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On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, the director of the Astronomical Institute (AsÚ SAV, v. v. i.), Peter Gömöry, welcomed the ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Lorea Arribalzaga Ceballos, and the ambassador of the Italian Republic in Bratislava, Catherine Flumiani, on the grounds of the Lomnický Štít Observatory. They were accompanied by the State Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Michal Fedák and the President of the SAS, prof. Pavol Šajgalík.       

The purpose of the meeting on Lomnický štít was to present the coronal station of AsÚ SAV, aimed at observing the solar corona, which is the only functional workplace of its kind in Europe. 

The station has a unique double coronagraph, complemented by post-focus spectro-polarimeters. These devices are used for precise measurements of the degree of polarization of the light released from the corona, which subsequently enables the study of magnetic fields at the point of observation. The magnetic fields of the Sun are crucial in understanding the most energetic phenomena in the solar system, i.e. solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These phenomena also have a direct impact on the Earth and current technologies.

ASÚ SAV is a key partner of the European Solar Telescope (EST) international project. 23 scientific institutions from 16 European countries are currently involved in the EST project. They are the most important workplaces focused on solar research, which, among other things, operate key research infrastructure in the Canary Islands (GREGOR, SST, VTT, THEMIS telescopes), but also the iconic Einstein Tower in Potsdam. The coronal station on Lomnický Štít is an inherent part of these facilities. A foreign visit was informed about the EST project last year at the SAS great hall in Bratislava at the premiere of the documentary film Reaching for the Sun about European solar research. 

Spracovala: Katarína Gáliková

Foto: Marián Jakubík