-------------------------------------- | | | Biuletyn PTA nr 16 | | | -------------------------------------- Biuletyn informacyjny Zarzadu Glownego Polskiego Towarzystwa Astro- nomicznego (Adres kontaktowy: M. Ostrowski, pta@oa.uj.edu.pl , a w bardzo pilnych sprawach: mio@oa.uj.edu.pl ) ======================================================================= Spis tresci: I. O grantach NATO II. Sprostowanie do ostatnich Nowinek Naukowych III. Nowinki naukowe ======================================================================= I. O grantach NATO Polecam Panstwa uwadze naukowy program NATO, w ramach ktorego przyznawane sa stypendia oraz dotacje na organizowanie konferencji i wspolprace naukowa. Z moich osobistych obserwacji wynika, ze jest to program sprawnie zarzadzany, a ilosc papierkowej roboty przy wystepowaniu o grant i sprawozdawaniu jest niewielka. Do realizacji zostaje zaakceptowany mniej - wiecej co trzeci propozal. Na wspolprace naukowa (podroze i diety dla siebie i gosci) mozna dostac od $5,000 do $25,000. Niestety nie wiem nic blizszego o stypendiach. Polecam odwiedzenie nastepujacych stron: Informacje ogolne: http://www.nato.int/science/ Stypendia: http://www.nato.int/science/fellows.htm Organizacja konferencji i wspolpraca indywidualna ("nasz" program ma skrot PST): http://www.nato.int/science/cst.htm Informacja o specjalnym statusie nowych czlonkow: http://www.nato.int/science/newmemb.htm UWAGA: formularze, ktore mozna sciagnac ze stron programu naukowego NATO dopuszczaja mozliwosc ubiegania sie o pieniadze na sprzet. Jest to juz niestety nieaktualne, sprzetu nie dostaniemy. Michal Rozyczka (CAMK) From: mnr@camk.edu.pl ======================================================================= II. Sprostowanie danych z ostatnich Nowinek Naukowych Drobne sprostowanie dotyczace ostatniego numeru Biuletynu PTA. W Nowinkach naukowych, w artykule o "SPONGELIKE STRUCTURES NEAR THE SUN'S SURFACE" jest informacja, ze obserwacje pochodza z (cyt.) "TRACE satellite (at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths) and the SOHO satellite (in x rays)" (kon.cyt.) SOHO nie posiada instrumentu, ktorego przeznaczeniem bylyby obserwacje w dziedzinie rentgenowskiej. Wspomniana analiza struktur gabczastych opiera sie rzeczywiscie na obserwacjach z TRACE oraz z instrumentu SUMER (Solar Ultraviolet Measurements of Emitted Radiation) na SOHO. SUMER uzyskuje widma dysku slonecznego w zakresie od 500 A do 1600 A. From: Danuta Dobrzycka ======================================================================= III. Nowinki naukowe OPTICAL BLACK HOLES, objects that attract and trap specific colors of light, can be made in earthly laboratories, two researchers have shown theoretically, offering possibilities for lab-based analogs of general relativity and potentially even quantum gravity phenomena. According to researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and at the University of St Andrews in Scotland (Ulf Leonhardt, leonhardt@quantopt.kth.se, 011-46-8-791-1324), the trick is to create a vortex of fluid that whirls at velocities comparable to the speed of light inside the fluid. Such a feat is now possible, with the advent of techniques for slowing down light to just a few meters per second through such substances as a Bose-Einstein condensate (Update 415) or a rubidium gas (Phys. Rev. Focus, 29 June 1999). If a sufficiently fast-spinning vortex of these or similar materials could be created, light inside the fluid could lose maneuverability and become trapped in the vortex. Since light in an optical black hole would behave analogously to matter in a real black hole, these light-trapping whirlpools would permit laboratory study of Hawking radiation, the hypothetical emissions from evaporating black holes; this radiation, which consists of particles made near the hole's boundary, is next-to-impossible to observe directly since it is obscured by the cosmic microwave background. In addition, the researchers speculate that studying quanta of light interacting with the quantum-mechanical matter waves in BECs could even help establish "a testable prototype model of quantum gravity." In the meantime, physicists are also pursuing the idea of creating "acoustical black holes" (dumb holes), regions that capture and trap sound waves. (Leonhardt and Piwnicki, Physical Review Letters, 31 January 2000; Physical Review A, December 1999; Select Articles; also see http://www.st- and.ac.uk/~www_pa/group/quantumoptics/media.html) "THE FORMATION AND EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES are intimately connected to the presence of a central massive black hole," asserts Douglas Richstone of the University of Michigan. Richstone was at the recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta to report the new identification of supermassive black holes at the cores of three nearby elliptical galaxies, adding to an already substantial association between galaxies possessing centralized, high-density spheroidal clumps or bulges of stars and nearby heavy black holes (star concentration correlating closely with black hole mass). Richstone pointed to the growing consensus that these massive black holes are the remnants of quasars (a notion underscored at the meeting by the report given by Andrew Wilson of the University of Maryland--of many "dying quasars" in nearby galaxies, objects whose radio spectra resemble a quieter version of quasar spectra) and to the historical fact that the age of quasar formation occurred before the time when most stars were forming in galaxies (to judge from high redshift observations). Richstone concluded that "Radiation and high-energy particles released by the formation and growth of black holes are the dominant sources of heat and kinetic energy for star-forming gas in protogalaxies." FIRST SPACECRAFT IN ORBIT AROUND AN ASTEROID. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendevous (NEAR) spacecraft has arrived at, and gone into orbit around, asteroid Eros, which was at a distance of 160 million miles from Earth when the rendevous occurred. The asteroid, whose gravity is about one thousandth that of Earth, might represent a chunk of matter not much altered from the time the solar system was formed 4 billion years ago, and so it is of great interest to planetary scientists. (NASA press conference, 17 Feb; http://near.jhuapl.edu/iod/20000215/index.html) =======================================================================