Using the most accurate and detailed cosmological simulations available, an international team has made an exciting prediction that may shed new light on our understanding of the universe: a large population of faint galaxies in our cosmic neighbourhood await discovery.

Astronomers have discovered that magnetic fields in multiple star systems with at least one giant, hot blue star, are much more common than previously thought by scientists. The results significantly improve the understanding of massive stars and their role as progenitors of supernova explosions.

From 20 to 24 March, 150 participants from 25 countries worldwide meet in Potsdam for the IAU Symposium 379 “Dynamical Masses of Local Group Galaxies”. The focus of the conference is on determining the mass of galaxies in our cosmic neighbourhood.

Huygens built excellent lenses in the 17th century, but his telescopes lacked sharpness in comparison with what was possible at that time. In a recent study, Dr Alex Pietrow, researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), investigated Huygens’ calculations and has concluded that the Dutch astronomer and mathematician was probably near-sighted and would have needed eyeglasses to improve his telescopes.

Astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and the Vatican Observatory (VO) teamed up to spectroscopically survey more than 1000 bright stars that potentially host exoplanets.

On Saturday, February 25, the exhibition "Sun. The source of light" at the Museum Barberini. Besides great works by Claude Monet, William Turner and Otto Dix, 15 photographic plates of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) will be presented.

A new instrument, WEAVE, at the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, an island of the Canaries, has seen first light. It analysed the light of a pair of galaxies 280 million light years away from Earth. The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) is one of the project's partners and AIP scientists will get access to its excellent data.

Dr Rainer Weinberger will join the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) in 2023 as a Leibniz junior group leader with a project focused on sophisticated cosmological simulations.

“Excellent and visible internationally”: The AIP receives all-around positive feedback in its evaluation, an independent assessment of all Leibniz institutions repeated regularly.

The next lecture of the virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) will be broadcasted starting on Thursday, 17 November 2022 on the YouTube channel "Urknall, Weltall und das Leben". Please note that the lecture will be given in German.

The Gaia collaboration, which is responsible for the spacecraft that is currently building the largest and most precise three-dimensional map of our galaxy, will receive the 2023 Lancelot M. Berkeley − New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy.

On 10 November at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, leading researchers in the field of galaxy evolution will discuss the first results and future prospects of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) together with other observatories in a dedicated Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Symposium.

Planets can force their host stars to act younger than their age, according to a new study of multiple systems authored by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Around noon on 25 October 2022, the moon will partially move in front of the Sun. Interested amateur astronomers can observe the partial solar eclipse at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP).

In order to be able to transfer the latest research results into practice even faster in the future, innoFSPEC has founded the innoFSPEC transfer laboratory together with the new transfer professorship of the University of Potsdam, Professor von Grünberg.

German Center for Astrophysics – Research. Technology. Digitization. (DZA) successful in competition for structural funding.

From 3 October 2022, minimal art will be on display in the Great Refractor on Telegrafenberg. The exhibition with works by the sculptor Gaedicke and graphic artist Ranft takes place in memory of a similar exhibition 40 years ago.

From 7 to 9 September, 60 scientists come to Potsdam Babelsberg to discuss exoplanet atmospheres, and their observations with high spectral resolution, in the Thinkshop conference series of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP).

From 4 to 9 September, the international meeting Scientific Detector Workshop 2022 will take place in Potsdam to discuss the latest developments in the field of imaging sensors.

New observations of the red supergiant suggest that the 2019 mass ejection of its atmosphere might significantly affects its fate. This doesn't mean Betelgeuse is going to explode any time soon, but the late-life convulsions yield clues as to how red stars lose mass late in their lives as their nuclear fusion furnaces burn out, before exploding as supernovae.