Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy

Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy

The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn has left its mark on the terrestrial landscape: a gigantic white dish that towers into the sky near Effelsberg in the Eifel hills – the 100-metre telescope. When the scientists there or at the other antennae worldwide reach for the stars, the weather does not necessarily have to be good, as radio waves can pass through clouds. In this spectral range, which is invisible to the human eye, the researchers observe both infant stellar objects and stars frail with age, molecules in the interstellar medium and far away radio galaxies, and the centre of the Milky Way and magnetic fields, as well as dust and gas at cosmological distances. And since one telescope on its own is often not sufficient for all this, the radio astronomers in Bonn work with so-called interferometry – they link together several other antennae around the world to form a “giant eye”.

Contact

Auf dem Hügel 69
53121 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 525-0
Fax: +49 228 525-229

PhD opportunities

This institute has an International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS):

IMPRS for Astronomy and Astrophysics

In addition, there is the possibility of individual doctoral research. Please contact the directors or research group leaders at the Institute.

Department Fundamental physics in radio astronomy

more

Department Millimeter and submillimeter astronomy

more

Department Radio astronomy / Very long baseline radiointerferometry

more
Purple disc with rays emanating vertically upwards and downwards from the disc

New observations reveal how a powerful jet forms around a black hole

more
The picture consists of two square images. On the left are numerous orange spots of different sizes and brightness. On the right is a zoom into the brightest and largest of these spots. There, against the background of many stars, a reddish disc orbits a black sphere lying in the centre. From the surroundings of the black sphere, a violet ray is formed that is directed upwards.

Large-scale observational campaign provides new insights into an assumed black hole binary at the centre of the active galaxy OJ 287

more
The airborne observatory SOFIA during its last southern deployment at Christchurch/New Zealand in summer 2022. The 18O observations were performed with the GREAT receiver, built by MPIfR and Cologne University, onboard SOFIA.

First detection of the heavy 18O isotope both in the upper and lower atmosphere of Earth

more

International team observes innermost structure of quasar 3C 273

more

Radio observations reveal a complex scenario for the interplay between star formation and the interstellar medium in Messier 33

more
Show more

Sitting deep in the heart of the Milky Way, it is 27,000 light years from Earth and resembles a donut: this is how the black hole at the center of our galaxy looks in the image obtained by researchers using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

Centaurus is one of the most famous constellations in the southern sky. Take a closer look at the constellation through binoculars and you’ll see a pale nebula known as Centaurus A – it is in fact a distant galaxy in which a supermassive black hole resides. Michael Janssen from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and Radboud University Nijmegen led an Event Horizon Telescope team that has now come closer than ever before to understanding the nature of this gravity trap.

A cosmic lightning storm is playing out all around us. At any given moment, somewhere in the sky, a burst of radiation flashes and then fades away. Only observable with radio telescopes, these bursts last one-thousandth of a second and are one of astrophysics’ greatest mysteries. Scientists rather doubt this is evidence of warlike aliens fighting “star wars” in the vastness of space. Experts have named them “fast radio bursts” – but where do they come from?

Black holes swallow all light, making them invisible. That’s what you’d think anyway, but astronomers thankfully know that this isn’t quite the case. They are, in fact, surrounded by a glowing disc of gas, which makes them visible against this bright background, like a black cat on a white sofa. And that’s how the Event Horizon Telescope has now succeeded in taking the first picture of a black hole. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter Range (IRAM) in Grenoble, France, were among those making the observations.

Pulsars are the most compact material objects in the universe. Their diameter is approximately equal to that of the city of Munich, but they contain the mass of the Sun. These extreme conditions make them ideal test objects for the theory of general relativity, as the work of Michael Kramer and his colleagues from the Bonn-based Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy shows.

No job offers available

2021 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the inauguration of the radio telescope in Effelsberg. In the past decades, the telescope, whose construction broke new technical ground, has produced numerous important observational results. Thanks to constant improvements and renewals it is still state-of-the-art. Selected current observational projects are presented here.

more

Testing Einstein's Most Fortunate Thought

2020 Freire, Paulo;  Kramer, Michael

Astronomy Astrophysics

Extremely precise measurements of the motion of a fast-spinning pulsar in a triple star system provide one of the strongest tests ever of a simple, but fundamental prediction of general relativity: that gravity affects all objects with the same acceleration, without regard for their composition, density or the strength of their own gravitational field. General relativity has again survived this test, one of the most stringent ever, which strongly constrains many alternative theories of gravity.

more

The first image of the shadow of a black hole

2019 Zensus, J. Anton; Kramer, Michael; Menten, Karl M.; Britzen, Silke

Astronomy Astrophysics

On April 10, 2019, the first image of a black hole was published by a team of 347 international scientists from 59 institutes in 18 countries. Theoretical work and indirect evidence for the existence of black holes has been around for a long time. Only now did the observations provide the necessary resolution for an image made possible by a combination of seven radio telescopes scattered across the Earth, observing the centre of the galaxy M87. More than 30 scientists and engineers of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn are involved in this success.

more

The airborne observatory SOFIA reveals gas kinematics in the Lagoon nebula

2018 Wyrowsk, F.; Wiesemeyer, H.; Tiwari, M.; Klein, B.; Menten, K.M.

Astronomy Astrophysics

The airborne observatory SOFIA allows astronomical observations in the Far-Infrared, which is not accessible from the ground.  It covers the most important cooling lines of the interstellar medium. Velocity-resolved observations of these lines are crucial for our understanding of the star formation process. Here we present observations of the ionized carbon finestructure line in the Lagoon Nebula, which for the first time reveals the gas motions in the immediate environment of the nebula.

more

Zooming into the heart of a radio galaxy

2017 Boccardi, Bia

Astronomy Astrophysics

The formation of relativistic jets in active galaxies is a poorly understood physical process. Providing observational constraints for theoretical models is a crucial but challenging task, since it requires the imaging of emission regions in the immediate proximity of the black hole. We have observed the prototype radio galaxy Cygnus A through very-long-baseline interferometry at millimeter wavelengths, and obtained a sharp view of the jet base. Our analysis of the jet kinematic properties and internal structure suggests that the jet of Cygnus A is a disk wind accelerated by magnetic fields.

more
Go to Editor View