ESO-connected data analysis activities have also grown sig-nificantly since the beginning of Finland’s membership in 2004. The project, called ESO-Sampo, conducted develop-ment of science data analysis environdevelop-ment for ESO. Four IT professionals worked full-time for the in-kind contribution in the period 1.1.2005- 31.1.2008 in a Tekes-funded project at the Observatory, University of Helsinki, and have contin-ued the same work with partial funding from ESO until the end of September 2009. The main result of the project is the ESO Reflex workflow engine, an advanced science anal-ysis environment which ESO plans to implement as standard ESO software for the reduction of VLT and other ESO data.
HESA team has also participated actively in the preparation of national technology return from ESO. These have already lead to a request from ESO to continue ESO Reflex devel-opment by partial ESO funding, and a parallel develdevel-opment of an application for other sciences and also commercial use with Tekes funding, which continued until September 2009.
Further, future activities from this are (1) a Tekes project for developing a Situation Awareness System using Multidi-mensional Information (MIFSAS), and (2) a proposal to the EU for a collaborative project called Combined Analysis of Multi-Source Astronomical Data (CAMSAD).
2.4 External financing and resources
2009: Man-months of work: 109 Academy of Finland: 110 000e
National Technology Agency: 2 600 000e University of Helsinki: 17 000e
European Southern Observatory: 46 000e
2.5 Tests of learning
Kettula, Kimmo
M.Sc. thesis: Relativistic electron population of the Ophiuchus cluster of galaxies; 2009, University of Helsinki, Department of Astronomy
2.6 Visits abroad
Esko, Eero
MIS Workshop, The Netherlands, 11.–14.5.2009, 4 days
Huovelin, Juhani
BepiColombo project meeting ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany, 26.5.2009, 1 day
BepiColombo SWT meeting, Paris, France, 24.–
28.10.2009, 5 days
EU project preparatory meeting, SRON, The Netherlands, 2.10.2009, 1 day
Korpela, Seppo
BepiColombo meeting, Madrid, Spain, 14.–
16.1.2009, 3 days
Antenna field tests at Stevenage, U.K., 3.–
5.2.2009, 3 days
BepiColombo Mission, 7th MPO Science Work-ing Group MeetWork-ing (MPO SWG-7), ESTEC, Newton 2, 6./7. April 2009, 6.–7.4.2009, 2 days
MIXS Team Conference at University of Leices-ter, U.K., 31.5.–3.6.2009, 4 days
EU project preparatory meeting, The Netherlands, 2.10.2009, 1 day
Maisala, Sami
Taverna 2.0 workshop, University of Manchester, U.K., 17.–20.2.2009, 4 days
ESO-Reflex technical meeting, Garching, Ger-many, 23.–24.4.2009, 2 days
ESO Reflex Technical meeting, ESO, Garching, Germany, 7.–9.7.2009, 3 days
Nevalainen, Jukka
IACHEC meeting, Osaka, Japan, 22.–29.4.2009, 8 days
Planck consortium meeting, CNR Conference center, Bologna, Italy, 4.–8.11.2009, 5 days
Oittinen, Tero
Taverna 2.0 workshop, University of Manchester, U.K., 17.–20.2.2009, 4 days
ESO technical discussions, Germany, 23.–
24.4.2009, 2 days Takala, Tuure
Taverna 2.0 workshop, University of Manchester, U.K., 17.–20.2.2009, 4 days
ESO technical discussions, Germany, 23.–
24.4.2009, 2 days Vainio, Rami
EGU 2009, Vienna, Austria, 19.–24.4.2009, 6 days
BepiColombo SWG, ESTEC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 6.–7.4.2009, 2 days
BepiColombo project meeting, ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany, 26.5.2009
BepiColombo SWT, Blois, France, 26.–
29.10.2009, 4 days V¨a¨an¨anen, Mikko
Invited AIP conference Talk, Big Island Hawaii, USA, 30.4.–10.5.2009, 11 days
2.7 Membership in scientific and scholarly so-cieties
Huovelin, Juhani
Finnish COSPAR committee, Finland
Research school for astronomy and space physics, Finland, board
Academy of Finland assessor pool, Finland, ex-pert
Finnish Space Committee (ANK), permanent ex-pert
Nevalainen, Jukka
Planck Working Group 5, 30.3.2007–, expert International Astronomical Consortium for High Energy Calibration, 9.5.2007–, expert
Figure 5: Media realisations with 4×106 particles with ρ = 0.55, Gc roughness (upper images) of (from left to right) σ/L = 0.012, l = 0.05,0.25,0.5, and fBm roughness (lower images) ofσ/L = 0.012,H = 0.3,0.5,0.7. Parviainen and Muinonen (2009B1)
3 Planetary System Research
Project number 02525008
Research agreements Academy of Finland Type of research Basic research
Director of research ProfessorMuinonen, Karri
Telephone 19122941
Fax 19122952
E-mail Karri.Muinonen@Helsinki.Fi
Research staffwith a Ph.D. Karri Muinonen, Prof.
