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Latest news
MPE Highlight and
MPE Press Release:
Reinhard Genzel
Bild: MPE
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Crafoord Prize in Astronomy 2012 for Reinhard Genzel
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced today that the Crafoord Prize in
Astronomy 2012 will be jointly awarded to Reinhard Genzel from the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, and Andrea Ghez from the University of California,
Los Angeles, USA "for their observations of the stars orbiting the galactic centre,
indicating the presence of a supermassive black hole".
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(January 19, 2012)
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Linda Tacconi
Credit: MPE
Original publication:
Tacconi L. J., et al.
2010, Nature 463, p781
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Linda Tacconi receives Lancelot Berkeley Prize
This week, Linda Tacconi will receive the "Lancelot M. Berkeley - New York Community Trust Prize
for Meritorious Work in Astronomy" during the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical
Society in Austin, Texas. In her prize lecture, the MPE scientist will talk about how powerful
millimetre telescopes can probe distant, massive galaxies to reveal that they were indeed rich
in molecular gas and therefore formed stars much more rapidly than galaxies today.
Linda Tacconi is a senior astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics,
where she works with millimetre and submillimetre interferometry as well as infrared high
resolution imaging spectroscopy to find out more about galaxies, the black holes at their
centres and star formation. After her PhD at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
Massachusetts, USA, Linda Tacconi worked at the Netherlands Foundation for Research in
Astronomy, Dwingeloo, before she moved to the MPE in 1991. She has been or is chairing
several international committees to maximize the scientific return from telescopes such
as ALMA, IRAM and the VLT.
The Lancelot M. Berkeley New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy
was established in 2010 and is awarded annually for highly meritorious work in advancing
the science of astronomy published in a peer-reviewed journal during the previous year.
No restrictions are placed on a candidate's citizenship or country of residency. In 2010,
the prize was awarded jointly to William J. Borucki and David G. Koch from the NASA Ames
Research Center.
The 2012 prize goes to Linda Tacconi "in recognition of her contributions to the field, and
in particular the recent paper on 'High molecular gas fractions in normal massive star-forming
galaxies in the young Universe'."
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(January 10, 2012)
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MPE Highlight and
MPE Press Release:
A simulation of the gas cloud moving towards the galactic centre. Because of the enormous gravitational
pull of the black hole, the cloud already becomes elongated along its direction of motion.
Credit: MPE
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Galactic Black Hole disrupts Gas Cloud
Over the next few years, astronomers will be able to observe first-hand how the super massive black
hole at the centre of our Milky Way is being fed: an international team of astronomers led by the
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has found a gas cloud that is falling towards
the black hole in the galactic centre. While some distortion due to the huge gravitational pull
of the black hole can already be seen, the gas cloud will be completely disrupted and ultimately
swallowed by the black hole, resulting in largely increased X-ray emission. The observations and
analysis are described in a Nature paper, published online on 14 December 2011.
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(December 14, 2011)
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Astronomical images taken with NACO.
Copyright: ESO
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Sharp eyes at the VLT - a decade of observations with NACO
Ten years ago, on 25 November 2001, the first adaptive optics system was installed at the Very Large
Telescope (VLT) of ESO. Since then adaptive optics has become a routine observing technique, giving
astronomers at the MPE and other institutes sharp eyes to observe the sky with ground-based telescopes
and making many important astronomical discoveries.
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(November 25, 2011)
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Asteroid 2005 YU55
Image: MPE / ESAC
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Herschel meets asteroid – close encounter of the fast kind
It is the closest, fastest and smallest object so far seen by Herschel. In fact, such observations
were not even foreseen due to technical constraints. The asteroid 2005 YU55 is moving on the sky
with a speed exceeding by far Herschel's possibilities to track it. But with the help of a little
trick scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and at the European Space
Astronomy Centre in Spain were able to use Herschel
to catch a glimpse of this asteroid shortly after it had crossed the Moon's orbit. With these
observations the astronomers could determine some thermal and physical parameters. As it turned
out, 2005 YU55 is somewhat smaller than had been assumed and probably might be a loose assembly
of boulders, pebbles and dust.
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(November 16, 2011)
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MPE Highlight
ROSAT
redit: Dornier System, now EADS
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ROSAT - the end of an exceptional satellite
(1.June 1990 - 23. October 2011)
During the early morning hours of 23rd October 2011, at about 4 am CEST, the research satellite ROSAT
plunged back to Earth and disappeared - without a trace - in the Indian Ocean. This was the
last stage for one of the most successful satellite missions of X-ray astronomy. During its eight years
of active live, the X-ray observatory ROSAT detected more than 150 000 mainly unknown X-ray sources; some
4000 scientists from 24 countries used its data for more than 4600 papers in refereed journals, which were
cited over 140 000 times.
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(November 14, 2011)
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This artist's impression shows two galaxies in the early Universe. The brilliant explosion on the
left is a gamma-ray burst. The light from the burst travels through both galaxies on its way to Earth.
Image: ESO/L. Calçada
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VLT Observations of Gamma-ray Burst Reveal Surprising Ingredients of Early Galaxies
An international team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
has used the brief but brilliant light of a distant gamma-ray burst as a probe to study the make-up
of very distant galaxies. Surprisingly the new observations revealed two galaxies in the young Universe
that are richer in the heavier chemical elements than the Sun. The two galaxies may be in the process
of merging. Such events in the early Universe will drive the formation of many new stars and may be
the trigger for gamma-ray bursts.
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(November 2, 2011)
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MPE Press Release:
The first dedicated eROSITA conference attracted more than 150 participants
Credit: MPE
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Agreement on eROSITA data reached
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German scientists ready for the hunt on dark energy
The German and Russian partners of the new eROSITA X-ray space observatory have now agreed on how to
split the data from the first four years of an all sky survey. This decision was announced today at
the first dedicated eROSITA conference in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and will enable German astronomers
to work with the first full sky X-ray survey since the one carried out by the ROSAT satellite some
20 years ago. The conference is attended by more than 150 astronomers from many different countries
and fields of astronomy, showing the broad interest of the international astronomical community in
this new observatory that is to be launched in 2013.
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(October 19 2011)
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MPE Press Release:
EUCLID space mission selected by ESA
The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, together with the Observatory of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, is a major partner in the EUCLID space mission that has been selected today by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Cosmic Vision Program. EUCLID¿s primary goal is to study the accelerating expansion of the universe. Launch is expected by the end of 2019.
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he EUCLID space mission will study the accelerated expansion of the
Universe.
Image: MPE
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(October 04, 2011)
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Citation landmarks for two high-energy papers
As of mid-September, there are 1000 citations for each of two papers published by the high-energy group
at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics: The ROSAT source catalogue and the paper
describing the focal plane instruments for the three X-ray mirror systems on board the XMM-Newton satellite.
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The distribution of the ROSAT All-Sky Bright Sources on the sky.
Image: MPE
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The 6 cm x 6 cm large pn-CCD at the heart of the EPIC/XMM camera.
Image: MPE
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(September 20, 2011)
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Reimar Lüst will receive the first honorary directorate of the Jacobs University Bremen
Image: Jacobs University
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Reimar Lüst receives honorary doctorate
The founding father and long-time director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics,
Reimar Lüst, will receive a special distinction on 17 September: On the occasion of its 10th
anniversary, the Jacobs University Bremen awards its first honorary doctorate to the astrophysicist.
Reimar Lüst will be honoured for his outstanding lifetime achievements in the fields of space
science and as a science manager.
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(September 01, 2011)
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I. Papamastorakis, former director of the Skinakas Observatory and G. Haerendel, former MPE director.
Copyright: cretalive.gr
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Skinakas Obseravatory celebrates 25th anniversary
The Skinakas Observatory has been in existence for 25 years and this was celebrated end of May
on top of the Ida mountains. Founded in 1986 by the University of Crete, the Foundation for Research
and Technology Hellas FORTH and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, it is used
both for the training of students and basic astronomical research. Today the Skinakas Observatory
has three telescopes: a 1.3m Ritchey Chrétien telescope, a 0.6m and a 0.3m telescope. The 0.6m fully
robotic telescope is a joined project of the University of Crete and the University of Tübingen, Germany.
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(July 26, 2011)
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MPE Highlight and
MPE Press Release:
Prof. Gregor Mofill (Credit: MPE)
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James-Maxwell-Prize for Gregor Morfill
This year's James Clerk Maxwell Prize in Plasma Physics goes to Professor Gregor Morfill, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. With the award, the American Physical Society (APS) recognizes Morfill's pioneering and seminal contributions to the field of dusty plasmas. The bestowal of the award will take place at the annual meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics to be held in Salt Lake City in November 2011.
The prize was established in 1975 in honour of the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell and is presented annually for outstanding contributions to plasma physics. Gregor Morfill is the first German laureate. The official citation highlights in particular his work leading to the discovery of plasma crystals, to an explanation for the complicated structure of Saturn's rings and to microgravity dusty plasma experiments conducted first on parabolic-trajectory flights and then on the International Space Station.
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(19. Juli 2011)
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MPE Highlight and
MPE Press Release:
Prof. Dr. Reinhard Genzel, winner of the Karl Schwarzschild Medal of the German Astronomical Society 2011 (Credit: MPE)
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Reinhard Genzel receives Karl Schwarzschild Medal 2011
The highest honour for astronomical research in Germany, the Karl Schwarzschild Medal of the German Astronomical Society (AG), this year goes to the Garching astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel, director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. The AG bestows the award to a researcher who made a discovery with wide-reaching consequences. Genzel and teams were able to provide evidence that the centre of our Milky Way harbours a Black Hole. This Black Hole in the galactic centre is the best empirical evidence for the existence of these exotic objects that are postulated in Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
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The stars S2 orbits around the centre of the Milky Way in less than 20 years
and comes very close to the central object. The only viable explanation for
this is a Black Hole with 4.3 million solar masses.
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(13. Juli 2011)
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A tool agains Ehec bacteria: Comsumers could use this device to eliminate dangerous germs such
as Ehec from foodsuffs in their own kitchen.
Credit: Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik
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Cold Plasma eliminates Ehec bacteria
In first experiments with prototypes the number of these dangerous germs is reduced drastically
The next wave of infections with Ehec bacteria might be preventable: Scientists at the Max Planck
Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and at the Munich hospital "Klinikum Schwabing"
successfully killed various strains of Ehec bacteria with cold plasma, which is a strongly ionised
gas at moderate temperatures. In the recent experiments the cold plasma now proved to be effective
against the O104:H4 strain, which had caused the outbreak with thousands of serious cases. The
scientists used prototypes of devices suitable for everyday use that could be employed in the
food industry or in private households.
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(June 20, 2011)
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Map of one of the statistics used to probe for non-Gaussianities in the WMAP data.
