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Scientific institutions deliberately hold back party-political positions. However, in the region's diverse scientific and research landscape we are directly affected in many ways by the political climate and the decisions made by local and regional authorities. 2019 is an election year. European and local elections will be held in Brandenburg on May 26. On September 1, Brandenburg's citizens will elect a new state parliament.

"Arts and sciences, research and teaching are free," is written in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. This freedom is the basis of scientific work. The possibility to pursue science freely depends on decision makers standing by this freedom.

The campaign is therefore supposed to illustrate the value of free science and its social responsibility. Individuals, groups and entire institutions or organizations are invited to participate individually and to demonstrate the broad spectrum which makes science possible.

Find out more about the campaign and planned actions under:

https://wissen-schafft.org

A European team of astronomers, including researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), detected the remnant of an old nova in the globular cluster Messier 22 with the MUSE instrument at the Very Large Telescope operated by ESO in Chile. According to records in the Chinese chronicle Book of Han, a "guest star" was seen in the same region of the sky in 48 BC, i.e. a previously invisible or new (nova) star that disappeared from the sky after a while.

"The position and brightness of the remnant match the entry from 48 BC" says Fabian Göttgens of the Institute for Astrophysics at the University of Göttingen and first author of the now published study. Prof. Dr. Martin Roth, scientist at AIP, explains why this confirmation of an old measurement is possible thousands of years later: "Astronomical phenomena often extend over very long periods of time – sometimes modern measurements can be supported by historical observations."  Novae and supernovae were known to Chinese, Arab, Greek and Babylonian astronomers thousands of years ago. The oldest Chinese astronomical records are a remarkable 3,400 years old. "With modern and sensitive instruments, and some luck, even less severe stellar eruptions are detectable after more than 2,000 years," adds Dr. Peter Weilbacher of AIP.

The globular cluster M22 is one of about 150 globular clusters orbiting our Milky Way. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius in the direction of the center of the Milky Way and consists of several hundred thousand very old stars and binary star systems. Novae are eruptions on the surface of a white dwarf star in a binary system. The released energy increases the luminosity by several orders of magnitude, so that they can be observed for a short time as a "star" from Earth. The ejected material distributes itself at high speed and forms a luminous nebula, which thins out more and more over time.

The MUSE instrument, a 3D spectrograph, was built with the participation of AIP. MUSE splits starlight into its colors and measures the brightness of stars as a function of color. This makes it particularly suitable for finding nebulae that often glow in a certain color. The now discovered remnant of the nova forms a red shining nebula of hydrogen and other gases, which has a diameter of about 8,000 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. Despite its size, the nebula is relatively light. The new measurements estimate its mass at about 30 Earth masses.

High technology, such as that of MUSE, thus creates a link between modern astronomy and the meticulously documented observations of Chinese astronomers more than 2,000 years ago.

Chinese inscription describing the nova in 48 BC (in yellow). Credit: ctext.org

Press release by University of Göttingen https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/73613.html?id=5421

Scientific contact Prof. Dr. Martin Matthias Roth, 0331-7499-313, mmroth@aip.de

Media contact Sarah Hönig, 0331-7499-803, presse@aip.de

More about Muse https://www.aip.de/en/research/research-area-drt/research-groups-and-projects-1/3d-spectroscopy/muse/development-of-the-muse-integral-field-spectrograph

Publication Fabian Göttgens, Peter M. Weilbacher, Martin M. Roth, Stefan Dreizler, Benjamin Giesers, Tim-Oliver Husser, Sebastian Kamann, Jarle Brinchmann, Wolfram Kollatschny, Ana Monreal-Ibero, Kasper B. Schmidt, Martin Wendt, Lutz Wisotzki, and Roland Bacon, "Discovery of an old nova remnant in the Galactic globular cluster M 22," Astronomy & Astrophysics (2019). https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.11515

The key areas of research at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) are cosmic magnetic fields and extragalactic astrophysics. A considerable part of the institute's efforts aim at the development of research technology in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes, and e-science. The AIP is the successor of the Berlin Observatory founded in 1700 and of the Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam founded in 1874. The latter was the world's first observatory to emphasize explicitly the research area of astrophysics. The AIP has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 1992.

