English
Polish
Our Research
The fourth division (BP4) of The Fundamental Research Department (Departament Badań Podstawowych) deals with research in astrophysics and astronomy, mainly their observational aspects. The BP4 division is located in Warsaw at 7 Pasteura street.
The research conducted at the Astrophysics Laboratory includes:
- Cosmology: CMB, large structures of the Universe, dark matter, non-standard cosmology and gravitational lensing
- Gravitational waves: Multi-messenger astronomy, new tools for cosmology
- Physics of galaxies: Formation and evolution of galaxies, AGN, quasars and gamma-ray burst
- Interstellar medium: Star formation, neutron stars and white dwarfs
The BP4 division is also involved in several international projects. Check our Scientific Projects page for more information.
Seminars
Upcoming seminars for all of NCBJ can be found here.
The seminar archive for NCBJ can be found here.
Latest News
Scroll down for the latest news about the research done by our division or click here.
Telescope Success
JWST
Darko Donevski and Giuliano Lorenzon from the Astrophysics Department BP4 - National Centre for Nuclear Research have been awarded, as co-investigators, 13 hours of time on the largest space instrument - James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They participated in the highly competitive Cycle 4 JWST proposal competition, which received a total of 2377 submissions. The project, led by Prof. A. Man (UBC Vancouver), aims to obtain the deepest-ever mid-infrared spectroscopy of a brightest cluster galaxy at z = 0.4. Darko and Giuliano will contribute to interpreting the interplay between warm and cold dust emission in this exceptional system, which harbours one of the most extended reservoirs of dust and gas observed to date.
Grant Success
NAWA Bekker
Congratulations to Margherita Grespan, a PhD candidate from the Astrophysics Department, who has been awarded the Bekker NAWA Fellowship! Over the next two years, she will join Oxford University’s Department of Physics to conduct research on anomaly detection in astronomical surveys, leveraging advanced machine learning techniques, including active learning. Her work will focus on uncovering rare phenomena, such as strong gravitational lenses, within the vast datasets produced by new-generation telescopes such as Euclid and Vera C. Rubin.
Also congratulations to Dr. Darko Donevski, who also received a Bekker NAWA Fellowship. Over the next 18 months, Dr. Darko Donevski will be conducting visiting research with the Astrophysics Group at SISSA (Trieste, Italy). He will lead a project exploring dust re-formation in galaxies that undergo strong outflows of gas. The project will combine theoretical approaches with cutting-edge data from the James Webb and Euclid space telescopes, as well as data from large ground-based observatories such as JCMT, ALMA and NOEMA, where Dr. Darko Donevski serves as PI or co-PI.
NCN OPUS
Congratulations to Kasia Małek, who received the OPUS 27 grant! The project is of course focused on dust: "DUSTiny: dust influence on galaxy properties in new generation surveys." (CLICK HERE for more info) Soon, we will open the call for a postdoc and a PhD; stay tuned!Conference Participation
BP4 participate in may national and intersectional conferences. We share our cutting edge research and enthusiasm with other astronomers across the world. Below are pictures from our trips across the globe over the last year or so.
Cork, Ireland
23-27 June 2025
Istanbul, Türkiye
23-26 June 2025
Sexton, Italy
16-20 June 2025
Görlitz, Germany
16-20 June 2025
Naples, Italy
9-13 June 2025
Athens, Greece
2-6 June 2025
Granada, Spain
19-23 May 2025
Sintra, Portugal
5-9 May 2025
London, UK
13 December 2024
Barcelona, Spain
23-26 September 2024
Latest News
Barely visible galaxies are the key to understanding the Universe
When we look at the night sky, we cannot free ourselves from questions. We wonder if it is possible to count the stars. We imagine how great a distance separates us from them. When we realize what a light year actually is, we are surprised to discover that we are actually looking into the further or closer past. Scientists from the National Center for Nuclear Research experience a similar fascination, looking for answers to these and other questions about how the Universe looks and works. In the coming years, this search will be able to be more effective thanks to the project „ Barely visible: low surface brightness galaxies in the LSST era” under the supervision of Prof. dr hab. Agnieszka Pollo financed by the National Science Center under the MAESTRO program.
Smashing galaxies into dust
Dr William James Pearson will investigate how we can more reliably identify galaxy mergers using their morphologies and how mergers influence their dust content, dust attenuation, and metallicity. This will be done by combining artificial intelligence (AI) with more traditional methods to detect galaxy mergers as well as use state of the art. observations and techniques to study the galaxies’ dust and metal. Exploration of this fascinating topic will be possible thanks to a grant from the National Science Center under the SONATA programme.
NCBJ scientists elected as members of the Astronomy Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences
On 14 May, nominations for members of the Committee on Astronomy of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the term 2024-2027 were announced. Among the members were scientists from the NCBJ's Astrophysics Division. Prof Katarzyna Małek was also elected to the Presidium of the Committee.
Can dust evaporate in harsh interstellar environments?
Dust represents an important component of the interstellar medium of galaxies and is involved in various physical processes. As a consequence, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence its formation and destruction. In a recent study, a team of scientists led by dr Ambra Nanni of the NCBJ’s Astrophysics Division analysed the effect of photo-evaporation on the survival of dust in the interstellar medium of galaxies.
In the Universe, appearance matters: Dusty shapes of colourful galaxies
Can we see what is hidden in a cloud of dust without the aid of infrared vision? Scientists involved in the largest optical survey of the sky this decade, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), led by a group from the NCBJ’s Astrophysics Division, in a paper published in April in Astronomy & Astrophysics, propose a novel method to extract information about dust in galaxies without actually observing its infrared light.
New observations of the outer Milky Way help to understand the star formation process
Having an accurate understanding of the star formation process is essential to comprehend the formation and evolution of galaxies, and this requires to unveil the impact of environment on star formation. In a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, scientists used a new survey of the outer Galaxy to refine the distance and properties of star-forming clumps and study how star formation behave in comparison with the inner Galaxy.