Copyright: C. Räth/MPE
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Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation might not be a Gaussian random field
Since the serendipitous discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) almost 50 years
ago, this faint uniform afterglow of the Big Bang has been studied in ever more detail. In the past
decade, the Wilkinson-Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observed the CMB in high enough detail to allow
scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutes to probe for
non-Gaussiantities with ever more sophisticated methods. Their results indicate that the temperature
fluctuations seen in the CMB are indeed not a purely random, Gaussian field but that there are
correlations on large scales. This could have interesting implications on inflation theories.
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(June 15, 2011)
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M 17
Credit: ESO/INAF-VST/OmegaCAM
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First Images from the VLT Survey Telescope
- VST and 268 megapixel OmegaCAM start work -
The VLT Survey Telescope (VST), the latest addition to ESO's Paranal Observatory, has made its first
release of impressive images of the southern sky. The VST is a state-of-the-art 2.6-metre telescope,
with the huge 268-megapixel camera OmegaCAM at its heart, which is designed to map the sky both quickly
and with very fine image quality. The University Observatory Munich and the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics took a leading part in the development of this camera and are involved in one of three
ambitious main observation campaigns. New images of the Omega Nebula, the globular cluster Omega Centauri
and the Leo Triplet of galaxies demonstrate the VST's power.
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(June 8, 2011)
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GRB 090429B
Credit: Gemini Observatory / AURA / Levan, Tanvir, Cucchiara
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Cosmic Explosion is New Candidate for Most Distant Object in the Universe
A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA?s Swift satellite in April 2009 has been newly unveiled as a leading
candidate for the most distant object in the Universe. At an estimated distance of 13.14 billion light years,
the burst lies far beyond any known quasar and is potentially more distant than any previously known galaxy or
gamma-ray burst. Multiple lines of evidence in favour of a record-breaking distance for this burst, known as
GRB 090429B after the date when it was discovered (April 29, 2009), are presented in a paper by an international
team of astronomers, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE),
accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
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(May 26, 2011)
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"Ignition" of a cold plasma.
Credit: MPE
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Invention for the treatment of chronic wounds receives research prize
On 10 May 2011 a joint research team of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the
Klinikum Schwabing received the research prize 2010 of the "Fondation URGO" for its plasma technology.
This invention allows the elimination of bacteria on chronically infected wounds and thus supports
wound healing.
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(May 12, 2011)
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MPE Highlight and
MPE Press Release
This illustration shows an Ultra-Luminous InfraRed Galaxy (ULIRG) that exhibits massive outflows of
molecular gas.
Image: ESA/AOES Medialab
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Caught in the act:
Herschel detects gigantic storms sweeping entire galaxies clean
With observations from the PACS instrument on board the ESA Herschel space observatory, an
international team of scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
have found gigantic storms of molecular gas gusting in the centres of many galaxies. Some of
these massive outflows reach velocities of more than 1000 kilometres per second, i.e. thousands
of times faster than in terrestrial hurricanes. The observations show that the more active galaxies
contain stronger winds, which can blow away the entire gas reservoir in a galaxy, thereby inhibiting
both further star formation and the growth of the central black hole. This finding is the first
conclusive evidence for the importance of galactic winds in the evolution of galaxies.
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(May 9, 2011)
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Savaglio and Piero Muscari, the director of the award ceremony.
Copyright: Piero Muscari Comunicazione
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Savaglio receives "Made in Calabria" award
The organisation "Made in Calabria" honoured MPE scientist Sandra Savaglio in February 2011 with
the international award for the section "World" during the event "Gran Gala delle eccelenze calabresi".
The event took place in Rome in the presence of the city mayor. This prize recognises illustrious persons
from Calabria, who have achieved a leading role in society in Calabria, in Rome, in Italy or worldwide.
Within only a few months, this is already the second international award for Savaglio.
Each year, the award "Made in Calabria" is bestowed on personalities in the fields of culture,
entertainment, journalism, companies, institutions, or sports, to honour their role as ambassadors
of the region and to highlight them as role models for the younger generation in particular. Savaglio
received the award in the category "world" for her internationally successful work in astrophysics.
The other laureates are Guiseppe Mussari, president of the Italian association of banking houses,
Pier Frencesoc Pingitore, producer and director in Italian television, and the singer and songwriter
Peppe Voltarelli.
Dr. Sandra Savaglio
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(April 19, 2011)
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Dr. Mierk Schwabe
Just as in a genuine liquid, the micrometre-sized particles in a complex plasma can form drops.
Copyright: M. Schwabe
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Mierk Schwabe receives PhD Research Prize from the European Physical Society
The Plasma Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS) awards its PhD Research Prize this
year to Mierk Schwabe and two other physicists. With this award, the EPS honours the exceptional
quality of the work carried out by young physicists as part of their PhD research in any area of plasma
physics. The MPE scientist Schwabe receives the prize for her thesis on Complex Plasmas.
The award ceremony will take place in the framework of the annual EPS Plasma Physics Conference in
June 2011 in Strasbourg. In addition to three years' EPS individual membership, Schwabe will have the
opportunity to present her thesis in a talk at the EPS conference.
During her PhD, Schwabe concentrated on Complex Plasmas - ionized gases, which contain small particles
with a size of only a few micrometres. In these Complex Plasmas she studied effects that occur in normal
liquids as well, such as the propagation of waves or the formation of drops and bubbles. Schwabe was
able to show that already a few thousand particles in a complex plasma can behave just like a liquid.
In conventional liquids containing tiny molecules this would correspond to only a few nanometres.
Studying processes in complex plasmas therefore is an important step to better understand nano-liquids.
Plasma Crystal Project at MPE
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(March 24, 2011)
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Composite near-infrared and X-ray image of the galaxy cluster CL J1449+0856
Credit: ESA/ESO/Subaru/R. Gobat et al.