Kari Lumme, Prof. emer.
Evgenij Zubko, Ph.D.
Mark Paton, Ph.D.
Phd students Antti Penttil¨a, Lic.S.Sc.
Dagmara Oszkiewicz, M.Sc.
Associated scientists Markku Poutanen, Prof. (Finnish Geodetic Institute Lauri Pesonen, Prof.
Jari Valkonen, Prof.
Jouni Peltoniemi, Docent (Finnish Geodetic Institute) Timo Nousiainen, Docent
Jenni Virtanen, Ph.D. (Finnish Geodetic Institute) Mikael Granvik, Ph.D. (University of Hawaii) Johanna Torppa, Ph.D. (Geological Survey of Finland) Jyri N¨ar¨anen, Ph.D. (Finnish Geodetic Institute)
3.1 Research activities
Research within the Planetary-System Research -group (PSR) at the University of Helsinki Observatory entails theo-retical, observational, and experimental studies on key top-ics of solar-system exploration. In fundamental planetary physics, PSR theoretical research is focussed on light scat-tering by single small particles, on multiple scatscat-tering by complex media of small particles, and the celestial mechan-ics of the few-body problem. Experiments have been car-ried out to measure backscattering characteristics of particu-late media (scatterometer at the Observatory), to assess the X-ray fluorescence by planetary-regolith analog samples (at the Department of Physical Sciences), and to measure mete-orite spectra in visible and near-infrared wavelengths (at the Geological Survey of Finland and at the Finnish Geodetic In-stitute). Observations have been made using both space-based and ground-based telescopes.
The numerical method for computing coherent backscat-tering by complex particulate media developed at UHO has been successfully applied to polarimetric observations of transneptunian objects (TNOs). Boehnhardt et al. described polarimetry in planetary science, in particular, tying the VLT advances to future needs with ELTs. At ESO/VLT, PSR has continued to participate in polarimetric observations of cometary nuclei: these observations are the first-ever system-atic polarimetric observations of cometary nuclei.
Penttil¨a and Lumme have studied the effects of the prop-erties of porous media on light scattering (Penttil¨a & Lumme, 2009). They have used numerical wave-optical methods for light scattering simulations to asses the effect of porosity on the optical properties of paper coating. Both constant
poros-ity profile and media with porosporos-ity contrast between layers at different depths are considered. This can lead to optimal paper coating structures for both brightness and gloss.
Juuti et al. (2009) have studied the spectral properties and surface uniformity of black glass gloss references. Commer-cial glossmeters are usually provided with a gloss reference and in some cases the reference is derived from black glass.
Light reflection from the reference depends both on the com-plex refractive index and on the surface quality, such as the roughness and the cleanness of the black glass. The complex refractive index, as a function of wavelength, was measured with an ellipsometer, and the reflectance at standardized gloss measurement angles was calculated for the case of nonpolar-ized light. Furthermore, the gloss variation of the reference was detected with a diffractive-optical-element-based gloss-meter.
Lindqvist et al. (2009B1) studied light scattering by coated, concave-hull-transformed clusters of spheres and Gaussian-random-sphere particles. Nousiainen et al.
