Welcome!

The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) is dedicated to astrophysical questions ranging from the exploration of our Sun to the evolution of the cosmos. It focuses on the study of stellar, solar and exoplanetary physics, extragalactic astrophysics and the development of research technologies in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes and E-science.

xmm20_artist_cut
XXTri_image
Katja Poppenhäger
Technical illustration of the telescope in its building
Man in white coat looks through telescope
Beobachtungsabende_2024_Ankuendigung_Kreis

XMM-Newton anniversary: 25 years X-rays from space

On 10 December 1999, the European Space Agency's X-ray satellite XMM-Newton began its journey to investigate X-ray sources in the universe. The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has been involved for three decades with software development and data analysis. To mark the anniversary, the AIP is publishing a video with contributions from AIP researchers on science using the satellite's X-ray data.

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A star’s surface revealed: 16-year study shows chaotic dynamo

The STELLA observatory in Tenerife studied a star’s surface for 16 years. Unlike the cyclic spots on our sun, this star exhibited chaotic, non-periodic star spot behavior, revealing a fundamentally different dynamo mechanism. The groundbreaking study has now been published in Nature Communications.

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ERC Consolidator Grant for Exoplanet Research

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a grant of 2 million euros to the “Evaporator” project led by Professor Katja Poppenhäger.

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The European Union funds conceptual study of the Wide Field Spectroscopic Telescope

Last November 4th a contract was signed to fund the conceptual study of a new telescope, the Wide Field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST), which could potentially become operational in Chile after 2040. The consortium leading the WST project will receive three million euros to fund a detailed conceptual study over the next three years, from 2025 to 2027.

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Call for nominations and applications for the Johann Wempe Award 2025

In honour of Prof. Dr. Johann Wempe (1906 – 1980), the last director of the former Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam (AOP), the AIP grants the Johann Wempe Award to outstanding scientists. Applications and nominations are accepted until 31st January 2025.

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Public observation evenings in the Great Refractor in Potsdam starting at 15.11.

Over the winter months, the historic telescope now opens its dome again for public observation evenings. On six dates between November 2024 and April 2025 anyone who is interested will have the opportunity to take a look through the world's fourth-largest refracting telescope.

[more]

On 10 December 1999, the European Space Agency's X-ray satellite XMM-Newton began its journey to investigate X-ray sources in the universe. The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has been involved for three decades with software development and data analysis.

The STELLA observatory in Tenerife studied a star’s surface for 16 years. Unlike the cyclic spots on our sun, this star exhibited chaotic, non-periodic star spot behavior, revealing a fundamentally different dynamo mechanism. The groundbreaking study has now been published in Nature Communications.

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a grant of 2 million euros to the “Evaporator” project led by Professor Katja Poppenhäger.

 

Latest Publications

The Second Case of a Major Merger Triggering a Starburst in a Green Pea Galaxy

Purkayastha, S., ... Pharo, J., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 977, 1, 68 – Published December 2024

Equilibrium dynamical models in the inner region of the Large Magellanic Cloud based on Gaia DR3 kinematics

Kacharov, N., ... Cioni, M.-R. L., ... Khoperskov, S.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 692, A40 – Published December 2024

The disc origin of the Milky Way bulge: The high velocity dispersion of metal-rich stars at low latitudes

Boin, T., ... Khoperskov, S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 692, A13 – Published December 2024

oMEGACat. IV. Constraining the Ages of Omega Centauri Subgiant Branch Stars with HST and MUSE

Clontz, C., ... Kacharov, N., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 977, 1, 14 – Published December 2024

Detecting and sizing the Earth with PLATO: A feasibility study based on solar data

Krenn, A. F., ... Hofmeister, S. J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 692, A17 – Published December 2024

DIAmante TESS AutoRegressive Planet Search (DTARPS). III. Understanding the DTARPS-S Candidate Transiting Planet Catalogs

Melton, E. J., ... Rosenswie, A. W., ...
The Astronomical Journal, 168, 6, 271 – Published December 2024

WEAVE First Light Observations: Origin and Dynamics of the Shock Front in Stephan's Quintet

Arnaudova, M. I., ... Couto, G. S., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 535, 3, 2269 – Published December 2024

PEPSI's non-detection of escaping hydrogen and metal lines adds to the enigma of WASP-12 b

Pai Asnodkar, A., ... Ilyin, I., Strassmeier, K. G., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 535, 2, 1829 – Published December 2024

Stellar surface information from the Ca II H&K lines - II. Defining better activity proxies

Cretignier, M., ... Pietrow, A. G. M., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 535, 3, 2562 – Published December 2024

High-resolution spectroscopy of the variable hot post-AGB star LS 4331 (IRAS 17381‑1616)

Ikonnikova, N. P., Parthasarathy, M., Shaposhnikov, I. A., Hubrig, S., Sarkar, G.
Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, 45, 2, 27 – Published December 2024

Cataclysmic variables from Sloan Digital Sky Survey - V (2020-2023) identified using machine learning.

