On Thursday, a new lecture from the virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights series will be published on YouTube: Dr. Daniel Sablowski will present how astronomers are “Analysing light” (in German). The video will be available from 18th June, 8 pm, on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life).

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An artificial star above Potsdam became a visible symbol on Monday evening of a success story from the Berlin-Brandenburg region. During a joint event hosted by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and TOPTICA EAGLEYARD, representatives from science, industry, and business came together to recognize the international significance of the German capital region as a center for photonics, laser, and space technologies.

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New stellar motion measurements reveal that the Small Magellanic Cloud is expanding and out of equilibrium due to interactions with the Large Magellanic Cloud. A new study presents the most detailed map yet of stellar motions, uncovering clear evidence that the nearby dwarf galaxy is being stretched and disrupted even in its central region by gravitational interactions from its larger neighbour.

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Cosmic events are determined by two natural forces: gravity and magnetic fields. The magnetic field research at the AIP is mainly focused on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations, the magnetically induced activities on the Sun and the stars, solar coronaphysics as well as space weather in our solar system and on planets around other stars.

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Galaxies are fundamental cosmic building blocks. At the largest scales, they serve as markers to study the distribution of matter in the universe - active galaxies and quasars are particularly important because of their intrinsic brightness. Nearby objects can be spatially resolved and consist of populations with very different patterns of motion, star formation histories and chemical abundances.

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