ITALIAN GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE EURO 250,000 GRANT TO ARMENIAN BYURAKAN OBSERVATORY

ARKA
March 18, 2010

YEREVAN, March 18, /ARKA/. The Italian government is expected to
provide a EURO 250,000 grant to Armenia to help develop astrophysics.

The news was announced by Hayk Harutyunian, director of Byurakan
observatory, at a news conference at Novosti international press
center.

He said the foreign ministries of Armenia and Italy will sign very
soon a two-year agreement to that end. He said the grant will be
spent on purchase of new equipment for the observatory and mutual
visits and researches by Italian and Armenian astrophysics.

Hayk Harutyunian said part of the grant will be spent on purchase
and delivery of a big spectrograph from the French Haut Provence
observatory. The spectrograph will allow to significantly increase
the capacity of the Byurakan observatory.

He said Armenian and Italian astrophysics plan also to
implement a joint project related to making Armenia a regional
scientific-educational center.

The Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory is owned and operated by the
Armenian Academy of Sciences. It is located on the slope of Mount
Aragats in the village of Byurakan in Armenia. Founded in 1946 by
Viktor Ambartsumian, it was one of the main astronomy centers of the
former USSR. The observatory has discovered special star clusters –
stellar associations (1947), more than 1,000 flare stars, dozens of
Supernovae, hundreds of Herbig-Haro objects and cometary nebulae,
hundreds of galaxies. It has been the site of two major conferences
on SETI, and is recognized as the regional center for astronomical
research.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress