The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) invites to a live Babelsberg Starry Night on Thursday, 19.02.2026 at the research campus Babelsberg with Director Prof. Dr. Katja Poppenhäger talking about „Exoplanets – Strange worlds around far stars”. The same night, the YouTube-ChannelUrknall, Weltall und das Leben publishes a virtual lecture by Dr. Ramona Augustin regarding the circumgalactic medium, the gas surrounding galaxies. Both lectures are held in German.

On Wednesday, 11 February 2026, the AIP awarded the Johann Wempe Prize to Dr Sebastian Kamann from Liverpool John Moores University for his outstanding research on the formation and evolution of massive globular clusters.

A high-ranking delegation led by Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space in Gerrmany visited the Paranal Observatory of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile on 4 and 5 February 2026. The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) was represented by Prof. Dr. Matthias Steinmetz, Scientific Director of the AIP and member of the ESO Council.

On January 30th, 2026, the ESO signed an agreement with a large international consortium for the design and construction of BlueMUSE, a blue-optimised panoramic integral field spectrograph being developed for ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). With its large field of view, high spectral resolution, and exceptional efficiency in the blue wavelength range, BlueMUSE will enable unique observations.

During the night of 19th/20th January, colleagues at the AIP managed to capture images of the Northern Lights above Potsdam, its surrounding area and even above the AIP campus. The celestial phenomenon was triggered by a solar flare that occurred at around 6 p.m. on 18 January 2026. The solar wind released by the flare reached Earth during the night, creating colourful veils in the sky.

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) entitled "The interactions between stars and planets" (in German) by Dr. Nikoleta Ilić Petković will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 15.01.2026.

The next lecture of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) entitled “What’s wrong with the Hubble constant” (in German) by Prof. Dr. Matthias Steinmetz, will focus on determining this constant and the expansion of the Universe.

The research group "Relativistic Jets in Active Galaxies", in which the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam is also involved, has been investigating the powerful plasma beams emanating from supermassive black holes since 2021. Now the DFG has extended its funding.

Dr Lara Cullinane has been awarded a prestigious Leibniz Junior Research Group to investigate the evolution of the Magellanic Clouds, our nearest galactic neighbours. Her project, titled ’Chronicling the Clouds: Chemodynamics of the Most Massive Dwarf Galaxies’ will use the cutting-edge 4MOST instrument to uncover how these galaxies formed, evolved, and interacted over billions of years.

On Thursday, 11 December 2025, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) will open its doors for a very special evening in the context of a joint event organised by the „Potsdamer Lesesalon“ and the AIP. Under the title ‘Galaxies and Cosmic Cats – A Starry Night Between Science and Fiction,’ Potsdam author Tobias Radloff and Dr Ramona Augustin from the AIP invite you to join them on an interdisciplinary expedition into space.

Dr Joseph Whittingham receives a prize from the Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin e.V. (Berlin Physical Society) for his doctoral thesis, which he completed under the supervision of Prof. Dr Christoph Pfrommer at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and the University of Potsdam.

Today, the European Southern Observatory ESO has signed an agreement with a large international consortium for the design and construction of the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOSAIC), an instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). On what will be the world's largest optical telescope, MOSAIC will simultaneaously measure the light from hundreds of astronomical sources and by that trace the growth of galaxies and the distribution of matter from the Big Bang to the present day. As a consortium member, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) is responsible for part of the technical development of MOSAIC, as well as for preparing its scientific use.

Scientists have captured an exceptionally rare, high-resolution view of an active region that produced two powerful X-class solar flares—an achievement rarely possible from Earth. Using the GREGOR solar telescope in Tenerife, researchers recorded the explosive activity of the Sun’s most energetic sunspot group of 2025, revealing twisted magnetic structures and the early stages of flare ignition with unprecedented detail. The flares triggered fast coronal mass ejections that lit up Earth’s skies with vivid auroras in the nights that followed.

At the next virtual Babelsberg Starry Night of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), Dr Daniel Sablowski follows a photon on its cosmic odyssey. The video will be broadcast on the YouTube channel ‘Urknall, Weltall und das Leben’ (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from 20 November 2025.

In November 2025, Jean-Michel Désert became head of the ‘Exoplanets and their Atmospheres’ section at AIP. His research focuses on determining the climates and atmospheric chemical compositions of distant worlds to uncover clues about planet formation and the potential habitability of exoplanets.

When galaxy clusters collide, huge shock waves are sent out. These energise electrons, giving rise to so-called ‘radio relics’ – vast structures that emit radio waves. Using computer simulations, a research team lead by the Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has solved several long-standing problems that previously challenged our understanding of these phenomena.

In the dark season, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) is once again inviting visitors to the popular Babelsberg Starry Nights. This event series is aimed at anyone interested in astronomy, regardless of prior knowledge. Researchers from the AIP will report on current topics and interesting projects from the world of astrophysics. On Tuesday, 18 November, Dr Axel Schwope will speak on ‘Cosmic Clocks’ – in German.

An international team of astronomers including scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) unexpectedly discovered a faint Planetary Nebula in the young star cluster NGC 1866 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

An international team of researchers, led by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), has shed light on a decades-long debate about why galaxies rotate faster than expected, and whether this behaviour is caused by unseen dark matter or a breakdown of gravity on cosmic scales.

On Thursday, 23 October, Prof. Matthias Steinmetz will talk about the large-scale instrument project 4MOST – the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope – in the next virtual Babelsberg Starry Night. The video will be broadcast on the YouTube channel ‘Urknall, Weltall und das Leben’ at 8 p.m.