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 stellar, solar and exoplanetary physics, extragalactic astrophysics and the development of research technologies in the fields of spectroscopy, robotic telescopes and E-science.

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MUSE Ultra Deep Field
The Babelsberg research campus.On the left, the Schwarzschildhaus with its glass façade and peaked roof; on the right, the historic metal-domed building of the library.  In the background, the white main dome of the Humboldthaus is visible through trees.

Research Group on Cosmic Jets Gets Extended

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.

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New research group to explore the evolution of the Magellanic Clouds

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.

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Research Area I: Stellar, Solar and Exoplanetary Physics

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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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 Campus Babelsberg

On the Babelsberg campus of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), you can take a journey through the history of astronomy from the beginning of the last century in just a few steps. In 1913, today's Humboldthaus became the new home of the Berlin Observatory, which moved from the ever-growing city to the then undisturbed Babelsberg night sky.

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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.

 

Latest Publications

The Spatial Distribution of Intracluster Globular Clusters in the Fornax Cluster

D'Abrusco, R., ... Chaturvedi, A., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 996, 1, 67 – Published January 2026

Constraining lens masses in moderately to highly magnified microlensing events from Gaia

Pylypenko, U., ... Ilyin, I., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 705, A24 – Published January 2026

Sloan Digital Sky Survey. V. Pioneering Panoptic Spectroscopy

Kollmeier, J. A., ... Krumpe, M., ... Schwope, A., ... Steinmetz, M., ...
The Astronomical Journal, 171, 1, 52 – Published January 2026

An unusual velocity field in a sunspot penumbra

Balthasar, H., Denker, C., Diercke, A., ... Louis, R. E., ... Verma, M.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 705, A10 – Published January 2026

PEPSI Investigation, Retrieval, and Atlas of Numerous Giant Atmospheres (PIRANGA). IV. High-resolution Phased-resolved Spectroscopy of the Ultra-hot-Jupiter KELT-20 b

Bonidie, V., ... Strassmeier, K., Ilyin, I.
The Astronomical Journal, 171, 1, 34 – Published January 2026

Revisiting the X-ray-to-UV relation of quasars in the era of all-sky surveys

Chira, M., ... Krumpe, M.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 545, 1, staf1905 – Published January 2026

Overmassive black holes in the early Universe can be explained by gas-rich, dark matter-dominated galaxies

McClymont, W., ... Puchwein, E., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 545, 1, staf2092 – Published January 2026

MUSEQuBES: the column density, covering fraction, mass, and environmental dependence of cool H I gas around low-redshift galaxies

Dutta, S., ... Augustin, R., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 545, 3, staf2080 – Published January 2026

An improved model for the effect of correlated Si III absorption on the one-dimensional Lyman-α forest power spectrum

Ma, K., Bolton, J. S., Iršič, V., Gaikwad, P., Puchwein, E.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society – Published December 2025

X-ray reverberation black hole mass and distance estimates of Cygnus X-1

O’Neill, P., ... Mitchell, J.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society – Published December 2025

Stellar Rotation in an Old Solar Twin Using ESPRESSO/VLT Validates Gyrochronology

Carvalho-Silva, G., Barragán, O., Haywood, R. D., Meléndez, J., Barnes, S. A.
The Astrophysical Journal, 995, 2, L62 – Published December 2025

High-Resolution Modeling of Coronae and Winds in Solar-Type Stars with Varying Rotation Rates. I. X-Ray Coronae

Chen, Y.-H., Alvarado-Gómez, J. D., ... Poppenhäger, K., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 995, 1, 83 – Published December 2025

Asteroseismic Calibration of the Rossby Number and Its Connection to the Stellar Dynamo and Fundamental Properties

Bonanno, A. M. et al.
The Astrophysical Journal, 995, 1, 32 – Published December 2025

The THESAN-ZOOM project: Star-formation efficiencies in high-redshift galaxies

Shen, X., ... Puchwein, E., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society – Published December 2025

Wave Period Variability in a Quiescent Solar Prominence

Wiśniewska, A., ... Pietrow, A. G. M., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 995, 1, 17 – Published December 2025

The X-Ray Flare Spectrum of HR 1099: The Search for Photopumped Ne IX Line Emission

Christian, D. J., Keenan, F. P., Rose, S. J., Poppenhaeger, K.
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 137, 12, 124201 – Published December 2025

