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Welcome!

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 cosmic magnetic fields, extragalactic astrophysics and the development of research technologies in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes and E-science.

Elliptical orbit of the black hole Gaia BH3 with the accompanying giant star nearby.
Image of the sky with x-ray sources
MUSE Ultra Deep Field
Sun-magnetic_field_lines
Azubi_Oskar_Sauerbrey

Gaia discovers large dormant black hole in our galaxy

While validating the data from ESA's Gaia mission, scientists uncovered a ‘sleeping’ giant. A large black hole, with a mass of nearly 33 times the mass of the Sun, was hiding in the constellation Aquila, less than 2000 light-years from Earth. This is the first time a black hole of stellar origin this big has been spotted so close to home.

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Virtual lecture: Babelsberg Starry Night on 18 April 2024

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on the topic "eROSITA – Mapping the hot universe" (German) will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 18 April 2024.

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Research Area II: Extragalactic Astrophysics

Galaxies are fundamental cosmic building blocks. At the largest scales, they serve as markers to study the distribution of matter in the universe - active galaxies and quasars are particularly important because of their intrinsic brightness. Nearby objects can be spatially resolved and consist of populations with very different patterns of motion, star formation histories and chemical abundances.

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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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The art of filing, drilling and milling

Newly qualified apprentice Oskar Sauerbrey speaks about his training as a precision mechanic at AIP in an interview. Two new apprenticeships will be available again from September 2024; applications can still be submitted until June. The Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) is characterized not only by its various research sections, but also by the technical section, which is responsible for the construction and maintenance of modern instruments and historical telescopes. The associated precision engineering workshop regularly trains young people. One of them is Oskar Sauerbrey. He has just completed his precision mechanics apprenticeship in January 2024 and gives us an exclusive insight into his experiences at AIP.

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Latest News
Image of the sky with x-ray sources

Virtual lecture: Babelsberg Starry Night on 18 April 2024
April 17, 2024

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) presents the first data publication of the X-ray telescope "eROSITA" and will be broadcasted on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 18th April 2024.

[more]
Side view of the Milky Way (horizontally, from left to right), the Gaia black holes are on the left above (BH1), on the left below (BH3) and on the right above (BH2) the Milky Way plane. The new black hole is at the bottom left.

Gaia discovers large dormant black hole in our galaxy
April 16, 2024

While validating the data from ESA's Gaia mission, scientists uncovered a ‘sleeping’ giant. A large black hole, with a mass of nearly 33 times the mass of the Sun, was hiding in the constellation Aquila, less than 2000 light-years from Earth. This is the first time a black hole of stellar origin this big has been spotted so close to home.

[more]
eso1230a

Virtual lecture: Babelsberg Starry Night on 21 March 2024
March 19, 2024

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on the topic "Binary stars in exchange" (German) by Daniel Pauli from the University of Potsdam will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 21 March 2024.

[more]
 

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Latest Publications

DIAmante TESS AutoRegressive Planet Search (DTARPS). II. Hundreds of New TESS Candidate Exoplanets

Melton, E. J., ... Rosenswie, A. W., ...
The Astronomical Journal, 167, 5, 203 – Published May 2024
doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad29f1, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Stellar Activity

DIAmante TESS AutoRegressive Planet Search (DTARPS). I. Analysis of 0.9 Million Light Curves

Melton, E. J., ... Rosenswie, A. W., ...
The Astronomical Journal, 167, 5, 202 – Published May 2024
doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad29f0, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Stellar Activity

The origin of the characteristic shape and scatter of intergalactic damping wings during reionization

Keating, L. C., Puchwein, E., Bolton, J. S., Haehnelt, M. G., Kulkarni, G.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society – Published April 2024
doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slae022, NASA ADS

Radial acceleration relation of galaxies with joint kinematic and weak-lensing data

Mistele, T., McGaugh, S., Lelli, F., Schombert, J., Li, P.
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2024, 4, 020 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2024/04/020, NASA ADS

Assessing the Influence of Urban Lights on Night Sky Brightness with a Smartphone

Wang, Y., ... Sun, W., ...
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 136, 4, 044501 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1088/1538-3873/ad332a, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Milky Way and the Local Volume

The orbital parameters of the δ Cep inner binary system determined using 2019 HARPS-N spectroscopic data

Nardetto, N., ... Storm, J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, L9 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202449600, NASA ADS

Hot bubbles of planetary nebulae with hydrogen-deficient winds. III. Formation and evolution in comparison with hydrogen-rich bubbles

Schönberner, D., Steffen, M.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, A105 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202346170, NASA ADS

A star under multiple influences. Magnetic activity in V815 Her, a compact 2+2 hierarchical system

Kővári, Z., Strassmeier, K. G., ... Granzer, T., ... Weber, M.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, A94 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348324, NASA ADS

A too-many-dwarf-galaxy-satellites problem in the M 83 group

Müller, O., Pawlowski, M. S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, L6 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348969, NASA ADS

eROSITA detection of a cloud obscuration event in the Seyfert AGN EC 04570-5206

Markowitz, A., Krumpe, M., Homan, D., ... Brogan, R., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, A101 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202347745, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

The more the merrier: SRG/eROSITA discovers two further galaxies showing X-ray quasi-periodic eruptions

Arcodia, R., ... Krumpe, M., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, A64 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348881, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

Lyman continuum leaker candidates at z ∼ 3-4 in the HDUV based on a spectroscopic sample of MUSE LAEs