The rewarded idea is based on accomplishments in the transfer of high-technology from astronomy research to cancer diagnostics. The aim is an optical design study for the development of a prototype suitable for clinical studies. The innoFSPEC team under leadership of Prof. Dr. Martin Roth and a French industry partner, Winlight Systems, jointly and successfully entered the Attract contest. As part of the transfer idea “3D-CANCER-SPEC”, they will now develop a compact screening device, based on an original MUSE spectrograph, in a one-year funding phase. The concept will be publicized in a science journal and a presentation at the final Attract conference in September 2020 in Brussels. This support is expected to encourage funding of a medical device by funding bodies or industrial companies.

Basic research, as it is practiced at the AIP, facilitates excellence in the development of high-technology. Imaging spectroscopy with instruments like PMAS and MUSE and the analysis of huge amounts of data (big data) with artificial intelligence in eScience are some examples. Since its establishment in 2009, the research and innovation center innoFSPEC Potsdam engages in the utilization of high-technology developed during its research of optical technologies and photonics for economy and society. Among the center’s efforts is the transfer of imaging spectroscopy in astronomy to minimally invasive cancer diagnostics. This experiment, a cooperation with Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, was successfully completed in 2018 with a publication in the renowned Journal of Biomedical Optics. Additionally, two further projects in the Leibniz research alliance Health Technologies address bladder cancer diagnostics and technological improvements for use in surgery. These projects in partnership with the Leibniz Association and industry partners have already led to one patent application.

One stated aim of the Pact for Research and Innovation is to strengthen the exchange of science with economy and society. Against this background, the biggest European research organizations such as the high energy laboratory CERN, the X-ray laser laboratory XFEL or the European South Observatory ESO have sponsored the project ATTRACT with a total of 17 million euros funded by the European Commission. All in all, the project rewards 170 exceptional transfer ideas in the area of detecting and imaging technologies. Among them are promising application innovations in microelectronics, information and communication or life sciences and medical technology.

Attract Website

https://attract-eu.com/

innoFSPEC Website

https://innofspec.de/en/

More about Muse

https://www.aip.de/en/research/research-area-drt/research-groups-and-projects-1/3d-spectroscopy/muse/development-of-the-muse-integral-field-spectrograph

Scientific contact

Prof. Dr. Martin Matthias Roth, 0331-7499-313, mmroth@aip.de

Media contact

Sarah Hönig, 0331-7499-803, presse@aip.de

Publication

Elmar Schmälzlin, Benito Moralejo, Ingo Gersonde, Johannes Schleusener, Maxim E. Darvin, Gisela Thiede, Martin M. Roth, “ Nonscanning large-area Raman imaging for ex vivo /in vivo skin cancer discrimination,” J. Biomed. Opt. 23 (10), 105001 (2018)

https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.23.10.105001

The key areas of research at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) are cosmic magnetic fields and extragalactic astrophysics. A considerable part of the institute's efforts aim at the development of research technology in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes, and e-science. The AIP is the successor of the Berlin Observatory founded in 1700 and of the Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam founded in 1874. The latter was the world's first observatory to emphasize explicitly the research area of astrophysics. The AIP has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 1992.

Astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) have, for the first time, studied the complex mechanism of the escape of the ultraviolet light from galaxies using the Potsdam Multi- aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS) at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain. PMAS was developed and built at the AIP, and is in regular operation at the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope. Detailed physical analysis of the now published unique observations provide evidence for a supersonic speed outflow of gas. A similar process likely took place in the early Universe.

