News

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.

From September 17 to 22, 2017, students participating in the Estonian-Latvian SpaceTEM project took part of European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2017 held in Riga, together with other representatives from Tartu Observatory. A SpaceTEM student from Estonia received the award for best poster.

What exactly is the dark matter that makes up the majority of our universe? Do the lately measured gravity waves change our idea of the universe? These are only a few of the questions that cosmologists are looking answers for this week near Tartu. They have gathered at the annual Estonian-Finnish cosmology meeting to discuss issues concerning the foundations of physics. The attendants are top scientists in astrophysics and fundamental physics and come from Estonia, Finland, and even further.

On the first week of October, world celebrates the Space Week. The week is framed by the anniversaries of two key events: on October 4, 60 years ago Earth’s first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 was launched and on October 10, 50 years ago the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activites of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was signed.

On October 5th, 2107 the SpaceTEM team held a seminar which focused on effective science and innovation communication. Below the article there are some guidelines from the seminar on how to communicate science to the public.

On the last week of September (from 25 to 29) 2017 Tartu Observatory celebrated Researchers’ Night Festival with two events. Among many other things, people could see huge soap bubbles, Saturn and constellations.

From September 25 to 29, 2017, Director of Tartu Observatory Anu Reinart and Junior Research Fellow Iaroslav Iakubivskyi attended the International Astronautical Congress held on the other side of the world – Adelaide, Australia. One of the main topics of the biggest space sector event in the world was how to find synergy in the increasing number of fields that show interest in operating in space.

Tartu Observatory is looking for a full-time electronics engineer and a full-time engineer of optical radiometry. The due date for applications is November 1, 2017.

On October 13, 2017 Jason Palmer, a science journalist of the weekly The Economist visited Tartu Observatory. Prior to that he gave a lecture at the University of Tartu on science media and how the scientists could work with it. The observatory's team put the main focus of the visit on pointing out that projects like ESTCube help develop next generation of scientists and technologists. At the same time it was stressed that the observatory does not only grow satellite engineers, but also scientists of other technology fields.

On October 23rd 2017 Tartu Observatory announced three annual scholarships to recognize young scientists’ achievements made while studying. This year’s recipients were Maarja Kruuse, Ave Ansper and Indrek Sünter. Ernst Julius Öpik scholarship – Maarja Kruuse

The study of Tartu Observatory’s Senior Research Fellow Mait Lang and his colleagues from the Estonian University of Life Sciences found out that changes in forests can effectively be detected by using bi-temporal airborne lidar measurements.

At this year's national research contest for pupils, three young researchers received Tartu Observatory's special awards for papers about growing plants on Mars, measuring methods of the distance of the Andromeda Galaxy, and sky poetry. The goal of the contest is to offer an output for pupils who have written a good quality research paper, and to motivate pupils to take a more scientific approach in school research papers. Taking part of the contest gives pupils a good chance to receive feedback to their paper.

Dear students and members of the teaching staff, On 15 April, several media channels wrote about the court case between a UT alumnus and a member of the teaching staff over an insulting comment in the confidential course feedback questionnaire. Understandably, this has shaken the trust in the feedback system and pointed to problems we want to avoid in the future. On the other hand, it is clear that the university cannot develop without substantial feedback.

On April 12, the world celebrated Cosmonautics Day: on that day 59 years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to have been in space. Two days before this year's Cosmonautics Day, Europe's first Mercury mission BepiColombo also sent its best regards to the Earthlings by flying by our planet.

Recently people all over the world have had to learn how to live a bit differently than usual. At the time of self-isolation, astonauts have started to share their advice: they are experts of social distancing due to their job, which includes being isolated in space as well as on Earth before take-off. Below is a list of videos, podcasts and articles where astronauts have compared the current quarantine to the ones they have experienced before, as well as shared advice for the unusual situation. The main recommendations astronauts give are:

On November 1 to 2, 2017, kick-off meeting for the laboratory network project TEST-4-SME was held both in Tõravere and Tartu. Tartu observatory is the leader of the three-year project.

On November 3 to 5, 2017, the European Space Week was kicked off with an international SpaceHackathon held at University of Tartu Physicum. Tartu Observatory also put out an award of 100 laboratory hours worth about 6000 euros. All of the award winners are listed below the article.

From November 3 to 9, 2017 Europe celebrated the Space Week – and all the events took place here in Estonia which holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union. The week brought together the most important European space stakeholders. Among them, Tartu Observatory scientists attended many events. SpaceHacktahon

Last week, on November 7, 2017 the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre - the first one in the Baltics – was opened in Estonia. The incubation centre will give start-ups a chance to make their space-related ideas real. Tartu Observatory is one of the partners of the incubation centre. The grand opening took place at European Space week. The incubator was opened by ESA Director General Johann-Dietrich Wörner.