirror of the
Herschel satellite is to undergo final polishing in the Opteon workshop.
The plane arrived on Tuesday 29/06 and the mirror was transferred from
the airport to Tuorla on Wednesday 30/06. The mirror itself will be the
largest mirror yet to be launched into space.
More info
here.
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14/06/2004 - Two PhD theses defended.
Congratulations to Juha Reunanen and Seppo Katajainen,
who defended their PhD theses on two consecutive Saturdays (5/6/2004 and
12/6/2004 respectively). Juha's thesis addressed the infrared properties
of active galaxies. Juha was supervised by Dr. Jari Kotilainen, and has
taken a position at the European Southern Observatory in Munich. Seppo's
thesis was on polarimetric studies of magnetic cataclysmic variables and
was supervised by Dr. Vilppu Piirola.
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7/06/2004
Dr. Johan Holmberg has joined
VISPA on a postdoc position funded
by the Academy of Finland. Johan has been a frequent visitor to the
DARKSTAR
group, and has worked on the mass of the Galactic disk, as well as its
kinematic, age and chemical properties.
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20/05/2004
Welcome to Tomi Hyvönen, who will be an MSc student at
Tuorla Observatory from May 2004. Tomi is doing his MSc thesis on
quasar evolution under the supervision of Jari Kotilainen.
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15/05/2004
Over 800 people visited Tuorla Observatory during an open house day.
All the telescopes were open for inspection; an air planetarium in
"full-blown" operation; a corner for kiddies to construct planetary
systems to their own design; books written by Tuorla staff members on
sale and two talks, by Leena Tähtinen on Water on Mars, and
by Rami Rekola on Finland joining the European Southern Observatory.
Congratulations to all staff and students who participated on a great
success!
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15/05/2004
Welcome to Dr. Luisa Ostorero, who is visiting Tuorla Observatory
for six months starting from May 2004. She is from Torino University, and
is funded by the
ENIGMA postdoc programme. She is studying quasars in the research
group lead by Leo Takalo and Aimo Sillanpää.
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2/05/2004
Congratulations to VISPA PhD student Krista Mäkinen, who has
obtained 7000 euros from the Emil Aaltonen Foundation and 7242 euros from
the Turku University Foundation both towards her PhD work. Krista is
investigating the symbiotic binary star system R Aquarii.
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1/05/2004
Congratulations to VISPA researcher Dr. Rami Vainio, who has
obtained 6000 euros from the Academy of Finland to support travel and
co-operation between VISPA and Bochum University's Department of
theoretical and space astrophysics. The collaboration studies plasma
physics in various astrophysical contexts.
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22/04/2004
Congratulations to Dr. Laura Portinari, who has received a three
year position funded by the Academy of Finland. Laura works on disk
galaxies and stellar and galactic chemical evolution.
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27/03/2004
Congratulations to Hannu Karttunen whose new book on everyday
physics has been published by
URSA.
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22/03/2004
Welcome to Dr. Eva Örndahl, who has begun a post-doc
position at Tuorla Observatory, working with Jari Kotilainen on active
galaxies. Eva comes to us from Uppsala Observatory in Sweden, and she
is supported by the Academy of Finland.
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20/03/2004
Congratulations to Elina Lindfors, Mari Hanski, Janne Holopainen and
Eira Kotoneva who have been successful in applications for funding
support. Elina has obtained funds from the Magnus Ehrnrooth foundation
for travel to the MAGIC telescope in the Canary Islands. Mari won
funding from the Finnish Cultural Foundation of one year's salary, as
did Janne from the Magnus Ehrnrooth foundation, and Eira recieved funds
from the Academy of Finland for travel to observe low mass stars in China
to use the Xinglong 2.16 metre Telescope. Congratulations to all four!
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8/03/2004
Unique SiC Mirror to be made at Tuorla Observatory's OPTEON Lab.
Tuorla Observatory has won the contract to produce a 1.5 metre mirror
of Silicon Carbide for the European Space Agency's
ALADIN project. The mission is designed to make detailed
studies of winds in the Earth's atmosphere.
Lisää
suomeksi.
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10/02/2004
Welcome to Stefano Ciprini, who has taken up a post-doc
position at Tuorla Observatory. Stefano comes to us from Perugia
Observatory in Italy, and works on Active Galactic Nuclei. Stefano is
supported by the
ENIGMA collaboration, a European funded scientific network.
