Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie

Die Evolution des Lebens beginnt vermutlich im Weltall Astronomen entdecken komplexe organische Moleküle – mögliche Vorstufen von Zuckern und Aminosäuren – in einer planetenbildenden Scheibe.

Forschungsergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die Bausteine des Lebens möglicherweise im gesamten Universum verbreitet sind. Komplexe organische Moleküle werden in protoplanetaren Scheiben vererbt, entwickeln sich weiter und ermöglichen die Entstehung von Leben. 🌍✨ #Astronomie #OrganischeMoleküle

The evolution of life may have its origins in outer space Astronomers find complex organic molecules – precursors to sugars and amino acids – in a planet-forming disc.

New research suggests that the building blocks of life may not be formed locally, but could be widespread throughout the universe. Complex organic molecules are inherited and developed in protoplanetary discs, paving the way for life's origins. 🌍✨ #SpaceScience #OrganicMolecules 🔭

Announcement of the talk "Tracing out the darkness with cold gas: dynamically probing galaxy evolution and black holes" by Timothy Davis on 22 July 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with a grayscale image of a rough surface

Today at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Tomothy Davis will show how mapping the dynamics of gas clouds in the centre of galaxies can help us to constrain a wide range of astrophysical problems and show first results from the KILOGAS project 🔭

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

Wasser-Tornado im Labor: Einfaches Experiment ahmt Planetenbildung nach Ein Wasser-Tornado im Labor simuliert Prozesse der Planetenbildung und untersucht die Dynamik protoplanetarer Scheiben.

Das Wasser-Tornado-Modell könnte neue Wege eröffnen, um die Wechselwirkungen zwischen Staub und Gas in planetenbildenden Scheiben zu untersuchen. Ein kostengünstiger und flexibler Forschungsansatz! 💧 #Planetenentstehung #Innovation #Astronomie #Simulation #Experiment
@unigreifswald.bsky.social 🪐

Water Tornado in the Laboratory: A Simple Experiment Simulates Planet Formation A new laboratory experiment uses a water tornado to simulate key processes in planet formation within protoplanetary discs.

Initial results are promising! ✨ The water tornado's flow behaviour closely matches that of #protoplanetary discs 🪐, offering new insights into how dust particles interact and promote #planet formation. #PlanetaryScience #Innovation 🔭 #Experiment #Simulation #Astronomy @unigreifswald.bsky.social

Announcement of the talk "From mass transfer to stripped stars" by Pablo Marchant on 15 July 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with a pixelated view of a colorful pinwheel

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Pablo Marchant will discuss the current progress in our understanding of mass-transferring binaries, covering the impact of this process on the donor star as well as the response of its companion 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Announcement of the talk "Compact star mergers, kilonovae and r-process element production" by Stephen Smartt on 8 July 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an artistic black-and-white drawing of an explosion of a spherical object with a pebble-like interior

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Stephen Smartt will discuss the scenario of long gamma ray bursts as kilonova thermal emission 🔭

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

Announcement of the talk "Unlocking the various evolutionary pathways of sun-like stars" by Nicole Reindl on 1 July 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an image of some turbulent motions in a sphere in light blue

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Nicole Reindl will explore how late thermal pulses, stellar mergers, Type Ia supernovae, and magnetic fields can dramatically alter the observable characteristics of evolved stars 🔭

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

Teleskop-Aufnahme der Whirlpool-Galaxie Messier 51 mit Gezeitenschweifen

Teleskopaufnahme des Hatelnebels Messier 27

Der Adlernebel M16 in Bicolor

Teleskopaufnahme des Bubblenebels NGC 7635 in kräftigen Rottönen

Aus den Studierenden am @mpi-astro.bsky.social hat sich eine neue Generation von Astrofotograf*innen rekrutiert, die zeigen, was unser 50cm-Teleskop so drauf hat 🔭

Announcement of the talk "De-mystifying galactic outflows driven by supermassive black holes" by Chris Harrison on 24 June 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with a church ceiling with a star-like pattern

On Tuesday, at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Chris Harrison will present new observational results highlighting a connection between dust, radio emission, and AGN outflows

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

Announcement of the talk "The magnetic history of the Universe " by Jennifer Schober on 17 June 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with a cubistic colour scheme

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Jennifer Schober will outline key theoretical models of magnetogenesis and present new insights on the evolution of primordial magnetic fields from state-of-the-art numerical simulations 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Announcement of the talk "A new view of the red and distant Universe from JWST/NIRSpec" by Anna de Graaff on 10 June 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an expressionistic colourful spiral

Today at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, MPIA's Anna de Graaff will present an overview of key extragalactic surveys from JWST/NIRSpec, focusing on the major discoveries that they have enabled and the challenges that remain 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Webb reveals the origin of the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-121b New findings from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal the origins of the ultrahot exoplanet WASP-121b, including atmospheric methane and silicon monoxide.

In search of the origins of the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-121b: Its atmospheric methane and silicon monoxide content suggests that it has formed in a cooler zone, similar to the gas giants in our solar system! 🔭

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

JWST ermittelt den Ursprung des extrem heißen Exoplaneten WASP-121b Die Entdeckung von Methan und Siliziumoxid auf WASP121b liefert neue Einblicke in die Herkunft dieses extrem heißen Exoplaneten.

Auf der Suche nach den Ursprüngen des ultraheißen Exoplaneten WASP-121b: Sein atmosphärischer Methan- und Siliziummonoxidgehalt deutet darauf hin, dass er sich in einer kühleren Zone gebildet hat, ähnlich wie die Gasriesen in unserem Sonnensystem 🔭
www.mpia.de/aktuelles/wi...

