Europlanet Summer School 2017, Molėtai Astronomical Observatory, Lithuania.
The 2017 Europlanet Summer School “Space missions: ground-based observations and science communication” took place from 18-28 July at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory in Lithuania. Students received practical training on making spectroscopic observations of the chemical composition of stars and photometric detections of stellar variability and exoplanet transits. Afternoon sessions included a wide range of science communication training.
The 21 students from 13 countries (Azerbaijan, Colombia, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Ukraine and UK) included amateur astronomers and young scientists ranging from post-docs to final-year school students.
The Summer School featured a public lecture (attended by approximately 30 people including participants of the summer school and external visitors) by Dr Eleni Chatzichristou on “Inspired by Cosmic Space: Sounds of the Earth’s magnetosphere in electroacoustic music” that was webcast and is now posted on YouTube.
A press release written by students about the Europlanet Summer School was published on the alkas.lt Lithuanian news website.
Summary of evaluation from students
41st Alpbach Summer School, Alpbach, Austria.
Europlanet also sponsored the 41st Alpbach Summer School from 18-27 July, which this year focused on ‘The Dusty Universe’.
Europlanet’s science networking activity (NA1 Task 2 and Task 5) sponsored the participation of eight students from inclusiveness countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Portugal).
Misson concepts devised by student teams included Magrathea, a mission to understand the evolution of dust particles and their role in building planets, and Far infra-Red Observation Spectroscopy Telescopes (FROST).
One of the students at the Alpbach Summer School said: “I’d like to personally thank [Europlanet] for having me over at this amazing academic gathering. This was a congregation like nothing I had ever experienced before. I learned a great deal about the space mission industry from the lectures and from the discussions with the other students when we worked on our projects. While pursuing my dream to become an aerospace engineer is not new, thanks to the Summer School it just got infused with a whole new level of knowledge and enthusiasm. Thanks to my tutors and my peers, I am more confident than ever that I have chosen the right path in pursuing my passion for aerospace engineering and spacecraft design.”