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10/02/2004
Chris Thom is visiting Tuorla Observatory for two months to work
on high velocity clouds and distant stars in our galaxy and will be
working with the DARKSTAR group. Chris visits us from the Astrophysics
and Supercomputing Centre at the University of Swinburne in Melbourne,
Australia.
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2/02/2004 Research Highlight
The Tuorla
catalogue of BL Lacs in the RGB.
A catalogue of 100 BL Lac galaxies selected from the ROSAT-Green Bank
(RGB) survey has been imaged by VISPA researchers at the Nordic Optical
Telescope, and has been made available on-line. The research team, lead
by Dr. Kari Nilsson, used the very high imaging qualities of the Nordic
Optical Telescope, and were able to see the underlying galaxy in 62 of
the 100 targets, 37 of them never seen before.
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2/02/2004
Dr. Laura Portinari has taken up a post-doc position with the
DARKSTAR group at Tuorla Observatory (Laura comes to us from the
Theoretical Astrophysics Centre in Copenhagen). Among other things, Laura
works on disk galaxies; their formation, evolution and baryonic content.
She is supported by the Academy of Finland.
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26/01/2004
Congratulations to VISPA researcher Jari Kotilainen, who has been
awarded a 5 year Senior Researcher position by the Academy of Finland.
These prestigious positions enable the awardee to undertake pure
research without teaching or administrative duties.
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12/01/2004
A seminar series in space physics will be held at the
Space Research Laboratory in Spring
2004. Lectures in the programme can be found
here.
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10/01/2004
Tuorla part of a European Union scientific network, ENIGMA.
Tuorla Observatory is participating in a European wide research initiative
into the physics of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). The team consists of 8
observatories in Germany, Finland, Ireland, Greece and Italy. The research
concentrates on getting mutlifrequency data for AGN in dedicated campaigns
from both ground based and space based telescopes.
2003
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30-31/10/2003
Tuorla participates in the final seminar of the ANTARES research
programme. The Academy of Finland
and Tekes'
ANTARES research project has held the final seminar of the three year
programme at Finlandia Talo in Helsinki. The research group
DARKSTAR
presented the results of the programme highlighting baryonic dark matter
searches; massive black holes in the Galactic halo and Helium production
in the cosmos. The AGN group showed the results of extensive monitoring
of Active Galactic Nuclei, which will be an important foreground source
in the European Space Agency's
Planck mission. VISPA was also on show at the
Space 2003
exhibition at the old Cable
Factory in Helsinki.
Click here for
some photos from the show.
lisää
suomeksi.
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10/10/2003
MAGIC telescope
inaugurated. VISPA researchers attended the opening of the MAGIC
telescope, the world's largest atmospheric imaging Cherenkov telescope,
with a mirror surface in excess of 230 square metres. VISPA is one of
the 14 (mostly European) institutes involved. The main contribution of
Tuorla Observatory to the collaboration is the use of the 60 cm optical
KVA telescope on La Palma in connection with MAGIC observations. This
will allow simultaneous optical and gamma-ray observations.
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06/2003
Havaitseva tähtitiede (in Finnish) by Kari Nilsson, Leo Takalo
and Jukka Piironen, has been published by URSA. The book is a companion
volume to the very popular "Fundamental Astronomy" by Hannu Karttunen;
Karl Johan Donner, Pekka Kröger, Heikki Oja and Markku Poutanen.
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14/06/2003
Congratulations to
Timo Laitinen who has defended his Ph.D. thesis on
Energetic Particle Acceleration and Transport in Wave-Heated Solar
Wind. Timo's opponent was Professor Hannu Koskinen of Helsinki
University.
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10/06/2003 Congratulations to Viatcheslav Koblik, who has
successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on Solar Sail Motion in
near-sun Regions. The thesis studied methods of getting a space
probe around the solar system without an on-board propulsion system,
but rather through the pressure of the sunlight on large "sails".
Viatcheslav's PhD is one of the very few awarded in this area. It is
likely that such a cocept, which dates back already several hundred years,
will finally be realised in the near future
(COSMOS 1).
Viatcheslav's thesis opponent was Professor
Colin
McInnes of the University of Glasgow.
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16/05/2003
VISPA Ph.D student Ramon Brasser has defended his thesis on
Aspects of Solar System and Three-body Dynamics. Ramon's thesis
opponent was Professor Kimmo Innanen of
York University in
Toronto. Ramon was supervised by Seppo Mikkola. Ramon has now taken up a
post-doc position at York University.