Thanks for pointing this out! We'll forward your concerns to the colloqium organisers (who create the posters)

Announcement of the talk "The atmospheres of discs and planets" by Barbara Ercolano on 3 June 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an AI-generated comic-style drawing of sthe solar system

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Barbara Ercolano review the results of recent efforts to connect the protoplanetary disc evolution, driven by their central star, to the formation of planets 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Vom 2. bis zum 6 Juni 2025 findet auf dem MPIA-Campus das diesjährige SDSS-V collaboration meeting statt - mit öffentlichem Abendvortrag am Mittwoch, dem 4. Juni um 19 Uhr im @hausderastronomie.bsky.social!

Announcement of the talk "Origins of Stars, Planets, and Life: Early Science with JWST" by Michael Meyer on 27 May 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an AI-generated comic-style drawing of several stars and planets in the sky

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Michael Meyer will review results from the JWST science programs to answer to key questions concerning the origins of stars and planets, with implications as well for the origin of life 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Wer schon immer mal mit (Schul-)Mathematik nachvollziehen wollte, wie Gravitationswellen mit Hilfe von Licht nachgewiesen werden: unser @mpoessel.de hat das systematisch aufgeschrieben:

Announcement of the talk "Galaxy formation at cosmic dawn" by Romain Teyssier on 20 May 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an AI-generated expressionistic image resembling a sunrise

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Romain Teyssier will report on recent advances in modeling the high redshift universe using cosmological simulations featuring radiation and magneto-hydrodynamics 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

YouTube video by Haus der Astronomie ChatGPT & Co in der Astronomie

KI-Anwendungen schreiben Texte, generieren Bilder und erkennen Muster in Daten. Am Montag diskutieren wir mit Rhys Seeburger vom @mpi-astro.bsky.social die Pros und Cons der Anwendung von maschinellem Lernen und neuronalen Netzen in der Astronomie 🔭
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHZA...

@knudjahnke.bsky.social leitet am MPIA die Euclid-Gruppe und berichtet übermorgen am @hausderastronomie.bsky.social über den Stand der Dinge der ESA-Mission, die ein Drittel des Himmels durchmustern wird, um Dunkle Materie und Dunkle Energie besser zu verstehen 🔭

Announcement of the talk "The tumultuous life of early galaxies: bursty star formation and the build-up of disks" by Sandro Tacchella on 13 May 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an AI-generated composite of comic-style spiral galaxies

Tomorrow at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Sandro Tacchella will present the latest insights into the formation pathways of early galaxies 🔭
physik.uni-heidelberg.de/hephysto/ind...

Announcement of the talk "New Tricks for the Analysis of Stellar Spectra" by Carlos Allende Prieto on 6 May 2025 at 16:30 CEST at Philosophenweg 12 and online via Zoom, with an AI-generated comic of a beam coming from a sun-like yellow star, with other stars and the Milky Way in the background

Today at the Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium, Carlos Allende Prieto will review the recent advances made in stellar spectroscopy 🔭

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

Banner for the talk "The build-up of galactic nuclei: how do black holes get there?" by Nadine Neumayer from MPIA illustrated with an AI-generated spiral galaxy

New semester, new Heidelberg Joint Astronomical Colloquium!

HJAC starts with our own Nadine Neumayer looking into the origin of supermassive black holes in massive star clusters - today at 16:30 CEST in the large lecture hall (gHS) at Philosophenweg 12

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

YouTube video by Haus der Astronomie Lebensspuren bei K2-18b?

In der Atmosphäre des Exoplaneten K2-18b könnten die Biomarker Dimethylsulfid und Dimethyldisulfid vorkommen - und schon überschlagen sich die Medien mit Nachrichten über den Nachweis außerirdischen Lebens. @eahrer.bsky.social ordnet das ganze am Montag für uns ein 🔭

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ugk...

New analysis casts doubt on 'biosignatures' found on planet K2-18b Researchers using data from the James Webb Space Telescope recently announced they had detected biosignature gases on planet K2-18b. A new analysis of the same data casts doubt on the earlier findings

A new look at the ongoing K2-18b saga from @npr.org - includes a comment by our director @lkreidberg.bsky.social :-)

Is this a hint of life on another world, or just a lot of hot air? The James Webb Space Telescope may have detected life-associated gas in the atmosphere of a far-off planet. The news is being greeted with both enthusiasm and skepticism.

"I think this is one of those situations where extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence": Laura Kreidberg
@mpi-astro.bsky.social about signs of life beyond our #solarsystem.
npr.org/2025/04/16/n... #exoplanets #K218b @npr.org @lkreidberg.bsky.social

YouTube video by Haus der Astronomie Erste Daten der Euclid-Mission

Am 19. März hat das Euclid-Konsortium seinen ersten großen Datensatz mit beeindruckenden Aufnahmen tiefer Himmelsfelder mit insgesamt 26 Millionen Galaxien veröffentlicht. @knudjahnke.bsky.social verrät uns morgen Abend, was man alles daraus lernen kann 🔭
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WASI...

Euclid opens data treasure trove, offers glimpse of deep fields Germany’s members of the Euclid Consortium have played a significant role in producing the mission’s first large set of survey data which the European Space Agency has just released.

On 19 March 2025, the first batch of observation data from the ESA’s Euclid mission was released, including a preview of its Deep Fields, very long-exposed sky sections. Hundreds of thousands of galaxies in various shapes and sizes take center stage here 🔭
www.mpia.de/news/2025-eu...