European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics

The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, or IOAA, is an annual event in which high school students from around the world compete against each other, solving theoretical, analytical and observational problems in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.

Despite being relatively young compared to the other recognized International Science Olympiads (the first was held in 2007), the high standards of the Olympiad and the work it does to promote astronomy education, particularly in regions with emerging astronomy programmes, have gained the support of the President and Commission 46 of International Astronomical Union and of national governments of participating countries. The organisation and statues of the IOAA are based on those of the long-running International Physics Olympiad.

Each IOAA is organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Education of the host country and lasts for ten days. Participating countries each send one team of up to five students (still attending or having just finished high school) and two adult team leaders, who approve the problems and translate them into the native languages of the students. Accomodation and participation costs during the ten days are covered by the organisers for the seven team members. Teams pay for travel to the host country, and for any extra persons ('observers') or accomodation beyond this period.

Previous Olympiads were held in Thailand, Indonesia, Iran and China, and the 6th will be held in Brazil in 2012.

Preliminary registration is open until March 31. If your country is not already represented and you wish send a team, please contact the Local Organising Committee as soon as possible.

Further information on the 5th IOAA is available at http://www.ioaa2011.pl .

Source: NASA

Jupiter (left) and Mercury (right) photographed at sunset on March 13, 2011.
Image credit: Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK

This week, sky watchers have a rare opportunity to see Mercury at its best as NASA's MESSENGER probe prepares to enter orbit around the innermost planet. (read more)

Source: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have ruled out an alternate theory on the nature of dark energy after recalculating the expansion rate of the universe to unprecedented accuracy.

The universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate. Some believe that is because the universe is filled with a dark energy that works in the opposite way of gravity. One alternative to that hypothesis is that an enormous bubble of relatively empty space eight billion light-years across surrounds our galactic neighborhood. If we lived near the center of this void, observations of galaxies being pushed away from each other at accelerating speeds would be an illusion.

This hypothesis has been invalidated because astronomers have refined their understanding of the universe's present expansion rate. Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., led the research. The Hubble observations were conducted by the SHOES (Supernova Ho for the quation of State) team that works to refine the accuracy of the Hubble constant to a precision that allows for a better characterization of dark energy's behavior. The observations helped determine a figure for the universe's current expansion rate to an uncertainty of just 3.3 percent. The new measurement reduces the error margin by 30 percent over Hubble's previous best measurement in 2009. Riess's results appear in the April 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.(read more)