2002
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15/12/2002
Kaj
Wiik has defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled VLBI and Total Flux
Density Investigations of the Structure of Active Galactic Nuclei.
He used VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) techniques and compared
radio flux measurements and VLBI maps as well as gamma-ray emission to
study Active Galactic Nuclei. Kaj's opponent was Philip Edwards from
Japan's Institute of Space and
Astronautical Science, ISAS.
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4/12/2002
New detail has been observed in sunspots with a lens produced at Tuorla
Observatory and installed recently in the
Swedish Solar
Telescope. Tapio Korhonen, of Opteon Oy, stationed at Tuorla
Observatory, completed the lens for installation at the Swedish Solar
Telescope at La Palma in the Canary Islands in spring of 2002. Although
the usable part of the lens is 97 cm across, the lens is actually 110 cm
in diameter and as such is the largest ever produced. Congratulations to
Tapio Korhonen.
Images
of the lens under polishing (text in Finnish). 
lisää suomeksi.
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9/10/2002
The Earth has a third satellite! VISPA researcher Seppo Mikkola,
working with researchers in Canada and the USA, has computed the orbit of
an asteroid, finding that it is a kind of natural satellite of the Earth.
Althought the asteroid is orbitting the Sun, it is in a peculiar and
practically unique resonance with the Earth so that it will, in a few
hundred years time, appear to go around the Earth.
More
information.
lisää
suomeksi.
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19/05/2002
Finnish Astrobiology
Network innaugurated. A meeting of a wide range of scientific
disciplines was held at the University of Turku; speakers working in
mathematics, geology, plant virology, astrophysics, ecology, chemistry
and genetics addressed the topic of life in the Universe.
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10/05/2002
VISPA researcher Chris Flynn has been awarded a 5 year Senior Researcher
position by the Academy of Finland. These prestigious positions enable
the awardee to undertake pure research without teaching or administrative
duties. Flynn spent part of the first year of the position on sabbatical
leave at the Swinburne University of Technology's Astrophysics and
Supercomputing Centre in Melbourne, Australia.
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31/03/2002
Stellar pair set rotation record. An Anglo-Finnish research team
have discovered a binary star, which has set a new record for the speed at
which the components are circling each other; just 5 minutes! The previous
record until now has been about twice as long for stellar systems of this
type. The star was found by VISPA researcher Pasi Hakala and researchers
at the
Mullard Space Research Laboratory. The star in question, RXJ0806+15,
is probably composed of two so-called white dwarfs - stars, which have
long since ceased to produce their own energy by fusion as the Sun does.
The components of the stars are expected to merge together in about
100,000 years.
lisää
suomeksi.
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12/01/2002
Eira Kotoneva
has defended her Ph.D. thesis on the chemical evolution of the Milky Way.
Eira studied cool stars observed with the European Space Agency's
Hipparcos satellite. Professor Birgitta Nordström, of the
Astronomisk Observatorium in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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10/01/2002
VISPA Professor Esko Valtaoja wins the prestigious Science Book of the
Year prize (Tieto-Finlandia) for his book
Kotona
maailmankaikkeudessa (At home in the Cosmos). The book is published
by Ursa. The book, discussing the
possibility of life in the universe in a witty style, was among the
best-selling non-fiction works of the year.
2001
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19/12/2001
Finland's first astrobiology course attracts hundreds.
"We had to move to a lecture hall twice the size!" says University of
Turku Professor of Space Astronomy Esko Valtaoja, after more than 250
students turned up for the lecture course on astrobiology organised by
Valtaoja, Astrophysicist Dr.
Harry Lehto,
Plant Virologist Dr. Kirsi
Lehto and plant physiologist and biophysicist Dr.
Esa
Tyystjärvi.
lisää
suomeksi.
This page was last modified by
Rami Rekola
on
21/10/2011 13:40
astroweb@utu.fi
14/05/2002
Tuorla
innaugurates its mm-region solar radio telescope. Tuorla Observatory
and the St. Petersburg State Technical University have installed a 2
metre solar radio dish on the top of the hill at Tuorla. The telescope
has a 22 GHz receiver, which is particularly special because it has 4
beams. The only other multi-beam telescope of this type is operating in
Brasil. Studies of Solar coronal mass ejections and other energetic
phenomena in the Sun are planned for the telescope.
Technical
information /
Images of
the telescope. 