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

Telescope in horizontal position inside the dome
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Man in white coat looks through telescope

Observation evening on 14th February, 7pm

Everyone is welcome to the observation evening in the large refractor on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam! If observations won't be possible due to the weather conditions, visitors can still admire the fourth largest refracting telescope in the world and will receive a short demonstration of the telescope with explanations.

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Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia

The European Space Agency’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations over the last decade to revolutionise the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood.

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Unveiling the Uncharted Milky Way: Completing the Galactic Stellar Map

By peering into the cosmic dance of stars, a team led by researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has unravelled the complex structure of our Milky Way galaxy. Assuming that each observed star represents a larger population of stars sharing the same orbit, they have reconstructed the properties of these “hidden” stars, filling in gaps in the Galactic disc that holds the secrets of our Galaxy's past, present, and future.

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A star’s surface revealed: 16-year study shows chaotic dynamo

The STELLA observatory in Tenerife studied a star’s surface for 16 years. Unlike the cyclic spots on our sun, this star exhibited chaotic, non-periodic star spot behavior, revealing a fundamentally different dynamo mechanism. The groundbreaking study has now been published in Nature Communications.

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Call for nominations and applications for the Johann Wempe Award 2025

In honour of Prof. Dr. Johann Wempe (1906 – 1980), the last director of the former Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam (AOP), the AIP grants the Johann Wempe Award to outstanding scientists. Applications and nominations are accepted until 31st January 2025.

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Latest News
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Girls' Day / Zukunftstag Brandenburg 2025
Jan. 22, 2025

Learn about the work at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam.

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MilkyWay_25J14_40KPC_Top_D53_5K_HighContrast

Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia
Jan. 15, 2025

The European Space Agency’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations over the last decade to revolutionise the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood.

[more]
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Virtual lecture: Babelsberg Starry Night on 16th January 2025
Jan. 14, 2025

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on the topic "Searching for the X-ray emitters in the Universe" (German) by Dr. Iris Traulsen will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 16thJanuary 2025.

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Have you heard?

The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has suspended communication on its X account (formerly Twitter). The decision reflects concerns about the current direction of the platform, which is seen as inconsistent with our values like openness, scientific integrity, transparency and democratic discourse. AIP will continue to share news via its website and other social media platforms, such as Mastodon and Bluesky.

Latest Publications

Asymmetries and Circumstellar Interaction in the Type II SN 2024bch

Andrews, J. E., ... Ilyin, I., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 980, 1, 37 – Published February 2025
doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ada555, NASA ADS

Planetary inward migration as the potential cause of GJ 504's fast rotation and bright X-ray luminosity: New constraints from eROSITA

Pezzotti, C., ... Poppenhaeger, K.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A179 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452580, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Stellar Physics and Exoplanets

Magnetic connectivity of coronal loops and flare-accelerated electrons in a B-class flare: Based on X-ray, EUV (DEM analysis), and type-III radio burst observations

Bröse, M., Vocks, C., Warmuth, A., Mann, G., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A188 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202449289, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

A multi-wavelength view of the isolated neutron star eRASSU J065715.3+260428

Kurpas, J., Pires, A. M., Schwope, A. D., ... Traulsen, I.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A160 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452353, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

Transit-timing variations in the AU Mic system observed with CHEOPS

Boldog, Á., ... Poppenhaeger, K., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A137 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452699, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Stellar Physics and Exoplanets

The MUSE eXtremely Deep Field: Classifying the spectral shapes of Lyα-emitting galaxies

Vitte, E., ... Pharo, J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A100 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202450426, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Galaxies and Quasars

State-dependent signatures of jets and winds in the optical and infrared spectrum of the black hole transient GX 339–4

Ambrifi, A., ... Cúneo, V. A., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A109 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451024, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW): XII. Rationale and design of a Mg II survey of the cool circum-galactic medium with MUSE and UVES: The MEGAFLOW Survey

Bouché, N. F., ... Wisotzki, L., ... Weilbacher, P. M.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A67 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451093, NASA ADS

An intriguing coincidence between the majority of vast polar structure dwarfs and a recent major merger at the M31 position

