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News and Recent Results
(January 25, 2011)
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Photo: The "La Calabria nel Mondo" award is given to Sandra Savaglio by Antonio Catricalà, the President
of the independent organisation AGCM, on October 12, 2010.
Copyright: Andrea Cenni
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"Calabria in the World " awarded to MPE scientist Sandra Savaglio
This October,
 Sandra Savaglio,
scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics,
received the international award " La Calabria nel Mondo ". The Italian organization C3 International
("Centro Culturale Calabrese") recognized with this award Savaglio's international achievements in
modern science and astrophysics. The ceremony took place in the City Hall "Campidoglio" of Rome.
Every year, C3 International honours distinguished persons from Calabria, successful in their work in
the fields of science, culture, sports, and journalism, who have been ambassadors of Calabria and its
values around the world. Among past honourees are Renato Dulbecco, Nobel Prize laureate for Medicine in
1975, Leon Panetta, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Santo Versace from the fashion house
Versace, and José Serra, a presidential candidate of the Brazilian elections in 2002.
Apart from Savaglio, 14 other people received the award this year. Among the guests were Jo Champa,
former model for Gianni Versace and actress (her latest movie was "Somewhere" which won the Golden
Lion at the Venice Film Festival), and the Minister of Cultural Heritage Sandro Bondi.
Designed by the well-known artist Gerardo Sacco, this year's award represents a scene from one of the
oldest surviving illuminated manuscripts of the Gospels. Written in the 6th century, the "Codex
purpureus Rossanensis" is now located at the Cathedral of Rossano in Calabria.
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(December 21, 2010)
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Dust in the surrounding of a GRB will dim and redden the light before it reaches the observer.
Credit: MPE / J. Greiner
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Illuminating dark bursts with GROND
Gamma-ray bursts are among the most energetic events in the Universe, but some appear curiously faint
in visible light. An international team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics have now conducted the biggest study to date of these so-called dark gamma-ray bursts, using the
GROND instrument on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla in Chile. The scientists conclude that
these gigantic explosions do not require exotic explanations; their faintness is now fully explained by a
combination of causes, the most important of which is the presence of dust between the Earth and the explosion.
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(December 16, 2010)
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The evolution of the abundance of 26Al in a stellar group.
Picture: R. Voss.
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INTEGRAL helps unravel the tumultuous recent history of the solar neighbourhood
Analysing new observations in gamma rays with ESA's INTEGRAL observatory, astronomers from the Max
Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions found evidence that only a few
million years ago massive stars enriched our cosmic neighbourhood with heavy elements. The scientists
exploited the radioactive decay of an isotope of aluminium, produced in the late stages of a massive
star's lifetime, to estimate the age of stars in the nearby Scorpius-Centaurus association, the closest
group of young and massive stars to the Sun.
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(November 30, 2010)
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A giant gamma-ray structure was discovered by processing Fermi all-sky data at energies
from 1 to 10 billion electron volts.
Picture: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT/D. Finkbeiner et al..
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Fermi telescope finds giant gamma-ray bubbles in the Milky Way
A team of scientists has found a previously unseen structure in the Milky Way by processing publicly available
data from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). The LAT is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray
detector ever launched and the MPE is involved in scientific analysis of the LAT data. The newly detected
feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the
centre of our galaxy. A paper about the findings has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
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(November 18, 2010)
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MPE Meilenstein
Yasuo Tanaka
Image: MPE (D. Grupe)
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Tanaka honoured as "Person of Cultural Merit"
A very high japanese accolade this year goes to Dr. Yasuo Tanaka, scientific member at the
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, together with 16 other people chosen for
this prestigious award. The high-energy astrophysicist is not only a distinguished member of
the global scientific community; he also actively promotes the academic exchange between Japan
and foreign countries.
