The Astronomical Institute of the

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...

is a scientific institute headquartered at the

Ondřejov Observatory The Ondřejov Observatory (; cs, Observatoř Ondřejov) is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute () of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, southeast of Prague, Czech ...

, roughly 35 km southeast of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, Czech Republic.

Research fields

The institute focuses on stellar, solar and galactic astronomy; meteors; and the motion of cosmic bodies. It has about 70 permanent scientists, of which roughly 80% work in Ondřejov, and it is divided into the following departments.

Solar physics

Solar Spectrograph 2, Ondřejov Astronomical

The solar physics department studies the active phenomena in the solar atmosphere, including flares, active regions, sunspots, filaments, coronal mass ejections, and

solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sol ...

, using optical, radio, and X-ray waveband observations.

Stellar physics

The stellar physics department is focused on research of stars, primarily hot stars (class B), models of stellar atmospheres, dynamics of stellar winds, and relativistic astrophysics. This department uses the largest telescope in the Czech Republic, which has a large reflector with a two-meter wide mirror. The head of the department is Jiří Kubát. The department also conducts research under the leadership of René Hudec on gamma and roentgen radiation in the universe by observing gamma bursts and

blazars A blazar is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a Astrophysical jet, relativistic jet (a jet composed of Plasma (physics), ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light) directed very nearly towards an observer. Relativistic beaming of ...

Interplanetary matter

The interplanetary matter department primarily researches

meteors A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...

comets A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

, and

asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

are the main research targets of this department. The meteors are observed by

optical telescopes An optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct visual inspection, to make a photograph, or to collect data through electr ...

and meteoric radar. The department uses a 65-centimeter optical telescope to do photometric observations of asteroids. The head of the department is Pavel Spurný.

Galaxies and planetary systems

This department is located in Prague and primarily researches the effects of the solar system on Earth. The head of the department is Jan Palouš. The galaxies and planetary systems department includes the Group of Dynamics of Space Satellites, which focuses on theoretical and practical studies of space satellite motion. This team's main research project was the micro-accelerometer, Macek, for measurements of accelerations of non-gravitational origin. Macek was released in 1996 on the space shuttle Atlantis (mission

STS-79 STS-79 was the 17th flight of Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'', and the 79th mission of the Space Shuttle program. The flight saw ''Atlantis'' dock with the Russian space station Mir to deliver equipment, supplies and relief personnel. A variety of sc ...

) and in 2003 on the Czech satellite

MIMOSA ''Mimosa'' is a genus of about 590 species of herbs and shrubs, in the mimosoid clade of the legume family Fabaceae. The generic name is derived from the Greek word (''mimos''), an "actor" or "mime", and the feminine suffix -''osa'', "resemb ...

History

The Astronomical Institute originated as an observatory founded at the beginning of the 18th century by Jesuits College in Prague. After World War I, the observatory was renamed the "State Astronomical Observatory." In 1940, it was moved to an undistinguished apartment building in Prague. In 1898, Josef Jan Frič was building another private observatory in Ondřejov. He donated this small observatory to the state of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in 1928. After the establishment of the

Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...

, this observatory was merged with the State Astronomical Observatory to create the current Astronomical Institute.

References

External links

* (includes media related to Astronomical Institute)
The official website of the institute
{{Authority control Research institutes in the Czech Republic Astronomical observatories in the Czech Republic 1954 establishments in Czechoslovakia Czech Academy of Sciences Astronomy in Czechoslovakia