Physics of Hot Stars

The research of this group is focused on studies of massive hot stars at their different evolutionary stages. The studied objects can be either single or in binary or multiple systems. Furthermore, the group is involved in observational and theoretical investigations of the chemistry and dynamics of the circumstellar material of evolved massive stars. The research of massive stars is complemented by studies of low-mass stars in late evolutionary stages. Theoretical studies in modelling stellar atmospheres with a natural focus on hot massive stars are also a part of the group's research.

The member of the group is also involved in studies of energetic galactic and extragalactic cosmic sources. In particular they are focuses its activities on multi-spectral analysis of gamma-ray bursts, their optical afterglows and other active objects.

The research topics of the group are:

• radiative transfer and modeling of stellar atmospheres and winds 

• massive stars in short-lived transition phases

• multi-wavelength analysis of massive hot stars and inhomogeneous stellar winds 

• subdwarfs

Head: Michaela Kraus
Scientists: Jakub Fišák, Alex C. Gormaz Matamala, Martin Jelínek, Jiří Kubát, Brankica Kubátová, Michalis Kourniotis, Olga Maryeva, Peter Neméth, Julieta Sanchez Arias, Vojtěch Šimon, Joris Vos

More: stel.asu.cas.cz/en/hotstars/

Extrasolar Planet Research

The research of this group is dedicated to detection and characterization of exoplanets. The group use transits observations and spectroscopic radial velocities measurements to detect and characterize exoplanets, their atmpspheres and exoplanetary systems. The group use large graound based telescope facilities but also Ondřejov Perek 2-m telescope equipped with a Echelle spectrograph. The main targets are planetary candidates detected by Kepler/K2 and TESS space missions. Currently, the members of the group are working on the project of refurbishment and installation of a new spectrograph (PLATOSpec) at 1.52-m telescope at ESO La Silla Observatory (Chile). This device should serve as a ground based support for future space mission PLATO.

The group is coordinating an ERASMUS+ grant for which a public lecture series is planned.

The group is also involved in astroinformatics research in order to develop new methods and tools to deal with the exponentially increasing amount of data in astronomy.

Head: Petr Kabáth
Scientists: Pavol Gajdoš, Marie Karjalainen, Raine Karjalainen, Marek Skarka, Petr Škoda, Ján Šubjak 

More: stel.asu.cas.cz/en/extrasolar-planet-research/