Centro de Estudios de Fisica del Cosmos de Aragon explained

Aragon Center for Physics of the Cosmos
Native Name:	Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón
Founder:	Mariano Moles Villamate
Director:	Javier Cenarro Lagunas
Academic Staff:	23 (as of 2023/10)
Total Staff:	61 (as of 2023/10)

The Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA) is a Research institute in Teruel, Spain. Established in 2008 as a private foundation of public initiative.^[1] by the Government of Aragon. Besides research in astronomy, and leading several large astronomical surveys, CEFCA is the operator of the Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre (OAJ, recognized as Unique Science and Technology Infrastructure by the national government). The primary research interests at CEFCA are in Stellar evolution, Time-domain astronomy and Galaxy evolution.

History

CEFCA was officially established in July 2008 with Mariano Moles Villamate as the founding director.The founding of CEFCA is intertwined with that of the OAJ, see the history of OAJ for more.Some key dates in CEFCA's history include:

2008: CEFCA is established.
2009: First meeting of CEFCA Steering committee (Patronato de la Fundación CEFCA) and launch of project (allowing hiring of staff).
2010: CEFCA moved to its current location^[2] (in Teruel's Plaza San Juan).
2014: OAJ was recognized^[3] as a national .
2016: Javier Cenarro Lagunas became the director.^[4]

Location

CEFCA is geographically located in the following installations within the Province of Teruel.

The CEFCA headquarters are located in the historical center of Teruel (at Plaza San Juan, number 1). In a building that was previously owned by the Teruel branch of the Bank of Spain.
The Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre (OAJ), which is located on the "Buitre" peak of the Sierra de Javalambre.
CEFCA's main High performance computing facility (Unit for Processing and Archival of Data) is located in the Government of Aragon building of Teruel.
CEFCA's main outreach facility is GALACTICA, which is an astronomy museum as well as facilities for Amateur astronomy. It is located on the base of the Pico de Buitre (where OAJ is located on the summit) in the Arcos de las Salinas village.

Academics

CEFCA's academic activity can be classified in the following fields

Graduate program

CEFCA's graduate program is composed of multiple levels:

Summer internships:
- CEFCA provides funding for M.Sc students from any Spanish university to stay in Teruel for July and August to conduct a short research project with CEFCA's research staff.^[5]
- Google Summer of Code projects^[6] that are available internationally and are done remotely.
M.Sc final project: this is a one-year project conducted by M.Sc students in Spain. CEFCA's research staff propose research topics for the students of any Spanish university. The students conduct their research in their host university, but under the supervision of the CEFCA research staff.
PhD program:^[7] A number of PhD students from any university are regularly funded and trained by CEFCA for the full 4-year period of a PhD course in Spain and are based in Teruel. Previous universities that CEFCA has cooperated with for this purpose include University of Zaragoza and Complutense University of Madrid.

Astrophysics

CEFCA's astrophysics research can be categorized in the following fields;^[8] primarily using data from the Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre (OAJ); but not limited to them.

Wide-field Astronomical surveys: design and conduction of wide-field, multi-filter astronomical surveys. This includes surveys like J-PAS^[9] (planned to be +8000 square degrees in 57 filters), J-PLUS^[10] (+3000 square degrees in data release 3 in 12 filters), Mini-HAWKs (on-going), J-ALFIN^[11] (on-going), MUDEHaR (on-going) and North-PHASE (on-going).
Astroinformatics: Including the data processing, archiving^[12] and analysis of the large volume the wide field imaging data that is produced by the observatory. The OAJ has a dedicated Department for Processing and Archival of Data (DPAD) for this purpose which contains staff researchers, technical astronomers and engineers.
Time-domain astronomy: imaging large portions of the sky in various times allows the study of asteroids in the solar system^[13] (which move in the sky), variable stars within the Milky Way (which change brightness), or supernova in other galaxies^[14]
Stellar and galaxy evolution: the very wide field of view, and the many filters of the surveys conducted at OAJ allow accurate measurements of thousands of stars^[15] and galaxies^[16] ^[17] in each exposure.