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An old galaxy cluster discovered in the young Universe
Astronomers working with data from several observatories, including the VLT and XMM-Newton, have discovered
the most distant, mature galaxy cluster yet. The cluster is seen as it was when the Universe was only about
a quarter of its current age. In contrast to other structures observed in the young Universe, this object
is already in its prime, as is evident from its diffuse X-ray emission and evolved population of galaxies.
This shows that fully-grown galaxy clusters were already in place this early in cosmic history.
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(March 15, 2011)
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Picture: ESA/Herschel/ PACS/SPIRE/J.Fritz(U.Gent) / XMM-Newton/EPIC/W.Pietsch(MPE)
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Andromeda in a different light
The big, beautiful Andromeda Galaxy, aka M31, is a spiral galaxy a mere 2.5 million light-years
away. Two space-based observatories have combined to produce this intriguing composite image of
Andromeda, at wavelengths outside the visible spectrum, which was selected as
Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) by NASA.
The remarkable view follows the locations of this galaxy's once and
future stars. In reddish hues, image data from the large Herschel infrared observatory traces
enormous lanes of dust, warmed by stars, sweeping along Andromeda's spiral arms. The dust, in
conjunction with the galaxy's interstellar gas, comprises the raw material for future star
formation. X-ray data from the XMM-Newton observatory in blue pinpoint Andromeda's X-ray binary
star systems. These systems likely contain neutron stars or stellar mass black holes that
represent final stages in stellar evolution. More than twice the size of our own Milky Way,
the Andromeda Galaxy is over 200,000 light-years across.
The Herschel space observatory was launched in May 2009 and produces impressive images of the
sky in infrared wavelengths. Max Planck Institutes played a crucial role in creating two of the
three instruments: The PACS instrument was designed and built by the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for
Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg and other partners from six European countries. PACS (Photodetector
Array Camera and Spectrometer) will carry out imaging photometry and spectroscopy with a never
before achieved accuracy and sensitivity in the far infrared, between 57 and 210 micrometres.
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(February 08, 2010)
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These are the first observational data taken by VIRUS-W at the beginning of November.
Credit: M. Fabricius, MPE
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First Light for VIRUS-W spectrograph
The new observing instrument VIRUS-W, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
and the University Observatory Munich, saw "first light" on 10th November at the Harlan J. Smith
Telescope of the McDonald observatory in Texas. Its first images of a spiral galaxy about 30 million
light-years away where an impressive confirmation of the capabilities of the instrument, which can
determine the motion of stars in near-by galaxies to a precision of a few kilometres per second.
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(January 25, 2011)
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MPE Press Release:
Messier 101 (NGC 5457, a galaxy with a massive dark halo but no bulge and no detected black hole.
Observations show that this giant galaxy cannot contain a black hole that is even as small as the
relatively small black hole in our Milky Way galaxy.
Image Credit: wikisky.org
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No direct link between black holes and Dark Matter
Massive black holes have been found at the centres of almost all galaxies, where the largest galaxies -
who are also the ones embedded in the largest halos of Dark Matter - harbour the most massive black holes.
This led to the speculation that there is a direct link between Dark Matter and black holes, i.e. that
exotic physics controls the growth of a black hole. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Extraterrestrial
Physics, the University Observatory Munich and the University of Texas in Austin have now conducted an
extensive study of galaxies to prove that black hole mass is not directly related to the mass of the
Dark Matter halo but rather seems to be determined by the formation of the galaxy bulge.
Their findings have been published in a Letter to the journal Nature on 20th January.
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(January 20, 2011)
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Two cosmonauts visit a Garching primary school
Credit: Michael Kretschmer, MPE
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All around the plasma crystal - MPE welcomes cosmonauts and physicists to the PK-3 Plus Symposium
In mid-December, more than 50 scientists found their way through snow and ice to the Max Planck Institute
for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) for a two-day symposium about the plasma crystal experiments on board
the International Space Station. The very interesting scientific programme of the meeting with some 30
talks about different physical phenomena that can be studied in space and in the laboratory was
complemented by a special treat for students at a Garching school: Two cosmonauts joined them on the
morning of 16 December for a question and answer session.
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(January 14, 2011)
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MPE Press Release:
While Fermi flew over Egypt, the GBM intercepted a particle beam from a terrestrial gamma-ray flash
(TGF) that occurred in a thunderstorm below its horizon.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
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Space telescope catches antimatter from terrestrial thunderstorms
Normally astronomers look deep into space, but in the latest finding from the NASA Fermi
Gamma-ray Space Telescope presented on Monday, Jan. 10, during a news briefing at the American
Astronomical Society meeting, they detected an antimatter signal from Earth. Created in energetic
processes above thunderstorms, when such an antimatter beam strikes the spacecraft, it actually
becomes a source of the gamma-ray light it was designed to observe. Scientists at the Max Planck
Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) were responsible for the development of the detectors
and the power supplies of the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), which led to this discovery,
and contributed to the calibration and data analysis for this particular result.
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(January 10, 2011)
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Pan-Starrs 1 Telescope on Hawaii
Credit: Rob Ratkowski
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Successful hunt for asteroids in the classroom
For the past few months, the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, designed to become the world's most powerful
asteroid hunter, teamed up with school children from the USA and Germany to discover and study
asteroids - clumps of rock, between several and a few hundred kilometers in size, that cruise
through our Solar System. At the close of the campaign, which was coordinated by the International
Astronomical Search Collaboration, the students can look back on exciting eight weeks of asteroid
search, which included the confirmation of four "Near-Earth Objects" (asteroids passing relatively
close to Earth) and the discovery of what could turn out to be more than 170 previously undiscovered
asteroids.