Akib, I., Hammer, F., Yang, Y., Pawlowski, M. S., Wang, J.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A66 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452131, NASA ADS

Solar energetic particles injected inside and outside a magnetic cloud: The widespread solar energetic particle event on 2022 January 20

Rodríguez-García, L., ... Warmuth, A., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A64 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452158, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

Testing a proposed planarity tool for studying satellite systems: The alleged consistency of Milky Way satellite galaxy planes with ΛCDM

Pawlowski, M. S., Júlio, M. P., Kanehisa, K. J., Müller, O.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, L4 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202453428, NASA ADS

Effects of secular growth and mergers on the evolution of metallicity gradients and azimuthal variations in a Milky Way-like galaxy

Renaud, F., Ratcliffe, B., Minchev, I., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 694, A56 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452219, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Milky Way and the Local Volume

A reference framework for extremely metal-poor OB star studies: calibrations for stellar parameters and intrinsic colours

Lorenzo, M., ... Castro, N., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 537, 2, 1197 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1093/mnras/staf071, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Astrophotonics (innoFSPEC)

Figuring Out Gas and Galaxies In Enzo (FOGGIE). VIII. Complex and Stochastic Metallicity Gradients at z > 2

Acharyya, A., ... Augustin, R., ...
The Astrophysical Journal, 979, 2, 129 – Published February 2025
doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad9dd8, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Galaxies and Quasars

The VMC Survey - LI. Classifying extragalactic sources using a probabilistic random forest supervised machine learning algorithm

Pennock, C. M., ... Cioni, M.-R. L., ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 537, 2, 1028 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1093/mnras/staf080, NASA ADS

Publisher Correction: Fine structures of a solar type III radio bursts observed with LOFAR

Dabrowski, B., ... Vocks, C., ... Bröse, M., ... Mann, G., ...
Acta Geophysica, 73, 1, 1021 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1007/s11600-024-01461-w, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

Fine structures of a solar type III radio bursts observed with LOFAR

Dabrowski, B., ... Vocks, C., ... Bröse, M., ... Mann, G., ...
Acta Geophysica, 73, 1, 987 – Published February 2025
doi:10.1007/s11600-024-01421-4, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

The Theory of Resonant Cosmic Ray–driven Instabilities—Growth and Saturation of Single Modes

Lemmerz, R., Shalaby, M., Pfrommer, C., Thomas, T.
The Astrophysical Journal, 979, 1, 34 – Published January 2025
doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad8eb3, NASA ADS

Searching the Non-Accreting White Dwarf Population in eROSITA Data

Friedrich, S., ... Schwope, A., ...
Astronomische Nachrichten, 346, 1, e20240139 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1002/asna.20240139, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

Determining the acceleration regions of in situ electrons using remote radio and X-ray observations

Morosan, D. E., ... Warmuth, A., ... Mann, G., Vocks, C., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A296 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452511, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Solar Physics

Chemical Evolution of R-process Elements in Stars (CERES): III. Chemical abundances of neutron capture elements from Ba to Eu

Lombardo, L., ... Gallagher, A. J., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A293 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452283, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Stellar Physics and Exoplanets

The eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS): The hard X-ray selected sample

Nandra, K., ... Krumpe, M., Lamer, G., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A212 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202449416, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

Abundance ties: Nephele and the globular cluster population accreted with ω Cen: Based on APOGEE DR17 and Gaia EDR3

Pagnini, G., ... Khoperskov, S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A155 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202450264, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Milky Way and the Local Volume

S5: New insights from deep spectroscopic observations of the tidal tails of the globular clusters NGC 1261 and NGC 1904

Awad, P., ... Cullinane, L. R., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A69 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451930, NASA ADS

eRO-ExTra: eROSITA extragalactic non-AGN X-ray transients and variables in eRASS1 and eRASS2

Grotova, I., ... Tubín-Arenas, D., Homan, D., Krumpe, M., ... Bahic, S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A62 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451253, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: X-ray Astronomy

Dwarf galaxies in the MATLAS survey: The satellite system of NGC 474 under scrutiny with MUSE

