Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie

Girls‘Day 2026

Am Girls' Day am 23. April haben Mädchen ab der 5. Klasse die Gelegenheit bei uns und am @mpi-astro.bsky.social einen Blick hinter die Kulissen astronomischer Forschung zu werfen. Jetzt anmelden!

www.haus-der-astronomie.de/aktuelles/gi...

YouTube video by Haus der Astronomie Die Entstehung der Bausteine des Lebens

Heute Abend gibts bei Astro & Co Astronomie und Chemie: Um 19 Uhr wirft Klaus Paschek vom @mpi-astro.bsky.social live einen Blick auf die Entstehung der Bausteine des Lebens im All und auf der jungen Erde 🔭

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWiT...

Announcement of the talk "eROSITA’s Legacy in Structure Formation and Evolution and Cosmology" by Esra Bulbul on 3 February 2026 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12, illustrated with a painting of a coastal arch

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Esra Bulbul will present how to derive cosmological constraints from the evolution of galaxy cluster mass functions, combining eROSITA data with optical surveys such as DESI Legacy, DES, HSC and KIDS 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

HH288, The Dragon Jet, as seen with JWST A near-infrared colour composite image of the protostellar outflow system HH288, also known as The Dragon Jet, made using the NIRCam instrument on NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The compos...

3/ They hit other nearby material, which results in shocks we see in the infrared as brightly glowing gas.

Besides the main outflow that occupies most of the image, named HH 288, there are numerous smaller jets to be discovered.

A hi-res version of this image can be downloaded here.

Mark McCaughrean (@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social) Attached: 1 image Enter the Dragon 🐉🥋 Here it is – my new JWST image of the young protostellar outflow system in Cassiopeia called HH288, aka The Dragon Jet. We discovered it in the 1990s & the NAS...

2/ ✨ The region covered in this image is actually one with several stars in the making. But we can only see how the process shapes the environment. While these protostars grow by accumulating gas, some of it is deflected and funnelled into two narrow jets moving away in opposite directions.

1a/ Mark is actually still a member of the JWST Science Working Group and former Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at ESA.

HH288, The Dragon Jet, as seen with JWST A near-infrared colour composite image of the protostellar outflow system HH288, also known as The Dragon Jet, made using the NIRCam instrument on NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The compos...

3/ Sie treffen auf anderes Material in der Nähe, was zu Schocks führt, die wir im Infrarotbereich als hell leuchtendes Gas sehen. Neben dem Hauptjet, der den größten Teil des Bildes einnimmt, gibt es noch viele kleinere Jets zu entdecken. Eine detailliertere Version dieses Bildes gibt es hier.

Mark McCaughrean (@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social) Attached: 1 image Enter the Dragon 🐉🥋 Here it is – my new JWST image of the young protostellar outflow system in Cassiopeia called HH288, aka The Dragon Jet. We discovered it in the 1990s & the NAS...

2/ In diesem Bild entstehen tatsächlich mehrere Sterne. Aber wir sehen nur den Einfluss dieses Prozesses auf die Umgebung. Die Protosterne wachsen durch die Ansammlung von Gas. Der größte Teil wird jedoch abgelenkt und in zwei schmale Jets geleitet, die sich in entgegengesetzte Richtungen bewegen.

"Dragon Jet" Erupts From Baby Stars In Stunning New JWST Image It takes a lot of stars to make a dragon!

1/ MPIAs Mark McCaughrean, der zuvor bei der ESA als Leitender Berater für Wissenschaft und Forschung bei der ESA und in der JWST Science Working Group tätig war, hat dieses Bild aus JWST-Daten produziert. Es zeigt den "Dragon Jet" oder auch HH 288.

"Dragon Jet" Erupts From Baby Stars In Stunning New JWST Image It takes a lot of stars to make a dragon!

1/ 🔭This article written by @drcarpineti.bsky.social features a new stunning image obtained by #JWST and presented by MPIA's Mark McCaughrean, a former member of the JWST Science Working Group at ESA. It shows HH 288 also known as the #Dragon Jet. 🐉

YouTube video by MEDIAINAF TV Simulando il cosmo con Illustris-Tng: intervista ad Annalisa Pillepich

Se mai dovesse servirvi un cubo di universo da un miliardo di anni luce di lato, #IllustrisTng è il prodotto che fa per voi: è una suite di simulazioni dell’evoluzione del cosmo dal Big Bang a oggi. Ne parliamo con una delle autrici, l’astrofisica Annalisa Pillepich del @mpi-astro.bsky.social.

Announcement of the talk "The Growth of Supermassive Black Holes" by Anna-Christina Eilers on 27 January 2026 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12, illustrated with a historic Photograph of a giant sequoia tree

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Anna-Christina Eilers will highlight new results constraining the obscured fraction of quasars, their emission geometry, and the timescales of supermassive black hole growth 🔭

physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

ALMA Reveals Teenage Years of New Worlds ARKS survey by ALMA provides insights into the early chaotic phases of planet formation, bridging gaps in our understanding of planetary systems.

🌌 New insights from the ALMA survey reveal the teenage years of planetary systems! These detailed images of debris discs capture the chaotic growth stages of planets, akin to adolescence. #PlanetaryScience #ALMA @thenrao.bsky.social 🔭
www.mpia.de/news/science...

ALMA macht die turbulente Jugend junger Planetensysteme sichtbar ALMA eröffnet neue Einblicke in die turbulente Jugend junger Planetensysteme und analysiert die Trümmerringe nach der Planetenbildung.

