Astrophysics

The image depicts an artistic rendering of a bright blazar, a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy, ejecting high-energy matter in the form of jets into space. The blazar appears as a glowing point of light with bluish-white rays scattering in various directions. In the background, a field of stars is visible, while the lower part of the image shows a portion of the Milky Way or another galaxy with brown and white gradients.

A look into the past reveals a young active galactic nucleus, whose central black hole appears to be growing rapidly just one billion years after the Big Bang more

A close-up of a star dominates the left side of the image. Its surface glows intensely in various shades of orange, showing irregular structures like darker spots. Delicate, glowing plasma filaments arc outward from the Sun's surface. On the right side of the image, a small rocky planet is visible, its reddish-brown surface marked with dark, mottled patterns. The background is black, dotted with a few white star-like points.

New observations with the James Webb Space Telescope no longer rule out the presence of an atmosphere around the Earth-sized rocky planet. However, a geologically active planet also explains the data.  more

Steel constructions under the starry sky

A pulsar within a few thousand light-years of Earth could have accelerated electrons and positrons to the extreme energies now measured by the H.E.S.S.-Observatory more

yellow-reddish disc

Newly analyzed data from ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft offer the first high-resolution view of the entire solar disk more

Colored drawing of a thick ring in the center with cone-shaped streams in opposite directions, both viewed from the side

Nested morphology of gas streams confirms a mechanism that helps infant stars to grow by ingesting disk material. more

The first image of the deep universe taken by the James Webb Telescope

New all-sky survey by the MeerKAT radio telescope shows the universe as expected at large distances - unlike previous observations by other telescopes more

Two yellow-reddish glowing rings next to each other, with the left one being wider than the right one.

Event Horizon Telescope advances to submillimeter observations more

Dirty snowballs 

The sight of a bright comet has fascinated people at all times. But what is behind such a celestial spectacle? It was only in modern times that researchers discovered the phenomenon - by which time the tail stars had already had a long career as bringers of bad luck or divine messengers. more

A reddish disk with rings and gaps and a white shining center

In young planetary systems, gas giants form more efficiently and faster than previously assumed as shown by new computer simulations. more

In the foreground to the left is a sphere half illuminated on the right side, almost filling the image vertically. The surface consists of several parallel, pale-coloured bands aligned horizontally. To the top right is a much smaller orange, circular light source, illuminating the large sphere in the foreground. The background is black with numerous tiny white dots.

An image of the the James Webb Space Telescope shows the oldest and coldest known exoplanet more

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A close-up of a star dominates the left side of the image. Its surface glows intensely in various shades of orange, showing irregular structures like darker spots. Delicate, glowing plasma filaments arc outward from the Sun's surface. On the right side of the image, a small rocky planet is visible, its reddish-brown surface marked with dark, mottled patterns. The background is black, dotted with a few white star-like points.

New observations with the James Webb Space Telescope no longer rule out the presence of an atmosphere around the Earth-sized rocky planet. However, a geologically active planet also explains the data.  more

Steel constructions under the starry sky

A pulsar within a few thousand light-years of Earth could have accelerated electrons and positrons to the extreme energies now measured by the H.E.S.S.-Observatory more

yellow-reddish disc

Newly analyzed data from ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft offer the first high-resolution view of the entire solar disk more

Colored drawing of a thick ring in the center with cone-shaped streams in opposite directions, both viewed from the side

Nested morphology of gas streams confirms a mechanism that helps infant stars to grow by ingesting disk material. more

The first image of the deep universe taken by the James Webb Telescope

New all-sky survey by the MeerKAT radio telescope shows the universe as expected at large distances - unlike previous observations by other telescopes more

A reddish disk with rings and gaps and a white shining center

In young planetary systems, gas giants form more efficiently and faster than previously assumed as shown by new computer simulations. more

In the foreground to the left is a sphere half illuminated on the right side, almost filling the image vertically. The surface consists of several parallel, pale-coloured bands aligned horizontally. To the top right is a much smaller orange, circular light source, illuminating the large sphere in the foreground. The background is black with numerous tiny white dots.

An image of the the James Webb Space Telescope shows the oldest and coldest known exoplanet more

From left to right: The globular star cluster Omega Centauri as a whole, a zoomed-in version of the central area, and the region in the very center with the location of the mid-size black hole that was identified in the present study marked.

With 8200 solar masses, the black hole fills the evolutionary gap between stellar and supermassive black holes more

White beam construction with deep blue square panels on both sides hangs from the boom of a yellow crane under a blue sky.

From the stratosphere, the balloon-borne solar observatory has a clear view of the sun more

Orange-brown torus with two white rays and various grey lumps extending into black along its axis of symmetry

Surprisingly unspectacular: Black hole already weighed over a billion solar masses in early universe despite average appetite  more

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Dirty snowballs 

The sight of a bright comet has fascinated people at all times. But what is behind such a celestial spectacle? It was only in modern times that researchers discovered the phenomenon - by which time the tail stars had already had a long career as bringers of bad luck or divine messengers. more

Research highlights 2023

Research highlights 2023

December 19, 2023

Many publications by Max Planck scientists in 2023 were of great social relevance or met with a great media response. We have selected 12 articles to present you with an overview of some noteworthy research of the year more

Close-up of two people in surgical clothing and FFP masks working on a shiny, bright metal apparatus. On the left of the picture is an optical lens, about the size of the palm of the hand, set in a metal frame, on the right is the metal frame on which the lens system is to be placed.

The Euclid space telescope contains technology from two Max Planck Institutes more

Scientific highlights 2022

Scientific highlights 2022

December 14, 2022

Many publications by Max Planck scientists in 2022 were of great social relevance or met with a great media response. We have selected 12 articles to present you with an overview of some noteworthy research of the year more

“A wonderful confirmation of our observations”

Reinhard Genzel of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics on the first image of the galactic centre more

The nebula with the dark band

The active galaxy Centaurus A has made history in radio astronomy more

Scientific highlights 2020

Scientific highlights 2020

December 21, 2020

Many publications by Max Planck scientists in 2020 were of great social relevance or met with a great media response. We have selected 13 articles to present you with an overview of some noteworthy research of the year more

“The telescope offers enormous potential”

Peter Predehl from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics on the eRosita mission more

A solar eclipse sheds light on physics

Observations of the cosmic shadow dance on 29 May 1919 substantiated a new scientific view of the world more

The backbone of the night

Like a huge spiral, the Milky Way floats in space more

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The supermassive giant at the heart of the Milky Way | Interview with Prof. Reinhard Genzel

Interview with Reinhard Genzel, director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and architect of the 30-year programme that led to the discovery of the Schwarzschild precession around the black hole at the heart of our Milky Way. Genzel describes the general relativity effect observed by his team and how it can be used to study the galactic gravity trap.Reinhard Genzel receives the Nobel Prize for Physics 2020
Digital Story: Reinhard Genzel more

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