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(January 5, 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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Networking at the DPT2010
Picture: MPE / Monika Vongehr
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Female physicists conference in Garching
This year, the "Physikerinnentagung" DPT2010 took place in Munich - and started in Garching: On 4 November,
the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, together with the Munich Technical University and the
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Plasmaphysics and Quantum Opitcs, invited all participants and high
school students to guided tours on the Garching Campus. The laboratory tours were followed by the official
opening of the conference with a public talk at MPE.
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(November 9, 2010)
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MPE Highlight:
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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Credit: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory and University of California, Santa Cruz) and the
HUDF09 Team.
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SINFONI confirms distance record for galaxy
Using the SINFONI spectrograph at the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), a European team of astronomers has
measured the distance to the most distant galaxy so far. With a redshift of 8.6, they are seeing it when
the Universe was only about 600 million years old. This detection was only possible by using the SINFONI
instrument, which combines the SPIFFI spectrograph built at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics with adaptive optics. The results are published in the 21. October issue of the journal Nature.
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(October 21, 2010)
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International Year of Astronomy 2009 reached more than 800 million people
The 1300-page final report of the International Astronomical Union shows that at least 815 million people
in 148 countries participated in the world's largest science event in decades. Star parties, public talks,
exhibits, school programmes, books, citizen-scientist programmes, science-arts events, documentaries and
parades honouring astronomy and its achievements meant that IYA2009 was indeed a worldwide event. In
Germany, about two million people were reached by the thousands of activities organized by professional
and amateur astronomers.
Apart from several events and activities at the Institute itself, the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics contributed also to several larger projects in the framework of the International
Year of Astronomy. Together with the other astronomical Max-Planck-Institutes the MPE produced a special
edition of the science magazine "Sterne und Weltraum" with the title "Sieben Blicke in den Kosmos". And
just in time for a dazzling finale, the exhibition "Evolution of the Universe", which was initiated and
implemented by the MPE and other local area research institutes, opened on 9 December 2009 at the
Deutsches Museum in Munich. This exhibition continues to be openly accessible to all visitors of the
Deutsches Museum for a minimum of two years.
link to the report
the IYA 2009 at MPE
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(October 18, 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 will present 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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Credit: PS1PCE
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Pan-STARRS discovers first potentially hazardous asteroid
The Pan-STARRS sky survey, which also involves scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, has discovered an aste
roid that could come to within about 6 million kilometres of Earth in mid-October. This is the first "potentially hazardous object" (PHO) to
be discovered by Pan-STARRS and has been given the designation "2010 ST3".
The Pan-STARRS survey was designed specifically to look for these kinds of asteroids. Most of the largest PHOs have already been catalogued,
but scientists suspect that there are many more asteroids with a diameter of one kilometre or less that have not yet been discovered. While
the Earth is continuously being bombarded by much smaller asteroids that burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere, the shockwave from larger ro
cks could devastate a large area. Such impacts are estimated to occur once every few thousand years.
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(September 28, 2010)
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After 3rd contact
Image: Anita Winter / MPE
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Total Solar Eclipse in Patagonia
On 11 July 2010, a total solar eclipse was to be seen on the southern hemisphere. The totality
started in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and New Zealand, went on to touch some
small atolls of the Tahiti region, crossed Easter Island and finally ended at the very south east of
Patagonia, Argentina. An Eclipse hard to get to, but - if visible - one that promised to be most
spectacular.
Even if an eclipse is not part of the scientific work at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics, it is an exciting astronomical event that fascinates our scientists. Here, Maria Fürmetz
and Anita Winter, both members of MPE, give an account of their trip to El Calafate, Southern Argentina.
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(September 9, 2010)
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CW Leo and the surrounding area
Credit: ESA / SPIRE & PACS
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Herschel finds warm water on red giant star
Astronomers using ESA's Herschel Space Observatory have observed water vapour being formed somewhere
it was previously thought to be impossible: in the atmosphere of a red giant carbon star. The scientists
used data from the SPIRE and PACS instruments, which made it possible not only to detect water vapour by
its "wavelength fingerprint" but also to measure its temperature. The PACS spectrometer has been developed
by a consortium of institutes led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
(Nature, September 2, 2010)
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(September 2, 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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R. Genzel
Credit: MPE
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Jansky Lectureship for Prof. Reinhard Genzel
The US National Radio Astronomy Observatory recently announced that the 2010 Karl G. Jansky
Lectureship has been awarded to Prof. Reinhard Genzel, Director of the Max Plank Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching. The Jansky Lectureship, named after the man who first
detected radio waves from a cosmic source in 1932, recognizes outstanding contributions to the
advancement of radio astronomy.
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(August 6, 2010)
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Artist's impression of the material around the exploded star, known as Supernova 1987A.
Credit: ESO / L. Calçada
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View of a Stellar Explosion in 3D
An international team of astronomers have for the first time obtained a three-dimensional view of the
distribution of the innermost material expelled by a recently exploded star using data SINFONI instrument,
which combines the SPIFFI spectrograph constructed at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
with adaptive optics at ESO's Very Large Telescope. The high spatial resolution and the capability to study
several parts of the supernova's chaotic core simultaneously using integral field spectroscopy was necessary
for the build-up of the 3D image.
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(August 4, 2010)
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Herschel image of an area in the stellar nursery of the constellation of Aquila .
