Further links!

An astronomical institute has been developed upon the remains of a former secret military base near the city of Ventspils, Latvia.  Upon withdrawal of the [former Soviet] armed forces from the Baltics in 1994, two 32- and 16-meter radio telescopes were handed over for scientific use, forming the basis of VIRAC, Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center.  The facilities have since been modernized and equipped with facilities for long baseline interferometry.  VIRAC is now part of Ventspils University College, where also other space-related activities take place, including the development of the satellite Venta-1.  

The redevelopment of these former military facilities was a significant effort that involved collaboration with other institutes in Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, and elsewhere.  Some of these past activities are described here while photos from the early years are on an old VIRAC website.

   Microarcsecond astronomy

Shape of the rapidly rotating B-type star Achernar (α Eri),

observed with the ESO VLT interferometer 

Interferometric stellar imaging, and spectroscopy across spatially resolved stellar disks: http://olbin.jpl.nasa.gov/intro/ , http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/vlti/  , http://www.chara.gsu.edu/CHARA/ , http://www.mro.nmt.edu/Home/ , http://www.cta-observatory.org/

Radio and submillimeter analyses of stellar chromospheres; ALMA & SKA: http://www.eso.org/projects/alma/ , http://www.skatelescope.org/ 

A billion stars in the catalog from the Gaia space astrometry mission: http://www.esa.int/science/gaia

Stellar Imager (SI) space mission to map stellar magnetic activity: http://hires.gsfc.nasa.gov/si/

Spektr-R (RadioAstron) radio telescope for microarcsecond interferometry between Earth and deep space: http://www.asc.rssi.ru/radioastron/ , http://www.russianspaceweb.com/spektr_r.html

MAXIM - microarcsecond studies of stellar coronae and black holes with X-ray interferometry: http://maxim.gsfc.nasa.gov/

  Astronomy in Antarctica

Location of Dome C, and the Concordia Base

Some high-altitude sites in Antarctica offer exceptionally calm atmospheric conditions, with seeing conditions apparently superior to those anywhere on the Earth, as well as being almost free from atmospheric scintillation. 

Concordia Base at Dome C: http://www.concordiabase.eu/

PLATO station at Dome A, the highest point on the Antarctic plateau: http://mcba11.phys.unsw.edu.au/~plato/plato.html

ARENA, Antarctic Research, a European Network for Astrophysics: http://arena.unice.fr/

JACARA, Joint Australian Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jacara/

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research: http://www.scar.org/

IPEV, Institut Polaire Français: http://www.ifremer.fr/ifrtp/

PNRA, Programma Nazionale Ricerche in Antartide: http://www.pnra.it/

Swedish Polar Research Secretariat / Polarforskningssekretariatet: http://www.polar.se/

  A Future in Space!

ESA space science: http://www.esa.int/esaSC/

NASA science missions: http://science.hq.nasa.gov/missions/

JPL, Jet Propulsion Laboratory: http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/

NIAC, [Former] NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts: http://www.niac.usra.edu/

JAXA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency: http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html

CNES, Centre national d'études spatiales: http://www.cnes.fr/

Solar probe: http://solarprobe.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Interstellar probe: http://interstellar.jpl.nasa.gov/

Return to the Moon: http://www.space-frontier.org/Projects/Moon/

The Mars Society: http://www.marssociety.org/

British Interplanetary Society: http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/

IAA, International Academy of Astronautics: http://www.iaaweb.org/

COSPAR, Committee on Space Research: http://cosparhq.cnes.fr/

Page created by Dainis Dravins; comments are welcome to dainis @ astro.lu.se

Updated JD 2,455,775