Cluster Ages to Reconstruct the Milky Way Assembly (CARMA): IV. Chrono-dynamics of seven old star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud and the peculiar origin of NGC 1841

Niederhofer, F., ... Kacharov, N., ... Cioni, M.-R. L., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A257 – Published December 2025

Counterpart identification and classification for eRASS1 and characterisation of the active galactic nuclei content

Salvato, M., ... Lamer, G., Schwope, A., ... Homan, D., Krumpe, M., ... Brink, J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A344 – Published December 2025

Chronology of our Galaxy from Gaia colour─magnitude diagram fitting (ChronoGal): II. Unveiling the formation and evolution of the kinematically selected thick and thin discs

Fernández-Alvar, E., ... Chiappini, C., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A258 – Published December 2025

Gaia DR3 high radial velocity stars: Genuine fast-moving objects or outliers?

Katz, D., ... Mints, A., ... Weingrill, K.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A294 – Published December 2025

The radial acceleration relation at the EDGE of galaxy formation: Testing its universality in low-mass dwarf galaxies

Júlio, M. P., ... Pawlowski, M. S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A330 – Published December 2025

A continuous parameterization of the cosmic web

Yaryura, C. Y., ... Libeskind, N. I., Gottlöber, S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A333 – Published December 2025

Unveiling the nature of HE 0107─5240: a long period binary CEMP-no star with [Fe/H] of ─5.56

Caffau, E., Steffen, M., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A238 – Published December 2025

A targeted radio survey of infrared-selected bow shock candidates

Moutzouri, M., ... Castro, N., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A268 – Published December 2025

Towards precision cosmology with improved PNLF distances using VLT-MUSE: III. Impact of stellar populations in early-type galaxies

Soemitro, A. A., ... Roth, M. M., ... Couto, G. S., Jakob Walcher, C.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A303 – Published December 2025

The perils of stacking optically selected groups in eROSITA data: The Magneticum perspective

Popesso, P., ... Lamer, G., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A277 – Published December 2025

Average X-ray properties of galaxy groups: From Milky Way-like halos to massive clusters

Popesso, P., ... Lamer, G., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A278 – Published December 2025

From thermal to magnetic driving: Spectral diagnostics of simulation-based magneto-thermal disc wind models

Weber, M. L., Sarafidou, E., Rab, C., Gressel, O., Ercolano, B.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A197 – Published December 2025

Upper limits on atmospheric abundances of KELT-11b and WASP-69b from a retrieval approach

Lesjak, F. et al.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A161 – Published December 2025

Quantifying CME effects on plasma parameters and elemental abundance recovery during an M1 flare event with X-ray spectroscopy

Takala, S., ... Mitchell, J. A. J., Warmuth, A., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 704, A216 – Published December 2025

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

13.01.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Fabio Lesjak (AIP)
Title: Characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres with high-resolution spectroscopy

Speaker: Dr. Tibor Török (Predictive Science, San Diego, USA)
Title: Solar Eruptions Triggered by Flux Emergence

15.01.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Sarah Pearson (NBI)
Title: TBD

28.01.2026, 19:00 – 20:00
Public Event

The AIP invites to a public observation evening in the Great Refractor at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam. Prior registration required, see Observation Evenings.

03.02.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Lea Marcotulli (DESY)
Title: tba.

05.02.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Melissa Pesce-Rollins (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare | Pisa, Italy)
Title: TBD

12.02.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: George Efstathiou (Cambridge)
Title: TBD

17.02.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Kseniia Sysoliatina (AIP)
Title: tba.

19.02.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Ralf Klessen (ITA, Heidelberg)
Title: topic: local ISM

19.02.2026, 19:15 – 21:00
Public Event

The AIP invites you to a live Babelsberg Starry Night at the Babelsberg campus:

24.02.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Iva Vilović (AIP)
Title: tba.

26.02.2026, 19:00 – 20:00
Public Event

The AIP invites to a public observation evening in the Great Refractor at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam. Prior registration required, see Observation Evenings.

05.03.2026, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific

Speaker: Romain Teyssier (Princeton)
Title: TBD

Public Event
Scientific
Internal Event
Holidays
Spacecraft in front of the Sun
Oct. 6, 2025 – Oct. 9, 2025
PUNCH4NFDI-Logo_RGB
Nov. 19, 2025 – Nov. 20, 2025
Banner XMM Newton SSC
March 17, 2026 – March 19, 2026