Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Planets like our Earth, including planets with water, could form even in the harshest known star-forming environments, drenched by hard UV light from massive stars.

Data of the James Webb Space Telescope contain signatures of water vapour, sulfur dioxide and sand clouds

Euclid space telescope delivers first scientific images

The Euclid space telescope contains technology from two Max Planck Institutes

The galaxies we see around us have had a turbulent past, full of collisions, plentiful gas flows, and bursts of increased star formation. Our home galaxy is no exception. A team led by Hans-Walter Rix at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy is reconstructing the Milky Way’s history in a process that resembles archaeological research.

Six months after its launch, the James Webb telescope has delivered its first images, revealing fascinating insights into distant galaxies as well as turbulent scenarios encompassing the birth and death of stars. The space observatory has also captured the spectra of exoplanets. The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg was involved in building the instruments.

Two years ago, a new department opened at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg in which researchers study the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. Its young director, Laura Kreidberg, has made a name for herself with some of the first observations of these worlds and is one of the lucky ones who will get to observe with the new James Webb Space Telescope.

The chemistry of a star contains valuable information such as its history or affiliation with a particular stellar population. But accurate detection of abundances of chemical elements based on spectral fingerprints require highly sophisticated methods. Maria Bergemann from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg has set new standards here.

Stars cluster in galaxies of dramatically different shapes and sizes: elliptical galaxies, spheroidal galaxies, lenticular galaxies, spiral galaxies, and occasionally even irregular galaxies. Nadine Neumayer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and Ralf Bender at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching investigate the reasons for this diversity. They have already identified one crucial factor: dark matter.

Through observations of the exoplanet WASP-121 b with the Hubble Space Telescope, we have studied the atmospheric conditions on the night side of a hot Jupiter in detail for the first time. Incorporating measurements from the dayside, we determined the temperature profile in the stratosphere and an unusual water cycle between the two hemispheres. This study is a significant step towards deciphering the global matter and energy cycles in the atmospheres of exoplanets.

From the data of the THOR survey led at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), we have identified one of the longest known structures in the Milky Way, stretching some 3900 light years and consisting almost entirely of atomic hydrogen gas. This filament, called Maggie, could represent a link in the stellar matter cycle. Our analysis suggests that locally the atomic gas binds to molecular hydrogen there. Compressed in large clouds, this material ultimately forms stars.

We have successfully tested the performance of a new method for determining the masses of extreme black holes in quasars, called spectroastrometry, for the first time through observations. It measures radiation coming from gas in the vicinity of supermassive black holes. Compared to other weighing techniques, it is relatively straightforward and efficient to perform using modern large telescopes. Its high sensitivity makes it possible to study the surroundings of luminous quasars and supermassive black holes in the early Universe.

The molecular material in giant molecular gas clouds travels along intricate networks of filamentary gas lanes towards the congested centres of gas and dust where it is compressed into stars and planets. Astronomers have measured the motion of gas flowing from galaxy scales down to the dimensions of the gas clumps within which individual stars form. Their results show that the gas pervading each scale is dynamically interconnected: while star and planet formation occurs on the smallest dimensions, this process is controlled by a cascade of matter flows that begin on galactic scales.

The role of magnetic fields in the formation of stars has been a hot topic among astrophysicists for decades. Now Juan Diego Soler of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has shown that magnetic fields can favour and advance the compression of interstellar matter – a prerequisite for the formation of stars. This conclusion is based on the finding that in star forming regions the interstellar matter, depending on its density, is sometimes oriented parallel to, sometimes rather perpendicular to, the magnetic field lines.