Research activities
Sun and Solar System
Interest in the study of solar radio emissions in Trieste dates back to the second half of the 1960s, when the new director, Prof. Margherita Hack, decided to design and build the first instruments for studying the sun. Today the group of solar radiophysics manages a new radio telescope recently installed at the Basovizza Observation Station. The group also collaborates on the Metis instrument, dedicated to the study of the solar atmosphere, aboard a satellite that orbits the Sun. A variable and occasionally conspicuous flow of electrically charged particles comes from the Sun and the rarefied atmosphere that surrounds it, in addition to the emission of radio waves. There is a space meteorology that conditions the environment in which the planet Earth orbits. The interaction between the solar wind and the magnetic field of the planets, in particular Mercury, is also studied by space probes. Elsewhere in the Solar System, the Rosetta spacecraft mission is revolutionizing our understanding of comets. OATs researchers have contributed in particular to deduce the mechanism of sublimation of surface water ice and of the flow of dust that is dispersed by comets. Another field of study is asteroids: we are preparing to study the effects of the collision of a spacecraft with the asteroid Didymos, expected in 2022, to test the impact method for a possible planetary defense.

Schema of Sun-Earth system and of the photons and particles flux that defines the space weather.

The 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet.