MAY 2021 - TOPICS

Short News Upcoming 15th Conference of Hel.A.S. Helmos Observatory Call for proposals Space Weather Awareness Training Network Ancient Asteroids Observation Campaign Monthly Colloquium of HelAS Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

The Society would like to congratulate, Prof. Maria Petropoulou, at the Department of Physics of the University of Athens, for receiving one of the three national 2021 L'Oreal - UNESCO prizes for Women in Science. The citation comes in recognition of Prof. Petropoulou's work "on understanding of the most powerful accelerators in the Universe". We would like to congratulate Prof. Vicky Kalogera who received the Guggenheim Fellowship for the next academic year, one of just two fellowships in astronomy (https://www.gf.org/announcement-2021/). The Society extends its best wishes for further success in her professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Dr. Costis Gontikakis, the Secretary of our Society, who was recently promoted to Researcher A, at the RCAAM of the Academy of Athens. The Society extends its best wishes for further success in his professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Prof. Kleomenis Tsiganis, who was recently promoted to Professor at the Dept. of Physics of the University of Thessaloniki. The Society extends its best wishes for further success in his professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Dr. Evgenia Koumpia who was recently awarded an ESO fellowship and will be moving from University of Leeds to Chile later this year. The Society extends its best wishes for further success in her professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Ms. Ioanna Psaradaki, who recently completed her PhD at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Her thesis was entitled “An X-ray view of gas and dust in the diffuse interstellar medium" and it was performed under the supervision of Dr. Elisa Costantini. Ms. Psaradaki has moved to a postdoctoral researcher position at the Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA). The Society extends its best wishes for further success in her professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Ms. Maria Kopsacheili, who recently defended successfully her PhD at the Univ. of Crete. Her thesis was entitled "A multi-wavelength Study of Extragalactic Supernova Remnants" and it was completed under the supervision of Prof. Andreas Zezas. The Society extends its best wishes for further success in her professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Dr. Angelos Nersesian, who was recently awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship and moved to the University of Gent (Belgium). The Society extends its best wishes for further success in his professional pursuits. The minutes of the 9th meeting of the current Governing Council of HelAS, which took place on April 23, 2021, are available here.

2. Upcoming 15th Conference of Hel.A.S.

All members are encouraged to register and submit their abstracts for the upcoming 15th Conference of HelAS. Already over 140 individuals have registered for the conference. Moreover, since the original deadline was just before the Easter holiday, it was decided to extend the deadline of abstract submission until midnight on Friday May 7, 2021. As it was mentioned already in our previous newsletter, due to the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will take place virtually, with a minimal registration fee. We do look forward to meet online, in what appears to be an exciting conference.

3. Helmos Observatory-Call for proposals

A Call for Proposals for the observing period July 1 - October 31, 2021, has been announced. The deadline for submitting proposals is May 07, 2021. The observing period and the schedule may change due to the COVID-19 epidemic. For more information: http://helmos.astro.noa.gr/applying.html.

4. Space Weather Awareness Network

ITN network on Space Weather: 12 PhD positions on Space Weather in the frame of the SWANET project. The deadline of the application is 7 May but this may however vary due to the local university rules. More info about the project, PhD topics and hosts, eligibility criteria can be found at:https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/622411 and at:  https://swatnet.eu/.

5. Ancient Asteroids Observing Campaign

The Principal Investigator of the "Ancient Asteroids project", and member of our Society, Kosmas Gazeas, invites professional and amateur astronomers to contribute to an observing campaign of ancient asteroids. Please visit the link: http://users.uoa.gr/~kgaze/research_asteroids_en.html for more information.

6. Monthly Colloquium of Hel.A.S.

We are happy to announce that the May 2021 colloquium speaker is Dr. Leonidas Moustakas. As usual, videos of all past colloquia are available in the Youtube channel of the Society. Details of the upcoming colloquium follow: 8th Monthly Colloquium of HelAS - 11 May 2021 "Insights into Dark Matter and Dark Energy using Strong Gravitational Lensing observations of Galaxies, Quasars, and Supernovae" by Dr. Leonidas Moustakas (JPL/Caltech, USA) Tuesday, 11 May 2021 at 18:00 Athens time (UTC + 3:00) Click for ZOOM link (Meeting ID: 958 6532 5338 and Passcode: 553124) Abstract: The nature of dark matter and dark energy are lasting puzzles in physics and astrophysics. While these are part of the universe’s fundamental make-up, astrophysical observations offer insights through gravitational signatures and elegant measurements of cosmic distance. The phenomenon of strong gravitational lensing, predicted by Einstein decades before it was first observed in 1979, manifests when from our point of view, an astronomically-distant luminous object has a massive body between us. With the right combination of alignment, mass-distribution, and relative distances, the distant luminous object may be imaged into multiple images – each of which has a different light-travel time to us. We now know of thousands of strong gravitational lens systems. Their information content is extremely rich, with observations that match each system’s particular features. Specific dark matter particle properties are expected to leave fingerprints in the structure within galaxies and galaxy clusters, fingerprints that can be probed through their gravitational signature in gravitational lens systems. When the distant, lensed object is one that varies its brightness with time, such as a quasar or a supernova, we can see the changes in brightness repeat in turn across each of their multiple images. This can be used to measure cosmic distances with accuracy, which can teach us about the size of the universe over time – and dark energy. In this colloquium, I will introduce these concepts, where some current exciting work is leading us, and what we might expect over the next ten years.

7. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

15th Hellenic Astronomical Conference 5-8 July 2021, Virtual Meeting Workshop on "Non-extensive statistical mechanics and kappa distributions" 12-16 July 2021, Chania, Island of Crete Alvio@80 Conference in honor of Alvio Renzini 5-10 September 2021, Kolymbari, Island of Crete

8. About this Newsletter

This Newsletter was sent to all members of Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access. The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around June 1, 2021.  Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments / departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before May 25, 2021. If you do not wish to receive future issues of this Newsletter or the e-mail address to which it was sent is not your preferred one, please inform the Secretary of Hel.A.S. at secretary@helas.gr.