An international team of scientists has successfully measured the masses of the giant planets of the V1298 Tau system, which is just 20 million years old. The study now published in Nature Astronomy delivers the first evidence that these objects can reach their final size within their first millions of years of evolution.

The space probe Solar Obiter, carrying on board the X-ray telescope STIX developed with the participation of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), approaches Earth in a flyby manoeuvre on 27 November 2021.

The next lecture of the virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) will be broadcasted starting on Thursday, 18 November 2021 on the YouTube channel "Urknall, Weltall und das Leben". Please note that the lecture will be given in German.

With construction for 4MOST, an instrument for spectroscopic sky surveys, underway, its first major subsystem arrived at the Babelsberg campus of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and is now being unpacked and assembled.

The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) today celebrated the laying of the foundation stone for its extension building at the Babelsberg campus together with Dr Inge Schlotzhauer, Head of Division for Non-University Research, Brandenburg Ministry of Science, Research and Culture and Chair of the Board of Trustees of AIP, the Mayor of the State Capital Potsdam, Mike Schubert, and the President of the Leibniz Association, Prof Matthias Kleiner.

The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has again received the “TOTAL E-QUALITY” award, which is valid for the years 2021 to 2023.

A research team including the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has investigated a solar prominence and has observed that charged particles in it moved 70 percent faster than uncharged particles. The measurements hint at the dynamical processes in the prominence and can be used, for example, to check model computations for simulating gas clouds in star and planet formation.

The astronomical journal Astronomische Nachrichten/Astronomical Notes (AN) was founded by H. C. Schumacher in 1821 and thus turns 200 years old in 2021. It is the oldest astronomical journal in the world that is still being published.

23 September 2021 marks the 175th anniversary of the discovery of the most distant planet in the solar system. The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) celebrates this event with a lecture by Professor Matthias Steinmetz on the history of the discovery in the series of virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights on YouTube.

The German Astronomical Society (AG), the professional society for astronomy and astrophysics in Germany, recognises scientific achievements at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) in this year's award ceremony: The Instrument Development Award goes to Professor Martin Roth, and Dr Anke Arentsen receives the Doctoral Thesis Award.

Dr Aline Dinkelaker and Dr Aashia Rahman guest-edited a feature issue on the topic of astrophotonics, one of the research fields of innoFSPEC Potsdam at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP).

Superflares, extreme radiation bursts from stars, have been suspected of causing lasting damage to the atmospheres and thus habitability of exoplanets. A newly published study found evidence that they only pose a limited danger to planetary systems, since the radiation bursts do not explode in the direction of the exoplanets.