Inight, K., ... Schwope, A., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society – Published November 2024

Simulating Radio Synchrotron Morphology, Spectra, and Polarization of Cosmic Ray Driven Galactic Winds

Chiu, H.-H. S., Ruszkowski, M., Thomas, T., Werhahn, M., Pfrommer, C.
The Astrophysical Journal, 976, 1, 136 – Published November 2024

Widespread Rapid Quenching at Cosmic Noon Revealed by JWST Deep Spectroscopy

Park, M., ... Weinberger, R.
The Astrophysical Journal, 976, 1, 72 – Published November 2024

The Extremely Metal-rich Knot of Stars at the Heart of the Galaxy

Rix, H.-W., ... Khoperskov, S., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 975, 2, 293 – Published November 2024

First Detection of Molecular Gas in the Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxy Malin 1

Galaz, G., ... Weilbacher, P. M., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 975, 2, L26 – Published November 2024

Outflow from the very massive Wolf-Rayet binary Melnick 34

Castro, N., Weilbacher, P. M., Roth, M. M., ... Micheva, G.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A346 – Published November 2024

Abundances of iron-peak elements in 58 bulge spheroid stars from APOGEE

Barbuy, B., ... Chiappini, C., ... Valentini, M., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A296 – Published November 2024

The chemical evolution of the Milky Way thin disk using solar twins

Plotnikova, A., Spina, L., Ratcliffe, B., Casali, G., Carraro, G.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A298 – Published November 2024

Comparing the interstellar and circumgalactic origin of gas in the tails of jellyfish galaxies

Sparre, M., Pfrommer, C., Puchwein, E.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A259 – Published November 2024

The MUSE eXtremely Deep Field: Detections of circumgalactic Si II* emission at z ≳ 2

Kusakabe, H., ... Wisotzki, L., ... Pessa, I., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A255 – Published November 2024

The observational evidence that all microflares that accelerate electrons to high energies are rooted in sunspots

Battaglia, A. F., ... Warmuth, A., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A172 – Published November 2024

Magnetic field of the roAp star KIC 10685175: Observations versus theory

Shi, F., ... Hubrig, S., Järvinen, S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A272 – Published November 2024

SDSS J102915.14+172927.9: Revisiting the chemical pattern

Caffau, E., ... Steffen, M., ... Gallagher, A. J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A245 – Published November 2024

Solar active region evolution and imminent flaring activity through color-coded visualization of photospheric vector magnetograms

Kontogiannis, I., Pietrow, A. G. M., ... Verma, M., Denker, C.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A119 – Published November 2024

An X-ray flaring event and a variable soft X-ray excess in the Seyfert LCRS B040659.9–385922 as detected with eROSITA

Krishnan, S., ... Krumpe, M., Homan, D., Brogan, R., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A102 – Published November 2024

Transferring spectroscopic stellar labels to 217 million Gaia DR3 XP stars with SHBoost

Khalatyan, A., ... Chiappini, C., ... Nepal, S., ... Guiglion, G., Valentini, M., ... Steinmetz, M., ... Enke, H., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A98 – Published November 2024

The Smallest Scale of Hierarchy Survey (SSH): III. Dwarf-dwarf satellite merging phenomena in the low-mass regime

Sacchi, E., ... de Jong, R. S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A65 – Published November 2024

The SRG/eROSITA All-Sky Survey: X-ray beacons at late cosmic dawn

Wolf, J., ... Urrutia, T., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A30 – Published November 2024

Spatially resolved spectroscopic analysis of Lyα haloes: Radial evolution of the Lyα line profile out to 60 kpc

Guo, Y., ... Wisotzki, L., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A66 – Published November 2024

A Rapid Sequence of Solar Energetic Particle Events Associated with a Series of Extreme-ultraviolet Jets: Solar Orbiter, STEREO-A, and Near-Earth Spacecraft Observations

Lario, D., ... Warmuth, A., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 975, 1, 84 – Published November 2024

[List of AIP publications] [AIP publications in ADS]

02.12.2024, 9:00 – 04.12.2024, 17:00
Scientific

The German MHD Days were initiated in Potsdam in 1997 as a forum for theoretical research problems in magnetohydrodynamics, predominantly in astrophysics and geophysics. Since many of the problems are of fundamental nature, links to liquid metal phenomena, turbulence, convection and rotation of fluids have been in the scope of the meeting since.

03.12.2024, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

Talk (in German): Rotationskurven, Dunkle Materie und MOND (Marcel Pawlowski)

05.12.2024, 10:30 – 12:00
Scientific
10.12.2024, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

Talk: XMM-Newton Jubilee: Science at AIP with the X-ray telescope (Iris Traulsen, Axel Schwope et al.)

10.12.2024, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

Talk: XMM-Newton Anniversary: Science at AIP with the X-ray telescope (Iris Traulsen, Axel Schwope et al.)

12.12.2024, 19:00 – 20:00
Public Event

The AIP invites to a public observation evening in the Great Refractor at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam.

12.12.2024, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

Talk (in German): XMM-Newton-Jubiläum: Wissenschaft am AIP mit dem Röntgenteleskop (Iris Traulsen, Axel Schwope et al.)

09.01.2025, 19:00 – 20:00
Public Event

The AIP invites to a public observation evening in the Great Refractor at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam.

16.01.2025, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
23.01.2025, 14:00 – 16:00
Scientific

The Solar Orbiter Mission and the SO/PHI instrument: new opportunities for novel science

Public Event
Scientific
Internal Event
Holidays
Magneto-Convection.jpg
Dec. 2, 2024 – Dec. 4, 2024