Credit: ESA/SPIRE & PACS/P. André
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A&A Special Issue about Herschel science
This week, Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special feature devoted to the first science
results obtained with the Herschel space observatory. It includes 152 articles dealing with various
subjects based on the first few months of science observing. A few papers describe the observatory and
its instruments including PACS, which has been designed and built by a consortium of institutes and
university departments from across Europe under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching. The majority of contributions to this special issue are
dedicated to observations of many astronomical targets from bodies in the Solar System to distant
galaxies.
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(July 20, 2010)
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Two centuries ago a comet may have hit Neptune, the outer-most planet in our solar system.
Credit: NASA
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Cometary Impact on Neptune
Measurements performed by the space observatory Herschel point to a collision about two centuries ago
A comet may have hit the planet Neptune about two centuries ago. This is indicated by the distribution of carbon
monoxide in the atmosphere of the gas giant that researchers - among them scientists from the French observatory
LESIA in Paris, from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Katlenburg-Lindau (Germany) and
from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching (Germany) - have now studied. The scientists
analyzed data taken by the research satellite Herschel that has been orbiting the Sun at a distance of
approximately 1.5 million kilometres since May 2009. (Astronomy & Astrophysics, published online on July 16th, 2010)
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(July 16, 2010)
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The 60th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting Lindau 2010
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Three junior scientists from MPE meet Nobel Laureates in Lindau
The annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings brings together dozens of Nobel laureates and selected junior
scientists from institutions worldwide to "educate, inspire, and connect". For this year's meeting three
students from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics travelled to Lake Constance: Katie Dodds-Eden
of the Infrared/Submillimetre group, and Chengran Du and Mierk Schwabe from the Complex Plasma group.
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(July 9, 2010)
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A central region of the globular cluster M92 as observed with the Hubble Space Telescope
(left) and the LBT in adaptive mode (right).
Credit: HST/LBT
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Major Breakthrough for Large Binocular Telescope using Adaptive Optics
The next generation of adaptive optics has arrived at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona,
providing astronomers with a new level of image sharpness never seen before. German institutions
including the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics are major contributors to the LBT.
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more ]
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(June 22, 2010)
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The Pan-STARRS1 observatory on Haleakala, Maui, just before sunrise.
Credit: Rob Ratowski
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Astronomers' first "movie of the sky": Pan-STARRS survey starts science mission
The Pan-STARRS project has begun a unique program of observing three quarters of the night sky:
the systematic search for astronomical objects that change over time. Its data will enable astronomers
to search for dangerous asteroids on a possible collision course with Earth, but also to tackle some of
astronomy's deepest mysteries: Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Scientists of the Max Planck Institutes for
Astronomy and for Extraterrestrial Physics are involved in a number of the survey's key projects,
including searches for extra-solar planets, for "failed stars" known as Brown Dwarfs, and for distant
active galaxies.
For more information see the
MPE press release.
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(June 17, 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
Image: MPE
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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.
and the
Web pages of the High-Energy Astrophysics group.
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(June 10, 2010)
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Image: M. Fabricius, MPE/USM
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View of the night sky with more than 250 eyes
New observing instrument ready for installation
End of May, the VIRUS-W spectrograph of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and
the University Observatory Munich was completed and is now ready for installation at the McDonald
observatory in Texas. Its field of view, spectral coverage and resolution makes the instrument ideally
suited to study star and gas motions in nearby spiral galaxies.
For more information see the
MPE press release.
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(June 8 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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Picture: Universe Cluster/Barbara Wankerl
| What: |
Café & Kosmos -
The Big Bang in a tunnel |
| When: |
31 Mai 2010, 19:00 |
| Where: |
Café Jasmin, Steinheilstrasse 20
(U2, Theresienstraße) |
Entrance free.
Please note that the event will be conducted in German. |
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Café & Kosmos -
The Big Bang in a tunnel: New event series starts in Munich
Link to all events
In a relaxed atmosphere, interesting discussions about current research are now possible with the new
event series "Café amp; Kosmos", which will start on 31st May 2010. The physicist Dr. Stefan Stonjek from
the Max Planck Institute for Physics will give a short introduction about "The Big Bang in a tunnel",
explaining what is happening in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator at the
CERN research centre in Geneva, Switzerland. This will be followed by an open discussion with the public.
This evening will be the first of the new event series "Café amp; Kosmos", which aims to bring scientists and the
lay audience together outside of scientific institutions: in the middle of Munich - and in a Café. This is
the place where people meet in pleasant surroundings, chat, discuss big and small issues … and from 31. May
once a month also science.
"Café amp; Kosmos" is an initiative of the Exzellenzcluster Universe and the Max-Planck-Institutes for Physics,
Astrophysics, and Extraterrestrial Physics.
The second event will take place on 5. July 2010 with the astrophysicist Dr. Markus Kissler-Patig of ESO
who will discuss the question "Are we alone in the Universe? - Planets outside the solar system".
Links:
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
Exzellenzcluster Universe
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)
Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics (MPE)
Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP)
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(May 26 2010)
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MPE Highlight:
Gerhard Haerendel
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Gerhard Haerendel awarded the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal
The European Geosciences Union EGU honoured Prof. Gerhard Haerendel by awarding him the Jean Dominique
Cassini Medal during the General Assembly from 2. to 7. May 2010 in Vienna, Austria. The award recognizes
Haerendel's "indispensable and prominent role in the European exploration of space". The former director
at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics also became an Honorary Member of the EGU.
