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A discovery of an extrasolar planet, participation in astronomical projects, as well as numerous successes of Polish students within international educational projects make up only a part of a summary of the year 2007 as regards Polish astronomy.
Polish astronomers discovered an extrasolar planet orbiting a red giant star. Both Professor Andrzej Niedzielski and his colleagues from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, and Professor Aleksander Wolszczan with an international team of astronomers contributed to the discovery.
In mid-January, on the occasion of the Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, the radiotelescope situated in Piwnice near Torun sent a radio signal to nearby stars with greetings to any extraterrestrial civilisations. Besides the charity work, the radiotelescope may boast with technological achievements. During tests on a new observational technique known as e-VLBI conducted in December 2007, the instrument achieved data transfer speeds amounting to 1 gigabit per second, which means that it ranks as the top-most instruments in the world.
The greatest media hit of November was the Holmes comet, which dramatically increased its brightness, surprising professional astronomers and thrilling astronomy enthusiasts. The object was observed, among others, by astronomers from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, while comments on the series of images taken by the scientists appeared even in news bulletins in such exotic and far media as Vietnamese ones.
Professor Jaroslaw Wlodarczyk, an expert in the history of astronomy of the Institute for the History of Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences discovered that Nicolaus Copernicus used 'camera obscura' for his observations of solar eclipses. Moreover, the media announced that Swedish scientists may have found stains of Copernicus' blood on his manuscripts kept at the University of Uppsala. The year also marked the conclusion of an undertaking to publish a series of Nicolaus Copernicus' "Selected Works".
Great news were also coming from Polish students. A Polish team achieved a great success on the First International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, which was held in Thailand. The team brought two gold and three silver medals.
Poles have also been active participants in the international "Catch a Star" competition, organised by the European Southern Observatory. In the 2007 edition almost 10% of all partakers were from Poland. As much popular was also the educational project "Globe at night", whose aim is to assess the visibility of stars in participants' places of residence (hence the degree of pollution of the night sky with artificial lighting).Participants from Poland constituted around 5% of all those taking part.
Thanks to an educational project coordinated in Poland within the EU-HOU programme and by the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences students had the chance to feel the pride of planetoid discoverers. In aggregate, Polish students discovered 11 asteroids in 2007. Moreover, a student of Jagiellonian University and an astronomy enthusiast from Piotrkow Trybunalski found a couple of new comets in images provided by SOHO instruments.
The year also witnessed commencement of new educational projects, such as the Polish version of the world's popular Galaxy Zoo programme, which allows its participants to classify galaxies. The beginning of the year also saw the conclusion of a national competition entitled "The SuperNova School", whose winners joined the Polish part of the LCOGT network, whereby students have access to remotely controlled telescopes.
September was the time for the Assembly of the Polish Astronomical Society, which was held in Kielce and gathered around a hundred Polish astronomers. Professor Edwin Wnuk of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan was chosen a new chairman of the Society.
A very significant announcement, also for astronomers in Poland, came from the UN, whose Assembly declared year 2009 the International Year of Astronomy. Among other initiatives connected with the event, it is worth mentioning that Polish professional astronomers aim to correct Wikipedia entries concerning astronomy.
Even though Poland spent around 5.5 million euro on space research in 2007, our country steadily joins various organisations dealing with cosmic research. Poland joined the European Interparliamentary Space Conference, and concluded another Cooperation Agreement with the European Space Agency.
A real revolution in the field of Polish space research and exploration came into view as Polish deputies gathered in the Outer Space Team announced in mid-December that Poland may soon have its own space agency, similar to the American NASA or national space agencies of individual European states. The primary objective of the Polish space agency would be to cooperate within the structures of European Space Agency, which, in turn, would allow Polish scientists and engineers to make use of their potential within the framework of international research projects. Moreover, such cooperation could bring tangible benefits to Polish contractors participating in commercial projects.
In the course of the year a new astronomical observatory was opened on Mount Lubomir. The outpost was build in the place which once had hosted an observatory later destroyed by the Germans during the Second World War. Renovation works began at astronomical observatory in Olsztyn, while Torun planetarium welcomed its two-millionth visitor.
Astronomical theme was also present on a stamp issued by the Polish Post. One of the stamps in a series entitled "Polish towns" depicts Silesian Planetarium in Chorzow.
On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Cosmic Era special conferences and lectures were held both in Warsaw and Krakow. Visitors had the unique chance to meet American astronaut Shannon Lucid, who holds the world record for the longest time spent in space by a woman.
The year also brought sad news, as Polish astronomical community bade farewell to Professor Bohdan Paczynski, the most eminent Polish astronomer, as well as other distinguished Polish scientists. Some of those outstanding figures were included in a book by Professor Andrzej Woszczyk entitled "Astronomem być" ("To be an Astronomer"), which contains memoirs of the oldest generation of Polish astronomers.
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