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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.

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Professor Katja Poppenhäger appointed new director at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP)

Katja Poppenhäger has been named the new Director of the research field ’Stellar, Solar and Exoplanetary Physics’ at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP). With her extensive international experience in exoplanet research, she is strengthening AIP's profile and establishing new priorities.

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A sharper view of the Milky Way with Gaia and machine learning

A group of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) have used a novel machine learning model to process data for 217 million stars observed by the Gaia mission in an extremely efficient way. The results were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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Research Area I: Cosmic Magnetic Fields

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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New map of the universe shows mega structures

An international research team led by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has developed a new method of imaging the universe and created a fascinating map of the cosmos based on analysing the motions of 56,000 galaxies. The work shows impressive cosmic structures and maps the large-scale interconnectedness of galaxy superclusters in our universe.

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Katja Poppenhäger has been named the new Director of the research field ’Stellar, Solar and Exoplanetary Physics’ at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP). With her extensive international experience in exoplanet research, she is strengthening AIP's profile and establishing new priorities.

On Saturday, October 19, 2024, the “Long Night of Astronomy” took place in the Great Refractor. A total of 200 visitors took part in the interactive guided tours from 4pm to 10pm. The event offered guests a unique mix of science and historical theater.

The 6th edition of the classic teaching book “Astronomie und Astrophysik – Ein Grundkurs” is now available. The standard work has been completely revised by Prof Dr Lutz Wisotzki from the AIP. Over 140 new illustrations based on current data and a completely restructured chapter on galaxy development, in which the formation and development of galaxies is presented in an understandable and compact way.

 

Latest Publications

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

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

The glow of axion quark nugget dark matter: II. Galaxy clusters

Sommer, J. S., ... Sorce, J. G., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 691, A38 – Published November 2024

There is no place like home - finding birth radii of stars in the Milky Way

Lu, Y. (., Minchev, I., ... Khoperskov, S., Steinmetz, M., Libeskind, N., ... Ratcliffe, B.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 535, 1, 392 – Published November 2024

The SDSS-V Local Volume Mapper (LVM): Scientific Motivation and Project Overview

Drory, N., ... Cioni, M.-R. L., ...
The Astronomical Journal, 168, 5, 198 – Published November 2024

The effect of helium reionization on the Lyα forest hydrogen flux statistics

Meiksin, A., Puchwein, E.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society – Published October 2024

Exploring the impact of modified gravity on the density field and halo properties within the cosmic web

Gupta, S., Pfeifer, S., Ganeshaiah Veena, P., Hellwing, W. A.
Physical Review D, 110, 8, 083520 – Published October 2024

Evaluating solar-like behavior in turbulent alpha and Babcock–Leighton mechanisms using non-kinematic nonlinear flux-transport solar dynamos

Inceoglu, F., Arlt, R.
Scientific Reports, 14, 1, 23425 – Published October 2024

Stripe 82X Data Release 3: Multiwavelength Catalog with New Spectroscopic Redshifts and Black Hole Masses

LaMassa, S., ... Powell, M., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 974, 2, 235 – Published October 2024

On the Origin of the Ancient, Large-scale Cold Front in the Perseus Cluster of Galaxies

Bellomi, E., ... Weinberger, R., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 974, 2, 234 – Published October 2024

High-quality Extragalactic Legacy-field Monitoring (HELM) with DECam: Project Overview and First Data Release

Zhuang, M.-Y., ... Krumpe, M., ...
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 274, 2, 42 – Published October 2024

A Timeline of the M81 Group: Properties of the Extended Structures of M82 and NGC 3077

Velguth, B. N., ... de Jong, R. S., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 974, 2, 189 – Published October 2024

The Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project (BDKP). VI. Ultracool Dwarf Radial and Rotational Velocities from SDSS/APOGEE High-resolution Spectroscopy

Hsu, C.-C., ... Schmidt, S. J., ...
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 274, 2, 40 – Published October 2024

Impact of Magnetic and Flow Fields on Penumbrae and Light Bridges of Three Leading Sunspots in an Active Region

Kamlah, R., Verma, M., Denker, C., ...
Solar Physics, 299, 10, 144 – Published October 2024

The intrinsic distribution of Lyman-α halos

Pharo, J., Wisotzki, L., Urrutia, T., ... Pessa, I., Augustin, R., ... Kozlova, D., ... Salas, H., Smirnov, D., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A343 – Published October 2024

Empirical derivation of the metallicity evolution with time and radius using TNG50 Milky Way and Andromeda analogues

Ratcliffe, B., Khoperskov, S., Minchev, I., ... de Jong, R. S., Steinmetz, M.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A352 – Published October 2024

Spectral characteristics of a rotating solar prominence in multiple wavelengths

Pietrow, A. G. M., Liakh, V., Osborne, C. M. J., Jenkins, J., Keppens, R.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, L15 – Published October 2024

Charting the Lyman-α escape fraction in the range 2.9 < z < 6.7 and consequences for the LAE reionisation contribution

Goovaerts, I., ... Pharo, J.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A302 – Published October 2024

Old massive clusters (and a nuclear star cluster?) in the tidal tails of NGC 5238

Bellazzini, M., ... Sacchi, E., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, L12 – Published October 2024

A first systematic characterization of cataclysmic variables in SRG/eROSITA surveys

Schwope, A. D., Knauff, K., Kurpas, J., ... Stütz, L., Tubín-Arenas, D.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A243 – Published October 2024

Infrared surface brightness technique applied to RR Lyrae stars from the solar neighborhood

Zgirski, B., ... Storm, J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A295 – Published October 2024

Thermal conductivity with bells and whistlers: Suppression of the magnetothermal instability in galaxy clusters

Maria Perrone, L., Berlok, T., Pfrommer, C.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A292 – Published October 2024

Eddington ratios of dust-obscured quasars at z ≲ 1: Evidence supporting dust-obscured quasars as young quasars

Kim, D., ... Urrutia, T., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A283 – Published October 2024

Cepheid Metallicity in the Leavitt Law (C-MetaLL) survey: VI. Radial abundance gradients of 29 chemical species in the Milky Way disc

Trentin, E., ... Storm, J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, A246 – Published October 2024

The extremely strong non-neutralized electric currents of the unique solar active region NOAA 13664

Kontogiannis, I.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 690, L10 – Published October 2024

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

07.11.2024, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
13.11.2024, 9:00 – 15.11.2024, 18:00
Scientific
15.11.2024, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

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

21.11.2024, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
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.

05.12.2024, 14:00 – 16:00
Scientific
12.12.2024, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
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.

Public Event
Scientific
Internal Event
Holidays