EU champions Poland's space project
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
02.01.2012 16:03
The European Research Council has chosen the Polish SOLARIS astronomical project as one of the flagship enterprises to present on its 5th anniversary celebrations next month.
Solaris (2002) Steven Soderbergh, Twentieth Century Fox
SOLARIS, named after a science fiction novel by the late Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, is conducted by the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center in Torun, northern Poland, a branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The SOLARIS project is engaged in a quest to discover extrasolar planets orbiting double stars.
A team of astronomers has been developing robotic telescopes for this purpose. Two of the machines are already operating, with a further two in the pipeline.
The selection of SOLARIS is a considerable coup for the Torun institution, as just five out of 2200 projects backed by the European Research Council were selected for next month's occasion, which will be attended by leading academic organisations from the U.S., China, Brazil, India, South Africa and beyond.
Established by the EC in 2003, the European Research Council is funded via the EU's 7th Research Framework Programme.
SOLARIS also receives funding from Poland's Ministry of Science and Higher Education. (nh/pg)