News

Martin Ligi defended his doctoral thesis titled "Application of close range remote sensing for monitoring aquatic environment" on 28 March 2017. Supervisors Lead Research Fellow Tiit Kutser, PhD (Estonian Marine Institute) Tartu Observatory Director Anu Reinart, PhD Oponent Lead Research Fellow Vittorio Ernesto Brando, PhD (Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), Italy)

100 years ago, on April 8th, 1917, the outstanding Estonian astronomer Grigori Kuzmin was born. We shall commemorate his legacy with a small thematic seminar on April 18th 2017 at Tartu Observatory, summarising his life, research, and impact on the present-day research. The seminar will start at 10.30 in the cafeteria with a free-form gathering, and will continue with presentations at 11.00–12.30 in the main auditorium. Talks will be given by Jaan Einasto, Peeter Tenjes, and Rain Kipper.

On the 16th of April 2017 started the closing ceremony of the 13th Astronomy open competition. For the first time in history the absolute winner of the competiton was a female student, namely Eva-Maria Tõnson from Hugo Treffner Gymnasium 12th grade.

In the evening on Tuesday 18 April 2017, Aalto-2, the CubeSat designed and built by students at Aalto University was launched with the Atlas V booster rocket towards the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting the Earth. Three days later the satellite reached the ISS and it will be deployed in orbit on May 8 or 15.

Tartu Observatory organized a laboratory inter-comparison on 8–13 May 2017 in the cleanroom laboratories and Lake Kääriku within the FRM4SOC project. The core action of the FRM4SOC project is to ensure that ground-based measurements of ocean colour parameters are traceable to SI standards in support of ensuring high quality and accurate Sentinel-2 MSI and Sentinel-3 OLCI products.

Estonia is the holding the rotating chairmanship of the European Interparliamentary Space Conference (EISC) this year, and organises the international EISC Workshop held at Tartu Observatory on 22 and 23 May 2017. At the Workshop, parliamentarians and space experts from all over Europe will discuss space and entrepreneurship.

On June 10–11, 2017 students from Estonia and Latvia as well their supervisors will gathered in a workshop in Tartu Observatory for the first time in the frames of new SpaceTEM project.

From 23-25 August 2017 the Juhan Ross Legacy Symposium will take place in Tartu Observatory. Seminariga tähistatakse 25 aasta möödumist Ranga Myneni ja Juhan Rossi koostatud ja Springeri kirjastuse poolt välja antud kogumiku "Photon-Vegetation Interactions" ilmumisest, ning 35 aasta möödumist Juhan Rossi raamatu "The Radiation Regime and Architecture of Plant Stands" ilmumisest, mille kirjatas Dr W. Junk Publishers.

The Laboratory of Space Technology reached accreditation according to the new version of the standard EN ISO/IEC 17025. The laboratories of Tartu Observatory joined with the Testing Centre of University of Tartu on July 26, 2018. In November of the same year, services offered by the Laboratory of Space Technology were accredited according to the standard EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005.

On Tuesday, June 2 Kristi Uudeberg successfully defended her doctoral thesis in physics "Optical water type guided approach to estimate water quality in inland and coastal waters". Uudeberg's supervisors were Dr. Anu Noorma (Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu) and Dr. Kaire Toming (Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu). Her opponents were Associate Professor Susanne Kratzer (Stockholm University, Sweden) and Professor Kalev Sepp (Estonian University of Life Sciences). Summary

On the 14th of May 2020, the University of Tartu, Tartu Observatory organized a webinar for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the electronics industry. The seminar focused on requirements that products have to comply with. The webinar was attended by more than 50 participants representing 20 different SMEs, universities and external experts and partners.

The new science-fiction e-anthology "Strangest of All", developed in cooperation of the European Astrobiology Institute and scientist and editor Julie Nováková, will discuss matters of astrobiology. In the book, there are science-fiction hits from world-known names as well as a scientific essay after every story.

Research co-authored by Tartu Observatory's Senior Research Fellow Mihkel Pajusalu has gained international interest: among others, CNN covered the topic on their front page. The study focuses on researching the conditions that would potentially host life outside of Earth.

ESTCube and Tartu Observatory are encouraging all people interested in building satellites to join the ESTCube virtual team in finishing the next satellite ESTCube-2. The goal of this year's traineeship program is to get the satellite ready – all people applying should also be willing to commit to a longer time to working on the satellite as the launch of ESTCube-2 is coming up rapidly.

On Tuesday, 5 May at 13:00, the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Aune Valk talked in a live webcast about when and how the university could resume regular teaching and studies, and what lies ahead of us before the end of the academic year. Among other issues, she discussed everything related to graduations; for example, graduation ceremonies, exams and theses. Watch the video with English subtitles:

ESA Education has launched Expedition: Home, a one-stop website for kids and parents to do fun space-based activities and keep learning while at home. The minisite features plenty of activities for three age ranges: 3-6, 6-12 and 12-18 years old. With Expedition: Home, you and your family will be able to:

Reading is one of the activities everyone, even the singing astronaut Chris Hadfield, recommends to do during our time at home. Tartu Observatory's team offers some good books which can help pass the time. The recommendations mostly include books about space or science, but that doesn't mean that one would have to be a space expert or a researcher to enjoy the books. We hope that everyone finds at least one book that they would like to add to their reading list!

On 29 August 2017 Jaan Laur defended his doctoral thesis in the University of Tartu "Variability survey of massive stars in Milky Way star clusters". Supervisors: dr Indrek Kolka, Tartu Observatory dr Laurits Leedjärv, Tartu Observatory Oponents: professor Andrzej Niedzelski, University of Torun, Poland dr Michaela Kraus, Tartu Observatory Summary

The New Academic Year at the Tartu Observatory was opened on September 1, 2017 with a festive concert supported by Pille Lille Music Foundation, where performed Sigrid Kuulmann on violin and Ralf Taal on the piano. A cosmopolitan musical experience inspired both scientists and guests.

From September 10 to 15, 2017 stellar scientists from around the world attended the five-day astrophysics conference „Massive Stars in Transition Phases“ held in Tõravere. They discussed the post-main sequence evolution of massive stars.