Info
Name
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center PAS
Location
Warsaw
Person
Prof. dr hab. Marek Sarna
Short Description

Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center Polish Academy of Sciences is a leading astronomical institute in Poland. It was established in 1978. The main subjects of research include: stellar astrophysics, binary systems, circumstellar matter, dense matter and neutron stars, black holes, accretion processes, structure and evolution of active galaxies, cosmology, extrasolar  planets.

Products & Services
  • Evaluation of research projects
Technologies
Technologies
TD 5 Space System Control
TD 9 Mission Operation and Ground Data systems
TD 11 Space Debris
TD 12 Ground Station System and Networks
TD 14 Life & Physical Sciences
TD 16 Optics
More Info

Areas of activity in the space sector:

  • Space System Control
  • Mission Operation and Ground Data systems
  • Space Debris
  • Ground Station System and Networks
  • Life & Physical Sciences
  • Optics

Research and development areas:

  • H.E.S.S., CTA (observations of high energy photons (TeV) via detection of Cherenkov radiation)
  • SALT (Southern African Large Optical Telescope about 10 m in diameter)
  • LIGO-VIRGO (detection of gravitational waves)
  • Araucaria (calibration of the local extragalactic distance scale)
  • SOLARIS (search for extrasollar planetary systems)
  • AstroGrid-PL (polish platform for numerical computations)
  • Polish Bolid Network (observations of meteors and comets)
  • Gaia-ESO (the great spectroscopic review of the Milky Way)

Space projects:

  • INTEGRAL, Fermi (satellite observations of gamma rays)
  • BRITE (the first Polish scientific satellite)
  • ATHENA (satellite observations in X-rays)

The ground station for the control of the scientific satellites BRITE is located at the CAMK PAN. 

Clients and partners:

  • ESA (European Space Agency)
  • NASA (USA)
  • CNES (Toulouse, France)
  • IRAP (Toulouse, France)
  • MPE – Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany)
  • Stanford University (California, USA)
  • Harvard University (Cambridge, USA)
  • Durham University (UK)
  • Institut d’Astrophysique (Paris, France)
  • Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (Japan)
  • Ioffe Institute (St. Petersburg)