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(November 2, 2010)
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Cluster Promotion prize for MPE student Thomas Krühler
During the "Universe Cluster Science Week", 11.-14. October, Dr. Thomas Krühler from the Max Planck
Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics presented his award winning thesis on "Advanced Photometric
Studies of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows". For the third time, the Excellence Cluster Universe awarded
two outstanding dissertations in the fields of astro-, nuclear and particle physics in the categories
"experiment" and "theory".
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(October 10, 2010)
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Nova Cygni (V407 Cyg) is at the center of the image.
Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
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News from a nova: gamma rays
For the first time, astronomers have detected gamma-rays from a nova, a finding that surprised both observers
and theorists. The discovery using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope overturns the notion that novae
explosions lack the power to emit such high-energy radiation.
Gamma rays are the most energetic form of light, and Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected the nova for
15 days. Scientists believe the emission arose as a high velocity shock wave raced from the site of the explosion.
A paper detailing the discovery appeared in the journal Science on 13. August 2010.
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(August 18, 2010)
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NGC 2207
Image: ESO
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Massive Black holes "switch on" due to galaxy collision
The centre of most galaxies harbours a massive Black Hole. So does our Milky Way - the exotic object there
however is pretty calm, unlike some supermassive gravity monsters in other galaxies. Scientists at the
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions around the world have now
analysed 199 of these galaxies and discovered what makes the black holes at the galaxy centre become
active: The black holes switched on some 700 million years ago after major galaxy merger events.
(The Astrophysical Journal, in press)
For more information see the
MPE press release.
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(June 15, 2010)
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MPE Highlight
Kirpal Nandra
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Kirpal Nandra appointed as new Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
The open position on the Board of Directors at the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics is now filled: Kirpal Nandra joins the institute as new director and head of
the high-energy research group. His long experience in X-ray astronomy actively complements the two
other astrophysical groups at the institute that study objects such as stars, galaxies and the large
scale structure in the universe with optical, infrared and sub-millimetre astronomy.
For more information see the
MPE press release.
Image: MPE
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(June 10, 2010)
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Image: ESA/XMM-Newton
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Novel observing mode on XMM-Newton opens new perspectives on galaxy clusters
Surveying the sky with XMM-Newton, scientists at the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and
other institutes have discovered two massive galaxy clusters, confirming a previous detection obtained
through observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, the 'shadow' they cast on the Cosmic Microwave
Background. The discovery, made possible thanks to a novel mosaic observing mode recently introduced on
ESA's X-ray observatory, opens a new window to study the Universe's largest bound structures in a
multi-wavelength approach.
For more information see the
MPE press release.
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(May 31 2010)
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In this false colour image arrows indicate galaxies that are likely located at the same distance. The
combination of the X-ray detection and the collection of massive galaxies unequivocally proves a real,
gravitationally bound cluster.
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Most distant galaxy cluster revealed by invisible light
An international team of astronomers from Germany and Japan has discovered the most distant cluster of
galaxies known so far - 9.6 billion light years away. The X-ray and infrared observations showed that the
cluster hosts predominantly old, massive galaxies, demonstrating that the galaxies formed when the universe
was still very young. These and similar observations therefore provide new information not only about early
galaxy evolution but also about history of the universe as a whole.
For more information see
MPE Press Release.
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(May 10, 2010)
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MPE Highlight
Image: S. Giodini, A. Finoguenov/MPE
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Black Holes - "Gas Blowers" of the Universe
Supermassive black holes with the mass of many millions of stars have been detected at the centre of many
large galaxies. A super-massive black hole acts like a lurking "monster" at the centre of the galaxy which
swallows the surrounding material through the intensity of its gravitational pull. X-ray observations indicate
that a large amount of energy is produced by the in-fall of matter into a black hole, and ejected in powerful
jets. Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have now shown that these jets
eject matter not only from their host galaxies but even the gas between the galaxy group members.
(Astrophysical Journal, 1 May 2010)
For further information see the
MPE press release.
