News

The OPTICON Trans-National Access 2013B Call for Proposals

The OPTICON Trans-National Access 2013B Call for Proposals is now open, with TNG important news

A SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR FOR SKY

Opened the call for a Scientist Director of the Square LKilometer Array Organization

AstroFIt “ASTRONOMY FELLOWSHIPS IN ITALY”: 2nd Call

INAF announces the opening of the second Call of the AstroFIt Programme. To be eligible, researchers must be holders of a doctorate or have at least 4 years of research experience. Applicants with more than 8 years of post-PhD research or a total of 12 years of research experience are not eligible to participate.

NASA's NuSTAR celebrates first 100 days

September 21 2012 marks 100 days since NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, called NuSTAR, launched into space from the L-1011 "Stargazer" aircraft.

Hydrogen on Vesta hints at water

The giant asteroid Vesta is surprisingly rich in one watery ingredient, hydrogen.

Ultra-distant galaxy: MACS1149-JD1

NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have spotted the most distant galaxy ever seen and studied by astronomers.

Dawn's greatest hits

A NASA video lists the main scientific activities of the mission, as it leaves the orbit of VESTA and heads towards Ceres.

Surprises from Kepler's supernova

The supernova observed for the first time in 1604 by Kepler was not only more powerful, but might have also occurred at a greater distance, than previously thought.

A Celestial Witch’s Broom?

The Pencil Nebula is pictured in a new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. This peculiar cloud of glowing gas is part of a huge ring of wreckage left over after a supernova explosion that took place about 11 000 years ago.

Online new calls for next round of the Seventh Framework Programme (2012-2013)

The new calls for next round of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) are now online. Launched in 2007, FP7 has a total budget of EUR 55 billion for research and innovation. On the 10th of July 2012 the largest set of calls for proposals ever under the FP7 was launched, worth a total of EUR 8.1 billion.

Online the results of the AstroFIt 1st Call for Proposals

The ranking lists of the AstroFIt 1st Call are now online on the Programme website. AstroFIt, cofunded by INAF and FP7 People Programme, offers 7 grants to talented researchers from outside Italy. The projects will be carried out at INAF structures for a period of two years.

Course on 'Astrophysical and Space Plasmas'

The International School of Space Science of the Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Fisica Spaziale organizes a Course on “Astrophysical and Space Plasmas”, to be held in L’Aquila, Italy, September 02-08, 2012.

Bignami honored for his latest book

Giovanni Bignami, INAF's president, has recently received the "Enrico Fermi - Cecina" award for popular science with "Cosa ci resta da scoprire" (Mondadori), his latest book. The book is a journey through what is still left to discover in science, and through the innovations which could happen by 2062. The other finalist was Pietro Greco, scientific journalist and co-director of Scienzainrete, author of "I nipoti di Galileo" (Baldini&Castoldi)

Radioastronomy at the speed of light

INAF’s radiotelescope at Noto, near Siracusa, plays a crucial role in European radioastronomy with its 32-meter dish, being one of the most southerly antennas in the European region. Since May 15, it is part of the international e-VLBI network. The VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry).

Dual Site for SKA

The Members of the SKA Organisation agreed on a dual site solution for the Square Kilometre Array telescope, a crucial step towards building the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope. The ASKAP and MeerKAT precursor dishes will be incorporated into Phase I of the SKA which will deliver more science and will maximise on investments already made by both Australia and South Africa

Open position: Chief Communications officer for the SKA

The SKA Organisation announces the vacancy for the position of Chief Communications Officer.Closing date: 8 June 2012.

Rogue stars ejected from the galaxy are found in intergalactic space

Vanderbilt astronomers report in the May issue of the Astronomical Journal that they have identified a group of more than 675 stars on the outskirts of the Milky Way that they argue are hypervelocity stars that have been ejected from the galactic core.

Vesta shown by NASA's Dawn mission

NASA's Dawn mission has rivealed new images of the giant asteroid Vesta, uncovering new intriguing secrects of its surface. The latest results include stunning colorized images that suggest that the giant asteroid has an unexpectedly wide variety of rocks on its surface and gravity data that show Vesta is curiously dense at the south pole.

ALMA Reveals Workings of Nearby Planetary System

A new observatory still under construction has given astronomers a major breakthrough in understanding a nearby planetary system and provided valuable clues about how such systems form and evolve. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered that planets orbiting the star Fomalhaut must be much smaller than originally thought.

Herschel sees dusty disc of crushed comets

Astronomers using ESA's Herschel Space Observatory have studied a ring of dust around the nearby star Fomalhaut and have deduced that it is created by the collision of thousands of comets every day.