Notes and References

Web site: DECREE 155/2008, of July 22, 2008, of the Government of Aragón, authorizing the constitution of the "Fundación Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón". . Boletín Oficial de Aragón . 8 August 2008.
News: Rajadel . Luis . The Bank of Spain building could be used for the study of the cosmos . Heraldo . 9 October 2023.
News: Javalambre's Astrophysics Observatory gets national recognition . 12 November 2023 . Heraldo Teruel . 2014-10-08.
Web site: Director of the CEFCA foundation . CEFCA . 9 October 2023 . cefcadirector.
News: Millán . Javier . CEFCA promotes scientific vocations with the training of young researchers . 9 October 2023 . Diario de Teruel . summerinternship.
News: Google funds software developed in CEFCA for Javalambre Astrophysic Observatory (Teruel) . 9 October 2023 . Europa press . 22 June 2023 . gsoc2023.
Web site: Two predoctoral positions in Astrophysics 2023 . 9 October 2023 . phdpositions.
News: Astrophysicists meet in Teruel to discuss future scientific projects of the JAST80 telescope of the Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory . 9 October 2023 . Aragón Hoy . 24 November 2021 . jast80legacymeeting.
Bonoli . Silvia . Marín-Franch . Antonio . Varela . Jesus . et . al . The miniJPAS survey: A preview of the Universe in 56 colors . Astronomy and Astrophysics . September 2021 . 653 . A31 . 10.1051/0004-6361/202038841 . 2007.01910 . 2021A&A...653A..31B . 220363510.
Cenarro . Javier . Moles . Mariano . Cristobal-Hornillos . David . et . al. . J-PLUS: The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey . Astronomy & Astrophysics . February 2019 . 622 . A176 . 10.1051/0004-6361/201833036 . 1804.02667 . 2019A&A...622A.176C . 55842503 .
News: Millán . Javier . A new research project with the JAST80 telescope at Javalambre will investigate nebulae . 9 October 2023 . Diario de Teruel . 12 June 2023 .
Civera . Tamara . CEFCA Catalogues Portal towards FAIR principles . Proceedings of ADASS XXXI . August 2022 . 2208.05272.
Morate . D. . Mahlke . M. . Álvarez-Candal . A. . Ederoclite . A. . Vázquez Ramió . H. . Siffert . B.B. . Placco . V. . Asteroids & J-Var . Seventh Edition of the Spanish Meeting of Planetary Sciences and Exploration of the Solar System . July 2023 . 2023pses.conf79690M.
Espinosa . L. . Ederoclite . A. . Siffert . B.B . Detection of supernovae in J-VAR . Boletim da Sociedade Astrônomica Brasileira. Proceedings da XLV Reunião Anual da SAB . 2023 . 34 . 308–310 . 2023BASBr..34..308E.
Lopez-Sanjuan . C. . Tremblay . P.E . Ederoclite . A. . The miniJPAS survey: White dwarf science with 56 optical filters . Astronomy and Astrophysics . September 2022 . 665 . A151 . 10.1051/0004-6361/202243584 . 2203.10615 . 2022A&A...665A.151L. 247593781 .
Rahna . P.T. . Zheng . Z. -Y . Chies-Santos . A.L. . The miniJPAS Survey: Detection of the double-core Lyα morphology for two high-redshift QSOs . Astronomy & Astrophysics . December 2022 . 668 . A148 . 10.1051/0004-6361/202244711 . 2207.00196 . 2022A&A...668A.148R. 250243992 .
Rodríguez-Martín . J.E. . González Delgado . R.M. . Martínez-Solaeche . G. . et . al. . The miniJPAS survey. Galaxy populations in the most massive cluster in miniJPAS: mJPC2470-1771 . Astronomy & Astrophysics . October 2022 . 666 . A160 . 10.1051/0004-6361/202243245 . 2203.10615 . 2022A&A...665A.151L. 250921083 .