(2009B1) focused on optical modeling of thin calcite flakes using Discrete-Dipole Approximation. Zubko et al. (2009B1) studied light scattering by agglomerated debris particles com-posed of highly absorbing material, and the applicability of DDA to conductive particles. Muinonen et al. (2009B1) in-troduced diffuse scatterers in the ray-optics treatment for light scattering by particles large compared to wavelength.
Tyynel¨a et al. (2009B1) carried out radar-scattering com-putations from spherical and spheroidal particles, as well as clusters of spherical particles in the C-band using the discrete-dipole approximation method (DDA). The results were com-pared to those from exact methods.
Parviainen and Muinonen (2009B1) studied volume and surface shadowing in particulate random media, providing a realistic light-scattering model for rough particulate sur-faces. PSR continued an in-depth study on the interpretation of the SMART-1/AMIE photometry. N¨ar¨anen et al. (2009B1) studied regolith effects in planetary X-ray fluorescence spec-troscopy concentrating on laboratory studies at 1.7 - 6.4 keV.
Huovelin et al. (2009B1) and Fraser et al. (2009B1) de-scribed the Solar Intensity X-ray and particle Spectrometer (SIXS) and Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) onboard the ESA BepiColombo mission to Mercury (launch in 2014). Rothery et al. (2009B1) described forecoming Mer-cury surface and compositional studies using BepiColombo.
In studies of asteroid phase curves, Muinonen et al.
(2009, paper submitted to Icarus) presented methods for the derivation of empirical magnitude systems for asteroid phase curves. Their goal is to develop a new magnitude system for asteroids, revising the two-parameter H, G magnitude system currently adopted by IAU.
Establishing links between asteroids and meteorites is problematic. Meteorites allow us to peer inside asteroids but which asteroids are we looking at? Reflectance spectra mea-surements are a popular remote sensing technique of asteroids
Figure 6: Lauri Jetsu and Karri Muinonen at the Observatory 175h anniversary reception, November 2009 (Photo: Eva Isaksson)
as they are relatively easy to do and provide information on composition. These can then be compared with reflectance spectra measurements of meteorites to find a match. How-ever, reflectance spectra measurements of asteroids are from the surface and this may be unrepresentative of the interior due to surface effects and geological processes. Reflectance spectra of 27 meteorites, representing undifferentiated (C, H, L, LL, and E) to differentiated meteorites, were obtained us-ing a spectrometer at the Geological Survey of Finland. Fea-tures in the reflectance spectra were explored by Paton et al. (paper in preparation) to determine if they revealed diag-nostic features among the various meteorite groups and sub-groups, if they correlated with meteorite physical properties (e.g. mineralogy, density, porosity, or susceptibility) or with weathering or shock degree. Classification methods, using these non-destructive physical and spectral property measure-ments of meteorites, are developed for possible application to future remote sensing of asteroids and to strengthen the link between meteorites and asteroids.
Oszkiewicz et al. completed a paper (D. Oszkiewicz, K.
Muinonen, J. Virtanen, M.Granvik, Meteoritics and Plane-tary Science, in press, 2009) that introduces a new Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo orbital ranging method for poorly ob-served single-apparition asteroids with two or more astro-metric observations. The method has been applied to near-Earth, main-belt, and transneptunian objects. Obtained dis-tributions of orbital elements can then serve as a base in Earth impact probability computation, dynamical classifica-tion, ephemeris predicclassifica-tion, linking between apparitions prob-lems, and in other applications.
Granvik et al. M. Granvik, J. Virtanen, D. Oszkiewicz, K.
Muinonen, Meteoritics and Planetary Science, in press, 2009) describe an open-source asteroid-orbit-computation software package called OpenOrb. In addition to the well-known least-squares method, OpenOrb contains both Monte-Carlo and Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo versions of the statistical or-bital ranging method (Ranging) based on well-established Bayesian inversion theory. As an example, OpenOrb was used to search for candidate retrograde objects similar to 2008 KV42 in the known population of transneptunian ob-jects.
PSR contributed to the preparation of the ESA astromet-ric cornerstone mission Gaia (launch in 2012): this entailed orbital-inverion software delivery to the Gaia Data Process-ing and Analysis Pipeline (DPAC) and further development of Markov-Chain Monte Carlo methods for inversion of fore-coming Gaia photometry for asteroid spin and shape charac-teristics. Preparations continued for a successful competition of the Marco Polo near-Earth-object sample return mission within the ESA Cosmic Vision Programme, with PSR repre-sented in the ESA Science Study Team of the mission.