Kerutt, J., ... Wisotzki, L., ... Urrutia, T., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, A42 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202346656, NASA ADS

A Walk on the Retrograde Side (WRS) project. I. Tidying-up the retrograde halo with high-resolution spectroscopy

Ceccarelli, E., ... Ilyin, I., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 684, A37 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348332, NASA ADS

Toward Precision Cosmology with Improved Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function Distances Using VLT-MUSE. II. A Test Sample from Archival Data

Jacoby, G. H., Ciardullo, R., Roth, M. M., Arnaboldi, M., Weilbacher, P. M.
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 271, 2, 40 – Published April 2024
doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ad2166, NASA ADS

Representing low-mass black hole seeds in cosmological simulations: A new sub-grid stochastic seed model

Bhowmick, A. K., ... Weinberger, R., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 529, 4, 3768 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1093/mnras/stae780, NASA ADS

The Hertzsprung progression of classical Cepheids in the Gaia era

Marconi, M., ... Trentin, E., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 529, 4, 4210 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1093/mnras/stae734, NASA ADS

Short and long time-scales variability of the H α double-peaked profile of Pictor A

Marsango, D., ... Couto, G. S., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 529, 3, 3089 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1093/mnras/stae694, NASA ADS

Large-scale excess H I absorption around z ≈ 4 galaxies detected in a background galaxy spectrum in the MUSE eXtremely deep field

Matthee, J., ... Urrutia, T., ... Wisotzki, L.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 529, 3, 2794 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1093/mnras/stae673, NASA ADS

HINORA, a method for detecting ring-like structures in 3D point distributions I: Application to the Local Volume Galaxy catalogue

Thomas, M., ... Sanna, A., ... Ghirlanda, G., ...
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 41, e018 – Published April 2024
doi:10.1017/pasa.2024.21, NASA ADS

Recovery of the low- and high-mass end slopes of the IMF in massive early-type galaxies using detailed elemental abundances

den Brok, M., Krajnović, D., ... Steinmetz, M., Weilbacher, P. M.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society – Published March 2024
doi:10.1093/mnras/stae912, NASA ADS

Alive but Barely Kicking: News from 3+ yr of Swift and XMM-Newton X-Ray Monitoring of Quasiperiodic Eruptions from eRO-QPE1

Pasham, D. R., ... Krumpe, M., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 963, 2, L47 – Published March 2024
doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ad2a5c, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

Multiwavelength Observations of Quasiperiodic Pulsations in the Impulsive Phase of an Eruptive Flare with the Hard X-Ray Imager On Board ASO-S and Other Instruments

Shi, F., ... Warmuth, A., ...
Solar Physics, 299, 3, 30 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1007/s11207-024-02272-4, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

3D non-LTE modeling of the stellar center-to-limb variation for transmission spectroscopy studies. Na I D and K I resonance lines in the Sun

Canocchi, G., ... Pietrow, A. G. M., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, A242 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202347858, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

The phase-space distribution of the M 81 satellite system

Müller, O., ... Pawlowski, M. S., Jamie Kanehisa, K., ... Libeskind, N. I.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, A250 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348377, NASA ADS

Cepheid Metallicity in the Leavitt Law (C-MetaLL) survey. V. New multiband (grizJHKs) Cepheid light curves and period-luminosity relations

Bhardwaj, A., ... Trentin, E., ... Storm, J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, A234 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348140, NASA ADS

Rapid evolution of the recurrence time in the repeating partial tidal disruption event eRASSt J045650.3−203750

Liu, Z., ... Homan, D., Krumpe, M., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, L13 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348682, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

Evidence for flare-accelerated particles in large scale loops in the behind-the-limb gamma-ray solar flare of September 29, 2022

Pesce-Rollins, M., ... Warmuth, A., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, A208 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348088, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

MAGIC: MUSE gAlaxy Groups In COSMOS - A survey to probe the impact of environment on galaxy evolution over the last 8 Gyr

Epinat, B., ... Krajnović, D., ... Urrutia, T., Weilbacher, P. M.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, A205 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348038, NASA ADS

Detection of pulsed X-ray emission from the isolated neutron star candidate eRASSU J131716.9-402647

Kurpas, J., Schwope, A. D., Pires, A. M., Haberl, F.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, A164 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202347967, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

A newborn active galactic nucleus in a star-forming galaxy

Arévalo, P., ... Krumpe, M.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 683, L8 – Published March 2024
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348900, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

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

 

Events and dates at AIP

Hauskolloquium Nikoleta Ilic Petkovic
11.04.2024, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
[more]

Azi Fattahi colloquium
18.04.2024, 14:00 – 16:00
Scientific
[more]

Virtual Babelsberg Starry Night
18.04.2024, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

Talk (in German): eROSITA - Mapping the hot universe (Georg Lamer)

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External Colloquium - Gherardo Valori (MPS)
25.04.2024, 14:00 – 16:00
Scientific

The Solar Orbiter Mission and the SO/PHI instrument: new opportunities for novel science

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Potsdam Day of Science 2024
04.05.2024, 13:00 – 19:00
Public Event

This year's Potsdam Day of Science is taking place on the Telegrafenberg, where the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam, one of the predecessor institutes of the AIP, was founded 150 years ago. The AIP will open the doors of the Einstein Tower and Great Refractor, which are celebrating their 100th and 125th anniversaries this year.

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Hauskolloquium Bridget Ratcliffe
23.05.2024, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
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Company Run Potsdam
28.05.2024
Public Event
[more]
Public Event
Scientific
Internal Event
Holidays