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.

Using data from the MUSE instrument, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) succeeded in detecting extremely faint planetary nebulae in distant galaxies.

In its meeting on 2 July 2021, the Joint Science Conference of the Federal Government and the Länder (GWK) decided to fund the consortium PUNCH4NFDI within the framework of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI).

German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the Great Refractor of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) at the Albert Einstein Science Park on Telegrafenberg together with the Heads of State of Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland.

The eROSITA collaboration releases the first set of data from the X-ray telescope eROSITA as an "Early Data Release" for research worldwide. Scientists from the AIP were providing parts of the software for data analysis, analyzing observations of neutron stars and white dwarfs as well as investigating the effects of X-rays on the atmospheres of young exoplanets.

By mapping the motion of galaxies in huge filaments that connect the cosmic web, astronomers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), in collaboration with scientists in China and Estonia, have found that these long tendrils of galaxies spin on the scale of hundreds of millions of light years.

A team of astronomers has succeeded in dating some of the oldest stars in our galaxy with unprecedented precision by combining data from the stars’ oscillations in space – their “sound” – with information about their chemical composition.

An initiative of leading scientists led by Professor Günther Hasinger, research director of the European Space Agency (ESA), is advocating the establishment of the German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA) to be located in Lusatia.

Under the motto "Research. Discover. Participate." the Potsdam Science Days will take place – for the first time online – from Monday, 3 May, to Sunday, 9 May. More than 30 universities and research institutions in the region participate – including the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP).