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.

On 10 December 1999, the European Space Agency's X-ray satellite XMM-Newton began its journey to investigate X-ray sources in the universe. The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has been involved for three decades with software development and data analysis.

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.

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a grant of 2 million euros to the “Evaporator” project led by Professor Katja Poppenhäger.

The AIP application in the 2024 Leibniz Competition entitled “InSpecT” has been successfully approved. “InSpecT” will focus on the development of innovative fiber positioning systems for large telescopes. In the future, “InSpecT” will enable large-scale spectroscopic surveys of over 400 million stars and galaxies.

Last November 4th a contract was signed to fund the conceptual study of a new telescope, the Wide Field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST), which could potentially become operational in Chile after 2040. The consortium leading the WST project will receive three million euros.

For the next Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) we offer two lectures: ‘How galaxies challenge the dark matter model’ (German) by Marcel Pawlowski and ‘Intermediate mass black holes - the missing piece’ by Nikolay Kacharov.

Over the winter months, the historic telescope now opens its dome again for public observation evenings. On six dates between November 2024 and April 2025 anyone who is interested will have the opportunity to take a look through the world's fourth-largest refracting telescope.

Katja Poppenhäger has been named the new Director of the research field ’Stellar, Solar and Exoplanetary Physics’ at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP). With her extensive international experience in exoplanet research, she is strengthening AIP's profile and establishing new priorities.

On Saturday, October 19, 2024, the “Long Night of Astronomy” took place in the Great Refractor. A total of 200 visitors took part in the interactive guided tours from 4pm to 10pm. The event offered guests a unique mix of science and historical theater.

The 6th edition of the classic teaching book “Astronomie und Astrophysik – Ein Grundkurs” is now available. The standard work has been completely revised by Prof Dr Lutz Wisotzki from the AIP. Over 140 new illustrations based on current data and a completely restructured chapter on galaxy development, in which the formation and development of galaxies is presented in an understandable and compact way.

The next talk of the Virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on the topic "The physics of the formation of galaxies" (German) by Dr. Rainer Weinberger will be broadcast on the YouTube channel “Urknall, Weltall und das Leben” (Big Bang, Universe and Life) from Thursday, 17thOctober 2024.