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(April 30, 2010)
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HM Cancri
Artwork: Rob Haynes, Louisiana State University
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Most extreme binary shows orbital period of a mere 5 minutes
That is real fast: Two suns orbit each other in a mere 5.4 minutes. This makes HM Cancri the binary
star system with by far the shortest known orbital period - and at the same time the smallest binary known.
Its size is equivalent to no more than a quarter of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, about 100,000
kilometres. This has been shown by an international team of astronomers from the Max Planck Institute
for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions.
Original publication
ApJ 711, L138-L142 (2010);
MPG press release
Warwick University press release
Keck observatory press release
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(March 09, 2010)
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XMM-Newton satellite
MPE scientists discussing XMM data
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10th Anniversary of XMM-Newton
The MPE was highly involved in this mission during the telescope development and test, it
provides the EPIC-pn camera, and runs the survey science center.
The primary scientific objective of XMM-Newton is to perform high throughput spectroscopy of cosmic X-ray
sources over a broad band of energies ranging from 0.1 keV to 10 keV. The XMM-Newton spacecraft payload
includes three highly-nested grazing-incidence mirror modules of type Wolter I coupled to reflection grating
spectrometers and X-ray charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras with resolving powers ranging from 10 up to 1000
as well as one small optical/UV telescope.
For XMM-Newtons 10-year anniversary, the TV station EuroNews concentrated on the X-ray satellite in its
broadcast "space", which was produced in collaboration with the European Space Agency ESA and the MPE.
Links:
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(February 17, 2010)
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The Quasar J004457+4123 (encircled object on the left upper panel) looks like a weak point of light, hardly
to be distinguished from the huge number of stars in the Andromeda galaxy (right).
Copyright: TLS Tautenburg
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Spectacular flare of a distant Quasar
Using data from several telescopes, an international team of scientists from
the MPE, the Tautenburg observatory and others have now confirmed that an
object observed in 1992 as a so-called "nova" in our neighbouring Andromeda
galaxy is actually a much more distant quasar with a uniquely intense light
burst. The most likely explanation for the magnitude and shape of the light
curve is that a massive star came too close to the gigantic Black Hole at
the centre of this distant galaxy, where it was ripped apart and swallowed
by the gravitational pull of the black hole.
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(February 11, 2010)
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(January 25, 2010)
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(November 05, 2009)
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MPE Highlight
(July 18, 2009)
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Image Credit: Rochester Institute of Technology
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Living Fossils Hold Record of "Supermassive" Kick -
Star clusters point to black holes ejected from host galaxies
When two galaxies and the supermassive black holes in their centres merge,
the resulting recoil can catapult the black hole from the galaxy. Scientists
of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), MPE and Johns Hopkins University
have now found that the stellar clusters around these black holes show very unusual
properties and so open up a new possibility to study the event in detail. The
stars around evicted black holes orbit at a very high velocity, because only
stars orbiting faster than the kick velocity remain attached to the black hole
after the kick. As a kind of living fossils of a distant epoch they can shed
light on the turbulent past of merging galaxies in nearby clusters.
Links:
RIT Press Release
Original paper
Contact:
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(July 10, 2009)
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In this picture the afterglow of GRB090423 is the red object shining only
in some of the used color channels.
Image: GROND/MPE
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Gamma-Ray Burst 090423 detected at a record distance
Following a Gamma-Ray burst alarm of the NASA Swift Satellite on April
23, several groups world-wide started searching for the afterglow emission.
The MPE built
GROND
instrument mounted at the MPI/ESO telesope at La Silla Observatory (Chile)
observed this afterglow simultaneously in the spectral bands g'r'i'z'JHK
about 15 hours after the burst. The simultaneous measurements in the
seven spectral bands enabled scientists at MPE led by Jochen Greiner, to
rapidly estimate the redshift of the burst to be around z = 8 which puts it
into a new record distance.
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(April 28, 2009)
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Last update: 2011-01-25 by
H. Steinle
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MPE
News and Recent Results