The Era of Reionization

The young Universe was a dark place. A few hundred million years after the Big Bang the first stars formed, and their ultraviolet radiation ionized the hydrogen atoms that populated the Universe and absorbed the radiation. This is called the Era of Reionization, and marks the time when the Universe became transparent to light (and, hence, observable). Now, the astronomers have used the PMAS instrument to study a green pea, a local analog to the first galaxies, to better understand how ultraviolet light escapes and ionizes distant areas, in a process similar to that of Reionization. “Because of this enormous distance, we cannot observe the galaxies that hosted these first stars, even with future planned extremely large telescopes. The only thing we can do is to find local analogs to such galaxies, and study them instead of their more distant cousins. Astronomers have invented a funny name for them, green peas, because they glow in green light”, says Genoveva Micheva, astronomer at the AIP and first author of the study.

The closest green pea is NGC 2366, a dwarf galaxy somewhat irregular in shape that looks like the Large Magellanic Cloud. At a distance of only 11 million light-years away from us, NGC 2366 is close enough to be studied in detail. In its southern part lies Mrk 71, a giant nebula and two clusters of young, hot stars illuminating the gas (mostly hydrogen) around it. Such large nebular complexes are the locations of active ongoing formations of massive stars.

How Ultraviolet Light Escapes

Mrk 71 is so large that it dominates the ionization properties of the whole NGC 2366 galaxy, that is, it emits photons so energetic that they are able to remove the single electron of each atom of hydrogen around it. Energetic ultraviolet light, that astronomers think is responsible for powering the ancient epoch of Reionization, is escaping the confines of this galaxy. This light is extremely sensitive to the presence of gas and dust, which readily absorbs and scatters it. For this reason, it has thus far been unclear exactly how the energetic ultraviolet light escapes.

Studying this region with the PMAS spectrometer at the Calar Alto Observatory, Micheva and her colleagues discovered hints to a very fast biconical outflow of gas, probably caused by star forming events. The outflow starts at a young cluster of stars, tens of times more massive than the Sun, detected previously by the Hubble Space Telescope. This outflow punches a hole in the gas, which clears the way for the energetic ultraviolet light to escape from the galaxy unimpeded. “We find supporting evidence for this scenario by creating and examining spatial maps of the electron temperature and density, the speed of sound and the Mach number”, says Micheva. The average Mach number inside of Mrk 71, which represents the ratio of velocity to the speed of sound, is supersonic and increases to hypersonic outside of the core of the region. This indicates a sudden drop in gas density. “We show that this drop in density can be quite dramatic, enough to reduce the gas density to levels completely transparent to ionizing photons”, emphasizes Micheva.

The German-Spanish Astronomical Center at Calar Alto is located in the Sierra de Los Filabres (Andalucía, Southern Spain) north of Almeria. It is operated jointly by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC) in Granada/Spain. Junta de Andalucía is about to take over MPIA as a co-partner of the Calar Alto Observatory.

Original Publication

CAHA Press Release

http://www.caha.es/

More info on PMAS

https://www.aip.de/en/research/research-area-drt/research-groups-and-projects-1/3d-spectroscopy/pmas/galaxy-survey-with-pmas

Scientific contact

Dr. Genoveva Micheva, 0331-7499-657, gmicheva@aip.de

Media contact AIP

Sarah Hönig, 0331-7499 803, presse@aip.de

The key areas of research at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) are cosmic magnetic fields and extragalactic astrophysics. A considerable part of the institute's efforts aim at the development of research technology in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes, and e-science. The AIP is the successor of the Berlin Observatory founded in 1700 and of the Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam founded in 1874. The latter was the world's first observatory to emphasize explicitly the research area of astrophysics. The AIP has been a member of the Leibniz Association since 1992.

It gives young participants a chance to look over astrophysicists' shoulders and learn more about working in science. How is everyday life for an astrophysicist? Where do the questions come from whose answer researchers are looking for? Which steps are part of the research process?

At this year's Girls’ Day, employees of the AIP present their work, showcasing

current projects and answering the questions of the students. They learn more about the history and meaning of constellations, create their own star map and immerse themselves in the exciting world of galaxy research. They also look behind the scenes of the historic site of the observatory Babelsberg and look - in case of suitable weather conditions - even through the telescope in the sky.

The limited to twenty participants seats were booked out after a short time.

Media contact:

Franziska Gräfe, 0331 7499-803, presse@aip.de