An expert on space research, Haerendel has held many prominent scientific positions and was a principal
investigator of several international rocket and satellite projects. He experimented with the "barium
plasma cloud technique" in various aspects of plasma and magnetospheric physics, leading to the creation
of artificial comets. As one of the fathers of CLUSTER, Haerendel's pioneering work has provided new
insights into the understanding of plasma in space and its interaction with the solar wind.
In his award lecture, Haerendel talked about "Fascinating Plasma Structures", which attracted his particular
attention because of their observable, fine structure and complex underlying physics involving magnetic fields.
Such plasma structures can be observed in a variety of objects: in the solar corona, in cometary tails and
in the Earth's aurora.
Note:
The prestigious Jean Dominique Cassini Medal is awarded by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) for merit
and scientific achievements to scientists who have gained exceptional international standing in planetary
and space sciences. The award is named after the Italian/French astronomer and engineer who in the 17th
century observed not only the sun and planets but also studied the zodiacal light.
Links:
European Geosciences Union
Jean Dominique Cassini Medal & Honorary Membership 2010
CLUSTER-Mission
Contact data for G. Haerendel
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(May 20, 2010)
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Apart from talks, at MPE the girls could experience research and development live in several workshops.
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Successful Girls' Day in Garching
Fifty girls visited MPA and MPE to find out more about a career in astrophysics
"How do we know so much about Black Holes; have scientists sent a camera there?" "Is it only noble gases that glow in certain colours?" "Did you need much maths in your physics studies?" These are only a few of the questions asked by the girls when they visited the astronomical Max Planck Institutes in Garching.
Like in the past years, the two institutes offered a juicy and varied program on 22. 4. 2010, ranging from lectures, discussions with women astrophysicists, a cosmic cinema in 3D, to observations and workshops, where the girls could experience different aspects related to astronomy first hand.
The Girls´ Day is an initiative throughout Germany to encourage girls to learn more about occupational areas that are still male dominated and that girls consider only seldom when it comes to choosing a career path. And even if some girls probably participated because it amounted to a day out of the classroom, most of the group was very interested in the work of the female scientists.
Apart from questions about the various research areas and instruments, this year some of the girls were also interested in alternative career paths, e.g. technician - without studying physics. This probably reflects the wider scope of schools the girls attended, not only the "Gymnasium" (8-years secondary school) but also the "Realschule" (6-years secondary school). It is not clear yet if some of the girls will come back for an internship - but the scientist might well see a known face again in November, when the German Women Phycisists Conference is being held in Munich.
PS: A similar project for boys, "Neue Wege für Jungs", supports since 2005 initiatives and institutions who
organise activities to broaden the boys´ view of study topics and career paths, to introduce more flexible male
role models and to further develop social skills, both inside and outside the class room.
Pictures taken during the Girls' Day 2010 at MPE
More information:
Girls' Day in Germany
Deutsche Physikerinnentagung
Neue Wege für Jungs
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(May 14, 2010)
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In this false colour image the arrows indicate galaxies that are likely located at the same distance,
clustered around the centre of the image.
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Most distant galaxy cluster revealed by invisible light
10 May 2010 - 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 the
MPE press release.
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(May 10, 2010)
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This image of the GOODS-S field with the Herschel PACS instrument demonstrates that the weak cosmic
infrared radiation is produced mainly by individual galaxies.
Image: MPE
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Herschel Space Telescope: Successful first year for German researchers
One year after the launch of ESA's Herschel space telescope, German scientists have reason to celebrate:
The instruments' performance and first results have exceeded all expectations. Initial observations with
the largest telescope currently in space, which was designed primarily to study the coldest matter in our
Universe, have led to new insights into the formation of stars, the properties of dust in distant galaxies
and the presence of molecules in interstellar clouds.
For more information see the
MPE press release.
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(May 06, 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,
MPG press release.
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(April 30, 2010)
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MPE Highlight:
Star forming region in the Milky Way
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Making the invisible visible
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) partners in Germany, the U.S.A. and Italy are pleased to announce that
the first of two new innovative near-infrared cameras/spectrographs for the LBT is now available to astronomers
for scientific observations at the telescope on Mt. Graham in south-eastern Arizona. After more than a decade
of design, manufacturing and testing, the new instrument, dubbed LUCIFER 1, provides a powerful tool to gain
spectacular insights into the universe, from the Milky Way up to extremely distant galaxies. LUCIFER 1 has
been built by a consortium of German institutes and will be followed by an identical twin instrument that
will be delivered to the telescope in early 2011.
For more information see the
MPE press release.
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(April 21, 2010)
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Herschel image of the Rosette nebula
Image: ESA/PACS & SPIRE Consortium/HOBYS Key Programme Consortia
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Where stars are born...
Herschel’s latest image reveals the formation of previously unseen large
stars, each one up to ten times the mass of our Sun. These are the stars
that will influence where and how the next generation of stars are formed.
The Rosette Nebula resides some 5,000 light years from Earth and is
associated with a larger cloud that contains enough dust and gas to make the
equivalent of 10,000 Sun-like stars. The Herschel image shows half of the
nebula and most of the Rosette cloud. The massive stars powering the nebula
lie to the right of the image but are invisible at these wavelengths. Each
colour represents a different temperature of dust, from –263ºC (only 10ºC
above absolute zero) in the red emission to –233ºC in the blue.
ESA’s Herschel space observatory collects the infrared light given out by
dust. This image is a combination of three infrared wavelengths,
colour-coded blue, green and red in the image. It was created using
observations from Herschel’s Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer
(PACS) and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE). PACS has
been designed and built by a consortium of institutes and university
departments from across Europe under the leadership of Principal
Investigator Albrecht Poglitsch at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics, Garching.
