European Association for Astronomy Education

At the end of the EAAE Winter School held in Enontekio, Finland, the EAAE General Assembly has elected, on December 30th, the members  of the Executive Council

The new Executive Council da EAAE has the following composition:

Alexandre Costa (Portugal) - President
Veselka Radeva (Bulgaria) - Vice-President
Alan Pickwick (UK) - Treasurer
Cristina Pallici di Suni (Italy) - Secretary
Miguel Neta (Portugal) - Editor/Webmaster
Ederlinda Viñuales (Spain) - Member of the board
Irma Hannula (Finland) - Member of the board
Janet Hilton (UK) - Member of the board
Sakari Ekko (Finland) - Member of the board

By proposal of the new EAAE President the former President Rosa Maria Ros was nominated Honorary President, an honour only given to Richard West (former Director of ESO) and Ferdinand Wagner (President of the EAAE between 2002 and 2009) in the past.

The EAAE General Assembly also decided which would be the active Working Groups for the next  three years and selected their Chairpersons from people that have an historical relation in the work with these working groups.
The Working Groups Coordination was established as follows:
Ederlinda Viñuales (Spain) - Chairperson of WG1 - School Projects
Luana Fogli (Italy) - Chairperson of WG2 - Teacher's Network
Rosa Maria Ros (Spain) - Chairperson of WG3 - Teacher Summer Schools

The General Assembly wished the best of luck to all the new members in promoting the education of Astronomy in Europe.

Credits: Space Daily

In March of 2015, NASA's Dawn mission will arrive at the dwarf planet Ceres, the first of the smaller class of planets to be discovered and the closest to Earth. Ceres, which orbits the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is a unique body in the Solar System, bearing many similarities to Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, both considered to bepotential sources for harboring life. (read more)

Source: Space Daily

Perth, Australia (SPX) Dec 27, 2013 - Astronomers led by a Curtin University researcher have discovered a new population of exploding stars that "switch off" their radio transmissions before collapsing into a Black Hole. These exploding stars use all of their energy to emit one last strong beam of highly energetic radiation - known as a gamma-ray burst - before they die.(learn more)

Source: Chandra

In the middle of the twentieth century, an unusual star was spotted in the constellation of Canes Venatici (Latin for "hunting dogs"). Years later, astronomers determined that this object, dubbed AM Canum Venaticorum (or, AM CVn, for short), was, in fact, two stars. These stars revolve around each other every 18 minutes, and are predicted to generate gravitational waves - ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein. (learn more)

Credits: ESA/Hubble heic1323

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed the variable star RS Puppis over a period of five weeks, showing the star growing brighter and dimmer as it pulsates. These pulsations have created a stunning example of a phenomenon known as a light echo, where light appears to reverberate through the murky environment around the star.(read more)

Zooniverse has launched a new tool.

Earlier this year, Galaxy Zoo expanded to include the infrared. Now Radio Galaxy Zoo involves looking at galaxies in (yet) another light. This time we are asking you to match huge jets – seen in radio emission – to the supermassive black holes at the centre of the galaxy that produced them. This requires looking at the galaxies in infrared and radio wavelengths. These galaxies are not like our own, and your classifications will allow scientists to understand the causes of these erupting black holes and how they affect the galaxy surrounding them.

Get involved now at http://radio.galaxyzoo.org - and have fun discovering black holes in our Universe.

According to the EAAE Statute it will be held the General Assembly at Enontekiö, Finland on Monday 30^th December at 15:00.

Agenda for the General Assembly of the EAAE

Approval of the Minutes of the General Assembly held in Madrid on the 1^st December 2009.

1)     Report of the President for the period 2010 to 2012 inclusive.

2)     Report of the Treasurer for the period 2010 to 2012 inclusive.

3)     Report of the Secretary for the period 2010 to 2012 inclusive.

4)     Report of the Web Master for the period 2010 to 2012 inclusive.

5)     Report on Summer and Winter Schools for the period 2010 to 2012 inclusive.

6)     Election of Officers and General Committee Members.

7)     Open discussion.

8)     Close of the General Assembly.

Each member can contribute to the discussion sending by e-mail the proposals :

to the national representatives or

to the President Rosa M. Ros (ros@ma4.upc.edu ) or

to the secretary Cristina Palici di Suni (palici@quadricom.org )