3.2 External financing and resources
2009: Man-months of work: 100
Academy of Finland, ’Light Scattering by Solar-System Small Particles’:
117 740e
European Commission, ’European Leadership in Space Astrometry’ (ELSA)’: 62 000e
Tekes intelligent production technologies project : 153 000e
Tekes forest cluster project Re-engineering paper:
21 000e
3.3 Tests of learning
N¨ar¨anen, Jyri
Ph.D. thesis: Multiwavelength studies of regolith effects in planetary remote sensing; 2009, University of Helsinki, Department of Astronomy
Niemel¨a, Jarkko
M.Sc. thesis: Asteroid polarimetry: review and new observations; 2009, University of Helsinki, De-partment of Astronomy
3.4 Visits abroad
Muinonen, Karri
ELSA Mid-Term-Review meeting, Brussels, Bel-gium, 1.–5.2.2009, 5 days
Gaia GREAT network kick-off meeting, Cam-bridge, U.K., 25.–29.3.2009
1st Planetary Defense Conference, Granada, Spain, 26.4.–1.5.2009, 6 days
GAIA CU4 meeting, Turin, Italy, 28.–30.5.2009, 3 days
IAU General Meeting, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2.–
15.8.2009, 14 days
Marco Polo mission meeting, Paris, France, 17.–
21.5.2009, 5 days
International Symposium on Atmospheric Light Scattering and Remote Sensing, Xian, China, 13.-17.7.2009, 5 days
Marco Polo Science Study team Meeting, ESTEC, The Netherlands, 9.–11.9.2009, 3 days
Marco Polo Science study team -meeting, ES-TEC/ESA, The Netherlands, 22.–24.9.2009
ELSA School ”The Techniques of Gaia”, Heidel-berg, Germany, 27.9.–3.10.2009, 7 days
Marco Polo -mission Science Study Team meet-ing, Paris, France, 30.11.–2.12.2009: 3 days
Niemel¨a, Jarkko
Observations with NOT-telesscope, La Palma, Spain, 28.7.–2.8.2009, 6 days,
N¨ar¨anen, Jyri
EGU General Assembly 2009, Wien, Austria, 19.–25.4.2009, 7 days
Soft X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy workshop, ESTEC,The Netherlands, 1.–2.9.2009
BepiColombo 6th SWT meeting, Blois, France, 26.–30.10.2009, 5 days
Oszkiewicz, Dagmara
ELSA Mid-Term-Review meeting, Brussels, Bel-gium, 1.–4.2.2009, 4 days
Workshop dealing with technical concerns im-posed by Gaia and DPCC host frame work, Paris Ob-servatory, France, 16.–18.2.2009, 3 days
1. ELSA secondment, Paris, France and 2.
GREAT Kickoff meeting, Cambridge, U.K., 14.–
27.3.2009, 14 days
1st Planetary Defense Conference, Granada, Spain, 23.4.–3.5.2009, 11 days
DPAC CU4 -meeting 7 28-29 May 2009 INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino, Italy, 27.–
30.5.2009, 4 days
International Astronomical Union general assem-bly, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 20.7.–15.8.2009, 26 days
International conference of Young Astronomers (ICYA), Krakow, Poland, 6.–19.9.2009, 14 days
ELSA School on the Techniques of Gaia, Heidel-berg, Germany, 27.9.–3.10.2009, 7 days
Gaia Coordination Unit 4 ”Object processing”
The 8th Meeting, Lohrmann Observatory, Dresden, Germany, 11.–16.11.2009, 6 days
Parviainen, Hannu
EGU 2007, Austria, 18.–26.4.2009, 9 days Zubko, E.