For more information see
ESA Press Release
and the pages of the
PACS-Project at MPE.
|
(April 14, 2010)
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Credit: Parallax Raumprojektion / Philipp Kässbohrer
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The VLT, as you´ve never seen it before
The ESO documentary "Das Auge" will be screened in Munich at the cinema Kino
Neues Forum at the Deutsches Museum from tomorrow: Thursday, Tuesday and
Wednesday always at 14:30h. The movie will also be part of the programme in
the subsequent week.
The VLT is one of the most fascinating scientific instruments ever built and
with the 3D movie the viewers will feel like they are really "there".
Accompanied by an astronomer, the film crew not only learned how a modern
telescope functions, but also experienced the fascination of scientific
research deep in space. If you watch closely, you might even spot someone
from MPE.
The MPE works in close collaboration with the VLT; several scientific
instruments for the large telescopes were developed at this institute
(
see MPE projects).
In addition, MPE scientists
travel regularly to Paranal, to conduct observations there, like Eva Noyola
who was there at the time of shooting the film. She therefore appears
briefly in it.
For more information about the Movie and how it was produced please go to
www.dasauge3d.eu.
|
(March 31, 2010)
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Spitzer Space Telescope
Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech
 
In direct view, the two QSOs (J0005-0006 (left), J0303-0019 (right)) look inconspicuous.
Only spectral analysis reveals the true nature of the objects.
Images: MPIA/M. Pössel from SDSS data (RGB from filters z, i and r).
|
Primitive Black Holes Identified
Astronomers have come across what appear to be two of the earliest and most primitive supermassive black
holes known. What distinguishes them from the other very distant so-called quasars is a lack of hot dust,
which indicates that these quasars are at an early evolutionary stage. The discovery was made by an
international team of astronomers including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and is based largely on observations from the Spitzer
Space Telescope.
Original publication:
Nature 464, 380-383 (2010)
Press releases:
MPIA press release
MPG press release
NASA (JPL) press release
Contact at MPE:
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(March 18, 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
Contact:
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(March 09, 2010)
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"Network"
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Curators visit MPA and MPE
Most colleagues have heard of the Curators at one point or another, but who are they and what
do they do? On Friday March 5, 2010 the joint curators for MPA and MPE will be visiting the MPE
to catch up on important developments at both institutes.
The curatorship (board of trustees) was set up by the Max-Planck-Society to get in touch with the public and
in particular with influential circles who are interested in research and might become funding institutions.
Representatives of science, industry, politics and media are appointed as curators to mediate on
behalf of the institute, to further interactions within the scientific and social environment and to
strengthen the public belief in the activities of the institute.
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(March 03, 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.
|
(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.
|
(February 11, 2010)
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MPE Highlight:
(February 10, 2010)
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MPE Press Release:
IRAS 4B in NGC 1333 in the radio
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Pin-pointing water in space
For the first time, scientists succeeded in localising large amounts of water in a disk around a
young star
Water is regarded as a key ingredient for life - and water exists plenty in the universe. Now scientists
have found the precious element in a disk around a young star, similar to our Sun. This disk, supposedly
the birth place for future planets, contains a hundred times more than all oceans on Earth. The
astronomical observations obtained with the IRAM interferometer appear very promising to solve the
mystery around the origin of water in our solar system
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(February 8, 2010)
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MPE Highlight:
Reinhard Genzel
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Honorary doctorate for Reinhard Genzel
On 8th February, the oldest Dutch university in Leiden bestowed a honorary doctorate on
Reinhard Genzel, astrophysicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial
Physics in Garching, Germany, for his ground-breaking research into interstellar matter and the
central regions of galaxies, in particular the evidence for a black hole at the centre of our
own galaxy, and his drive to get the required innovative infrared instrumentation developed.
The ceremony took place in the framework of the "Lustrum Dies Natalis 2010" celebration,
commemorating the university´s foundation in February 1575.
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(February 5, 2010)
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MPE Highlight
Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov with the PK-3 Plus laboratory in MIM-2, the new Russian docking and
research module.
(Credit: Image courtesy of RKK-Energia).
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Plasma Experiment celebrates its anniversary on board ISS
On 27th January 2010 the 25th series of experiments studying complex plasmas will start on board
the international space station ISS. Physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics in Garching, Germany, will use them to study fundamental structure forming processes to better
understand what happens in liquids and solids.
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(January 27, 2010)
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X-ray emission in the COSMOS field.
Credit: ESA
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XMM-Newton traces dark matter in faint, distant galaxy groups
Observations of faint and distant galaxy groups made with the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton
observatory have been used to probe the evolution of dark matter. The results of the study by researchers
including scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, Germany, are reported
in the 20 January issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
ESA press release
Original paper (ApJ 709, 97-114 (2010))
Contact:
Alexis Finoguenov
Dr. Hannelore Hämmerle (press officier)
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(January 25, 2010)
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Example of one of the 89 galaxies observed. The panel shows the
galaxy as it is observed in different wavelengths (colours).
Image: MPE
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Black Holes and their Galaxies: News from a Cosmic Neighbourhood
Among astronomers it is considered certain that huge Black Holes of millions of solar masses
reside in the centre of practically every galaxy. It is still unclear however as to what extent
the chronological development of the galaxies and their Black Holes in the centre mutually influence
one another. A research project under the aegis of Andrea Merloni at the Munich Excellence Cluster
Universe and the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics brought forward new findings in
this area.
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(January 21, 2010)
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News before 2010 can be found in the
archive.
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MPE
News
Last update: 2012-01-19 by
