Closing remarks

Extract

A number of years ago, the nobel-prize winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda paid a visit to the Byurakan and wrote these comments in his Memoirs (1978:Penguin Books, New York, pg. 243.): “I shall never forget my visit to the astronomical observatory of Byurakan, where I saw the writing of stars for the first time. The trembling light of the stars was picked up; very fine mechanisms were taking down the palpitation of the stars in space, like an electrocardiogram of the sky. In those graphics I observed that each star has its own distinct way of writing, tremulous and fascinating, but unintelligible to the eyes of an earthbound poet” Unintelligible to the eyes of a poet, but as we have seen from this symposium, to the eyes of the astronomer, the phenomenon of flare stars is becoming more and more comprehensible. Before I came here to Byurakan I must confess that I (like Neruda) knew very little about the flare star phenomenon. As a result of this symposium I have learned much about these objects and now have a keen appreciation for their importance for studies of early stellar evolution. In this regard, I find it a particular priviledge and extremely appropriate to have a meeting on the subject of flare stars here at the Byurakan Observatory, where so much seminal work on this topic has been done. I have been impressed by the dedicated efforts of the astronomers at the Byurakan Observatory in flare star research. Their efforts represent an important contribution to galactic astronomy.