Müller, O., ... Pawlowski, M. S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A44 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202450143, NASA ADS

The Rotation Properties of δ Sct and γ Dor Stars

Wang, J., Chen, X., Deng, L., Zhang, J., Sun, W.
The Astrophysical Journal, 978, 1, 53 – Published January 2025
doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad93b3, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Milky Way and the Local Volume

Radial Velocity and Astrometric Evidence for a Close Companion to Betelgeuse

MacLeod, M., ... Granzer, T., ... Strassmeier, K. G., ... Weber, M.
The Astrophysical Journal, 978, 1, 50 – Published January 2025
doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ad93c8, NASA ADS

The e-TidalGCs project: Modeling the extra-tidal features generated by Galactic globular clusters (Corrigendum)

Ferrone, S., ... Khoperskov, S., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, C2 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348837e, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Milky Way and the Local Volume

The GAPS Programme at TNG: LXV. Precise density measurement of TOI-1430 b, a young planet with an evaporating atmosphere

Nardiello, D., ... Mallonn, M., ...
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 693, A32 – Published January 2025
doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202452236, NASA ADS
AIP sections/groups: Stellar Physics and Exoplanets

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

 

Events and dates at AIP

Hauskolloquium - Ismael Pessa
13.02.2025, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
[more]

Observation evening at the Great Refractor
14.02.2025, 19:00 – 20:00
Public Event

The AIP invites to a public observation evening in the Great Refractor at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam.

[more]

External Colloquium | Anna Miotello (ESO Garching)
20.02.2025, 14:00 – 16:00
Scientific

Abstract: The field of planet formation is in an exciting era, where recent observations of disks around protostars have revealed a diversity of substructures, some possibly planet related. It is therefore important to understand the physical and chemical nature of the protoplanetary building blocks, as well as their spatial distribution, to better understand planet formation. Each one of the fundamental disk properties – disk mass, surface density distribution, outer radius, vertical extent, temperature structure, and transport – is of fundamental interest as they collectively set the stage for disk evolution and corresponding planet formation theories. Furthermore, constraining and comparing the chemistry of disks to the compositions of exoplanet atmospheres – a major priority for current space missions – informs our understanding of the planet-formation process. In this talk I will review our understanding of the fundamental properties of disks including the relevant observational techniques to probe their nature, modeling methods, and the respective caveats. Finally, I will present preliminary findings from the ALMA Large Program DECO (The Disk-Exoplanet C/Onnection).

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Virtual Babelsberg Starry Night
20.02.2025, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

Talk (in German): The age of stars - and how it can be determined (David Gruner)

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Hauskolloquium (Rainer Weinbereger)
27.02.2025, 14:00 – 16:00
Scientific
[more]

tba.
06.03.2025, 14:30 – 17.02.2025
Scientific
[more]

Observation evening at the Great Refractor
10.03.2025, 19:00 – 20:00
Public Event

The AIP invites to a public observation evening in the Great Refractor at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam.

[more]

External Colloquium | Gerald Handler (Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center)
13.03.2025, 14:00 – 16:00
Scientific

TBD

[more]

Babelsberg Starry Night - Live at the campus babelsberg
18.03.2025, 19:15 – 21:00
Public Event

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

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Hauskolloquium - Sergey Khoperskov
27.03.2025, 14:30 – 16:00
Scientific
[more]

Girls' Day/Zukunftstag Brandenburg 2025
03.04.2025, 9:00 – 14:00
Public Event

Only for registered participants

[more]

Housecolloquium - Rouven Lemmerz
03.04.2025, 14:30 – 15:30
Scientific
[more]

Observation evening at the Great Refractor
03.04.2025, 20:00 – 21:00
Public Event

The AIP invites to a public observation evening in the Great Refractor at the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam.

[more]

tba.
10.07.2025, 14:30 – 17.02.2025
Scientific
[more]
Public Event
Scientific
Internal Event
Holidays

Conferences
Bows and bubbles that are caused by stellar feedback and galactic winds

The role of feedback in galaxy formation: from small-scale winds to galactic outflows
18th Potsdam Thinkshop
July 14, 2025 – July 18, 2025
[Website]