Astronomen haben mit ALMA die faszinierenden Jugendphasen von Planetensystemen sichtbar gemacht! 🌌 Die neuen Erkenntnisse zeigen chaotische Trümmerringe, die auf turbulente Entstehung hinweisen. #Astronomie #Planetensysteme @thenrao.bsky.social
www.mpia.de/aktuelles/wi...

Or seals 😜

Announcement of the talk "Exoplanets, cool stars, and their interactions " by Katja Poppenhäger on 20 January 2026 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12, illustrated with a painting of a shark, two seals and three fish

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Katja Poppenhäger will show exciting new results for observations of Star-Planet Interactions and give an outlook on the possibilities for the field in the near future 🔭

physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Announcement of the talk "Exploring the Universe with high-energy gamma rays using H.E.S.S." by Lars Mohrmann on 13 January 2026 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12, illustrated with a van Gogh painting of a wheat field

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Lars Mohrmann will showcase the astrophysics that can be probed with imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, focusing on recent scientific highlights from H.E.S.S. 🔭

physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Das eingeschneite Haus der Astronomie von schräg oben. Auch die Bäume und die Sonne des Planetenwegs sind schneebedeckt

Die eingeschneite Heidelberger Landessternwarte von schräg oben. Auch die Fläche des Skypole ist schneebedeckt

Drohnenaufnahme des eingeschneiten Max-Planck-Instituts für Astronomie, im Hintergrund Heidelberg und die Rheinebene

Winter Wonderland Heidelberg-Königstuhl ❄️

Fully funded opportunity for bachelors and masters students to come work at MPIA in summer 2026!

Great research opportunity at a world leading institute 🔭

Black hole sun, won’t you come… help solve the little red dot mystery? Today’s paper argues that a little red dot with a massive Balmer break could be a black hole star.

From Annelia Anderson @astroannelia.bsky.social : Today’s paper argues that a little red dot with a massive Balmer break could be a black hole star. ⚛️🔭☄🧪
astrobites.org/2025/12/29/b...

Destruction of Infant Planets Around Nearby Star Astronomers have repeatedly observed events near a distant star that mirror processes from the early solar system’s planet-forming era.

Hubble images show the formation of two enormous dust clouds caused by collisions between kilometre-sized celestial bodies around the star Fomalhaut. The dust clouds can easily be confused with real planets – an important clue for future observation missions 🔭

www.mpia.de/news/science...

Zerstörerische Kollisionen in einem jungen Planetensystem Beobachtungen mit dem Hubble-Weltraumteleskop zeigen Parallelen zu Prozessen in der frühen Entstehungsphase unseres Sonnensystems.

Hubble-Aufnahmen zeigen die Entstehung zweier gewaltiger Staubwolken durch Zusammenstöße kilometergroßer Himmelskörper um den Stern Fomalhaut. Die Staubwolken können leicht mit Planeten verwechselt werden – ein wichtiger Hinweis für zukünftige Beobachtungsmissionen 🔭

www.mpia.de/aktuelles/wi...

Summer internships

Are you a bachelor or master student anywhere in the world, and would like to come to us to work full-time on a supervised research project? Applications for the 2026 MPIA Summer Internship are open now!

Announcement of the talk "The impact of stellar feedback on galaxies" by Stefanie Walch-Gassner on 16 December 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12, illustrated with a late medieval drawing of a Person in a lion's den

Today at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Stefanie Walch-Gassner will will give an overview of the importance of stellar feedback for the evolution of galaxies 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

ERC Consolidator Grant worth almost €2 million for Paul Mollière

Paul Mollière, leader of the independent research group on exoplanet atmospheric modeling and retrieval at MPIA has been awarded one of the highly coveted and lucrative grants from the European Research Council (ERC) 🔭

www.mpia.de/6300105/2025...

ERC Consolidator Grant im Umfang von knapp 2 Mio Euro für Paul Mollière

Paul Mollière, Leiter der unabhängigen Forschungsgruppe für die Modellierung und Erforschung der Atmosphären von Exoplaneten am MPIA, hat einen der begehrten und lukrativen Förderpreise des Europäischen Forschungsrats (ERC) erhalten 🔭

www.mpia.de/6299999/2025...

SPHERE’s debris disk gallery: tell-tale signs of dust and small bodies in distant solar systems Images of dust around distant exoplanets provide a glimpse of asteroids and comets in other solar systems.

Detecting asteroid belts around distant stars? You can't do it by directly observing asteroids, but you *can* do it observing the dust that is created by asteroid collisions! New SPHERE gallery of debris disks:

Trümmerscheiben-Galerie erlaubt Rückschlüsse auf Staub und Kleinkörper in fernen Planetensystemen Bilder von Staub in der Umgebung ferner Exoplaneten liefern Informationen zu Asteroiden und Kometen in anderen Sonnensystemen

Asteroidengürtel um ferne Sterne finden? Das geht nicht mit direkter Beobachtung von Asteroiden, aber mit der Beobachtung von Staubteilchen! Neue Galerie von SPHERE mit MPIA-Beteiligung:

Announcement of the talk "Jet-driven cavities around powerful galactic particle accelerators" by Rob Fender on 9 December 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12, illustrated with a photo of a Roman coin

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Rob Fender will review our understanding of how the powerful jets from stellar mass black holes carve out parsec-scale cavities in the interstellar medium 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...