Scientific collaboration with Ukrainian colleagues Prof. Yu. Shkuratov and Dr. D. Petrov, Ukraine, 24.7.–
17.8.2009, 25 days
Scientific discussion with Dr. G. Videen at Amy Research Laboratory, (Adelphi, MD,USA) and partici-pation in 41st annual meeting of the Division for Plane-tary Sciences of the American Society, Fajardo, Puerto Rico, USA, 29.9.–10.10.2009, 12 days
3.5 Papers read at scientific conferences, sym-posia, meetings etc.
Oszkiewicz, Dagmara
”Asteroid orbits with Gaia using Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo ranging”, D. A. Oszkiewicz, K.Muinonen, J.Virtanen, M.Granvik (Granada, Spain, 27.–30.4.2009), poster
”Time evolution of collision probabilities for 2004 AS1 2008 TC3 2009 DD45.” D. A. Oszkiewicz, K.Muinonen, J.Virtanen, M.Granvik, IAU‘s XXVII GENERAL ASSEMBLY, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)3.–
14.8.2009, poster
”Time evolution of collision probabilities for 2004 AS1 2008 TC3 2009 DD45.” D. A. Oszkiewicz, K.Muinonen, J.Virtanen, M.Granvik, The Interna-tional Conference of Young Astronomers (ICYA) 7.–
13.09.2009 Krakow, Poland, poster
”Time evolution of collision probabilities for 2004 AS1 2008 TC3 2009 DD45.” D. A. Oszkiewicz, K.Muinonen, J.Virtanen, M.Granvik, FinCOSPAR 3.–
5.9.2009 Rokua National Park, poster ”Asteroid rang-ing with Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo” D. A. Os-zkiewicz, K. Muinonen, J.Virtanen, M.Granvik (In-stitut Seminar, Astronomical Observatory, Poznan, Poland, 8.1.2009)
”Asteroid orbital inversion using statistical meth-ods”, D. A. Oszkiewicz, K. Muinonen (Brussels, Bel-gium, 2.2.2009)
”Asteroid orbits with Gaia using MCMC rang-ing” D. A. Oszkiewicz, K. Muinonen, J. Virtanen, M.
Granvik (Geophysics Days, 3.–14.5.2009, Helsinki)
”Asteroid orbits with Gaia using MCMC rang-ing” D. A. Oszkiewicz, K. Muinonen, J. Virtanen, M.
Granvik (CU4#7 meeting, 29.05.2009, Torino)
”MCMC orbital ranging and its applications”, D.
A. Oszkiewicz, K. Muinonen, J. Virtanen, M. Granvik , ELSA School, Heideberg 28.9.–2.10.2009
”MCMC ranging – convergence diagnostics”, D. A. Oszkiewicz, PSR group seminar presentation 5.10.2009, Helsinki
”Mets¨ahovi-Kumpula project, a platform for si-multaneous observation of meteors and air-plane track-ing” D. A. Oszkiewicz, Jyri Naranen, 9.11.2009, PSR group seminar, Helsinki
”DU456 progress report” D. A. Oszkiewicz, K. Muinonen, CU4#8 meeting, Dresden (12.–
13.11.2009), Germany
Penttil¨a, Antti
”Simulation of optical properties and NFC-filler structures”. Seminar of Intelligent and Resource-Efficient Production Technologies (EffTech) pro-gramme, Espoo, Dipoli Congress Centre, 6.9.2009
3.6 Visiting academics
Muinonen, Karri
Dr. Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 Astronaut, April 16, 2009
Prof. Nicolas Thomas, University of Bern, March 4–7, 2009
Prof. Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist, Uppsala Univer-sity, March 6, 2009
Dr. Michael Weiler, Paris Observatory, March 2–
13, 2009
Dr. Mikael Granvik, University of Hawaii, May 7, 2009
Mr. Benoit Frezouls, CNES, France, June 15–19, 2009
Mr. Christophe Ordenovic, Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur, June 15–19, 2009
Dr. Maria Gritsevich, ESA/ESTEC, November 16–17, 2009
3.7 Membership in scientific and scholarly so-cieties
Muinonen, Karri
International Astronomical Union, Commission 20 Organizing Committee, 2006–, France
ELSA Steering Committee (European Leadership in Space Astrometry), 1.10.2006–, Sweden
International Astronomical Union, Task Group on Asteroid Magnitudes, 2006–, France
International Astronomical Union, Task Group on Asteroid Polarimetric Albedo Calibration, 2006–, France
Marco Polo Science Study Team, ESA, 2007–, France
