Astronomers have witnessed a planet causing eruptions on its parent star. The discovery, published in Nature, could reshape our understanding of how planets and stars interact and evolve together.

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on the topic "What binary stars tell us about the rotation of stars" (German) by Dr. David Gruner will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 19.06.2025.

On Wednesday 28 May 2025, the Maria-Margaretha-Kirch building will be officially opened on the campus of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam.

The integration and testing phase of 4MOST, is nearing completion. Over the coming weeks, the final components of this powerful instrument are being carefully packed. Media representatives are invited for a behind-the-scenes look and a special event on June 10 ahead of 4MOST’s final shipment to Chile.

Large and complex sunspot groups characterize the surface of the dynamic Sun during its activity cycle. A new camera system at the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) at the Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife uses image restoration methods to capture smallest details in active regions of the Sun's surface.

On Friday, 23 May 2025, from 7.15 pm, the AIP once again invites guests to a Live Babelsberg Starry Night on the Babelsberg campus. Dr Christian Vocks will speak about ‘The sun and space weather’. In his lecture, Christian Vocks will explain how sunspots, flares and coronal mass eruptions are created - and what influence these phenomena have on the Earth and our technology. This will be followed by a guided tour of the campus and the Babelsberg telescopes.

The next Virtual Babelsberg Starry Night of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), will feature two lectures on the topic "Solar Orbiter – X-ray view of the Sun" (in German) by Dr. Alexander Warmuth. The lectures will be broadcast on the YouTube channels “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) and “videowissen” from Thursday, 17 April 2025.

With an unusual arrangement of dwarf galaxies, the Andromeda galaxy surprises one team from the AIP. A new study in the journal Nature Astronomy suggests that the current cosmological model may not be complete.

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on the topic "Stars in the Computer tomograph" (German) by Dr. Axel Schwope will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 20.03.2025.

See the partial solar eclipse on the AIP campus in Potsdam-Babelsberg

On Tuesday, 18 March 2025, from 7.15 pm, the AIP invites you to a Babelsberg Starry Night live on the Babelsberg campus. Dr Tanya Urrutia will give a lecture on the topic ‘Hubble & Webb Deep Fields – Images of the Young Universe’.

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on the topic "The age of stars – and how it can be determined" (German) by Dr. David Gruner will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 20.02.2025.