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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto
Astronomical Instrumentation and Surveys

Planck Surveyor (ESA, 2008)
Contact at CAUP: António C. da Silva

This mission was designed to image the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Field over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. Planck Surveyor is a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the early universe and the origin of cosmic structure. CAUP participates in this mission by being involved in the activities of the Planck Working Group 5: Clusters and Secondary Anisotropies.

CoRoT (FRANCE & ESA, 2006)
Contact at CAUP: Mário J. P. F. G. Monteiro

This is a space project for the study of stellar interiors using asteroseismology and detection of planets around stars. CAUP participated in the Preparation of this mission since 2002 (following a successful application to an AO by ESA). The participation is at the Co-I level with access to all data in the asteroseismology core programme (and some additional programmes). CAUP coordinates an international team on the development, optimization and documentation of evolution and seismic tools for asteroseismology: CoRoT/ESTA.

See also:
CoRoT@Portugal
CoRoT mission website

GAIA (ESA, 2012)
Contact at CAUP: Margarida S. Cunha

The goal of this ESA mission is to make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying an unprecedented number of stars. CAUP is involved in the preparation of this mission together with other Portuguese teams (SIM, LOLS, GAUC, CAAUL). CAUP participates in the preparation of the pipeline for determining stellar parameters (under CU8).

See also:
GAIA mission website

VLTI (ESO): AMBER and VSI
Contact at CAUP: Mercedes E. Filho

CAUP has been involved in the development and commissioning of AMBER (for VLTI at ESO) and has supported the setup of a Portuguese consortium for the development of astronomical instrumentation for the VLTI. CAUP participates at the Co-I level in the VLTI Spectro-Imager (VSI), that has passed Phase A, chairs the science team and is in charge of the image reconstruction task. A strategic partnership with LOLS and SIM has been established for the building of VSI.

See also:
AMBER website

European VLBI Network
Contact at CAUP: Mercedes E. Filho

CAUP is involved in negotiations to reconstruct or build a radio antenna in Açores to integrate the European VLBI Network and create a center of Geodesy. This project is a collaboration between CAUP, the Universidade dos Açores, the Direcção Regional de Ciência e Tecnologia and Portugal Telecom.

See also:
European VLBI Network website

 

- Individual participation
- Institutional participation

 

 

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

Proceed on CAUP's website|Go to IA website