International Astronomical Union, Task Group on Geophysical and Geological Properties of Asteroids and Cometary Nuclei, 2008–, France, chair
3.8 Refereeing and Other Publishing Activities
Muinonen, Karri Icarus, USA, referee
Planetary and Space Science, The Netherlands, referee
Astronomy and Astrophysics, France, referee Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer, referee
Figure 7: Students at the Observatory lecture hall, November 2009 (Photo: Eva Isaksson)
4 Lectures in 2009
Course (English) Course (Finnish)
spring term
basic studies perusopinnot
Universe now Maailmankaikkeus nyt (lectured in English) Universe now Maailmankaikkeus nyt (lectured in Finnish) Universe now Maailmankaikkeus nyt (lectured in Swedish) Basics of observational astronomy I Havaitsevan t¨ahtitieteen peruskurssi I
Basic astronomy T¨ahtitieteen perusteet
Practical methods in astronomy T¨ahtitieteen k¨ayt¨ann¨on menetelmi¨a
subject studies aineopinnot
Structure of the Milky Way Linnunradan rakenne
advanced studies syvent¨av¨at opinnot
Astrobiology Astrobiologia
Scattering of light on small particles II Valon sironta pienhiukkasista II Planetary geophysics Planetaarinen geofysiikka Advanced course in dynamics Dynamiikan jatkokurssi Infrared astronomy Infrapunat¨ahtitiede Submillimetre astronomy Alimillimetrit¨ahtitiede
Magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamiikka
other muut
Climate changes of planet Earth Planeetta Maan ilmastonvaihtelut
Telling about astronomy – a course on Kerro t¨ahtitieteest¨a – populaarikirjoittamisen
popularization kurssi
Introduction to project management Johdatus projektity¨oh¨on
Chronology: history and calendars Ajanlasku: historiaa ja kalentereita
seminars seminaarit
Astrophysics seminar Astrofysiikan seminaari
Planetary system research seminar Planeettakunnan tutkimusseminaari autumn term
basic studies perusopinnot
Universe now Maailmankaikkeus nyt (lectured in Finnish) Basics of observational astronomy II Havaitsevan t¨ahtitieteen peruskurssi II
Basic astronomy T¨ahtitieteen perusteet
subject studies aineopinnot
X-ray analysis of galaxy clusters Galaksijoukkojen r¨ontgenanalyysi Structure and evolution of stars T¨ahtien rakenne ja kehitys Basic course in astrophysics Astrofysiikan peruskurssi Physics of the Solar system Aurinkokunnan fysiikka
advanced studies syvent¨av¨at opinnot
High energy astrophysics Suurenergia-astrofysiikkaa Interstellar medium T¨ahtienv¨alinen aine
lecture series on astrobiology – astrobiologian luentosarja
Interferometry at radio and infrared Radio- ja infrapuna-alueen interferometria wavelengths
other muut
Introduction to astrobiology Johdatus astrobiologiaan Introduction to expert tasks Johdatus asiantuntijateht¨aviin Introduction to applications of Johdatus pallot¨ahtitieteen sovelluksiin
spherical astronomy
seminars seminaarit
Astrophysics seminar Astrofysiikan seminaari
Planetary system research seminar Planeettakunnan tutkimusseminaari
5 Library
Librarian Eva Isaksson, M.Sc.
E-mail astro-library@helsinki.fi
5.1 Library Merger
The Observatory library will merge with the Kumpula Cam-pus Library in January 2010. To prepare the merger, a work-group consisting of librarians and astronomers was set up to decide on best practices and priorities.
The Observatory library collection is exceptional and pro-vides a comprehensive view on two centuries of astronomical research and publishing activities. The Kumpula Campus li-brary is a modern lili-brary serving research, teaching and stud-ies. It has limited space available for older collections no longer in active use, thus it is a major challenge to preserve these historical collections.
The transfer of books to Kumpula was started in Novem-ber 2009, and serials will be transferred in early 2010.
Figure 8: Books awaiting transfer