Max Planck Institutes and Experts

A combination of the Herschel Space Observatory with the submillimeter telescope APEX leads to the discovery and characterization of the youngest known protostars yet: stellar embryos still deeply embedded in unexpectedly dense dust cocoons.

Pinpointing the positions of more than 100 of the most fertile star-forming galaxies with the compound telescope ALMA clears up a mystery about these objects' observed productivity – and shows that previous studies had frequently mis-identified such galaxies.

Neutron stars are born as extremely hot and dense objects at the centers of massive stars exploding as supernovae. They cool by intense emission of neutrinos. Three-dimensional supercomputer simulations at the very forefront of current modelling efforts reveal the stunning and unexpected possibility that this neutrino emission can develop a hemispheric (dipolar) asymmetry. If this new neutrino-hydrodynamical instability happens in nature, it will lead to a recoil acceleration of the neutron star and will have important consequences for the formation of chemical elements in stellar explosions.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics propose a crucially improved distance measurement. They use a strong gravitational lens system with a time-varying source (e. g. a quasar) to measure the angular diameter distance to the lens.

Bulk chemicals are typically produced using processes, which supply the product stream in a continuous manner. In contrast, the production of fine chemical and pharmaceutical ingredients is characterized by batch-wise operation, connected with dead times, fluctuating product qualities and reduced productivity. This contribution summarizes selected results of several research projects devoted to promote continuous production processes.