Present Status of Polish AstronomyMarek J. Sarna

Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical CenterPolish Academy of Sciences

1. Simple statistics

2. A few hot results

3. International collaborations

4. Conclusions

1. Simple statistics

• Astronomers with PhD: 180• IAU individual members: 161• Permanent staff: 100• PhD students: 125• Technical staff: 135 (100 SRC PAS)• Publications in refereed journals: 410/yr• Yearly budget: 7.4 mln EUR• 18 000 EUR/paper

Gross domestic expenditure on R&D

2. A few hot results2.1 Comparision of Interstellar Boundary Explorer Observations with 3D Global Heliospheric Models, ……..Bzowski, et al., 2009, Science, 326, 9662.2 Radio Imaging of the Very-High-Energy γ-Ray Emission Region in the Central Engine of a Radio Galaxy, Acciari et al. (H.E.S.S., VERITAS i MAGIC collaborations), 2009, Science, 325, 4442.3 The dynamical mass of a classical Cepheid variable star in an eclipsing binary system, Pietrzyński, Thompson et al., 2010, Nature, 468, 5422.4 The origin of the broad line region in active galactic nuclei, Czerny, B., Hryniewicz, K,, 2011, A&A, 525, L82.5 Soft X-ray variability over the present minimum of solar activity as observed by SphinX, Gburek, et al., 2011, Solar System Research, 45, 1822.6 The excitation of solar-like oscillations in a δSct star by efficient envelope convection, Antoci et al. (G. Handler, P. Lenz), 2011, Nature, 477, 5702.7 The Heliosphere’s Interstellar Interaction: No Bow Shock, McComas, Alexashow, Bzowski, et al., 2012, Science, 336, 12912.8 RR-Lyrae-type pulsations from a 0.26-solar-mass star in a binary system, Pietrzyński, Thompson et al., 2012, Nature, 484, 752.9 An eclipsing-binary distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud accurate to two per cent, Pietrzyński, Graczyk et al., 2013, Nature, 495, 76 2.10 OGLE-2002-BLG-360: from a gravitational microlensing candidate to an overlooked red transient, Tylenda, R., et al., 2013, A&A, 555, 16

3. International Collaborations 3.1 HERSCHEL/HIFI:Water in C-rich AGB stars (Neufeld, D. A., …Szczerba, R., Schmidt, M., et al., 2011, ApJ,&27, L28; ApJ, 767, L3)• According to chemical equilibrium

models water can not be formed in environments where O (oxygen) to C (carbon) ratio is smaller than 1, since almost all O is used for production of stable CO molecule. Therefore, it was surprising to discover water from the nearest C-rich Asymptotic Giant Branch Star: IRC+10 214 (CW Leonis)

• HIFISTARS GT Key project devoted more than 20 hours of observations of about 10 C-rich AGB stars and ground-based transitions of orto- and para-water (para – means that spins of H nuclei are ANTI-parallel; orto – that they are parallel in H20 molecule).

• Water was detected EVERYWHERE

ALMOST!!

3.2 INTEGRAL: Giant flare from Sgr 1806-20 detected by Integral (Borkowski, J., Gotz, D., et al., 2004, GRB CS, 2920,1)

A large flare most likely coming from the soft repeater SGR 1806-20 has been detected with INTEGRAL on December 27 at 21:30:26 UT. The flare caused a large and rapid increase in the count rate of the SPI ACS which reached a peak flux of 2x10^6 counts/s (compared to a background level of 88,000 counts/s ).

Peak hugely affected byinstrument saturation

Echo of the peak backscattered by the Moon

3.3 SphinX – the solar soft-X-ray spectrophotometer, aboard the CORONAS-Photon (Sylwester, J. et al., 2011, SoSyR,45,182)

The solid-state detectors were used to measure spectra in the energy range 1-15 keV. The lowest level of solar X-ray brightness has been observed for the first time during deep minimum of solar activity. The solar minimum luminosity has been determined for E > 1 keV.

For the first time for coronal plasma, using Bragg bent cristal spectrometer, they determined absolute abundances of potasium, chlorine and argon.

3.4 Other projects with the Polish involvement

BRITE (LEM, HEVELIUS) – two nanosatellites for photometry of bright stars (Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Space Research Centre), the Austrian-Canadian-Polish project;

SOLAR ORBITER and INTERHELIOPROBE

(Space Research Centre-Wrocław)

LIGO/VIRGO, PLANCK, GAIA, HERSCHEL, INTEGRAL

Poland expenses on major astronomical instruments from 2000-2012

OGLE – telescope 2.5 mln EUR* (1.5 mln base 1991 US$)

equipments 2 mln EUR

SALT – 7.4 mln EUR* (5.2 mln base 1999 US$)

INTEGRAL – 1.5 mln EUR

HESS/MAGIC – 2 mln EUR

CTA (project phase) – 4.5 mln EUR

HERSCHEL – 0.5 mln EUR

BRITE-LEM – the first Polish satelite – 3 mln EUR

SOLARIS – 1.5 mln EUR

TOTAL: 25 mln EUR = 35 mln US$

* CPI-U – U.S. Department of Labor

4. Conclusions:

What, besides science, can we offer to international scientific community?

a. Involvement of highly qualified technical staff in building radiation receivers, auxiliary instruments and preparing software

b. Expertise in building giant CCD cameras and high precision spectrographs (with iodine cell)

c. Avaliability of the network of small, fully automated telescopes distributed over three continents

The Polish astronomical community is able to effectively participate in the international scientific activities.