On the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam, the historic telescopes of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), namely the Great Refractor and the Einstein Tower, will be open to the public during the Long Night of Sciences on 17 June 2023.

On Thursday, 18th May 2023, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) offers two public lectures: a virtual talk on the topic "LOFAR: A next generation radio telescope" will be broadcasted on the YouTube channel "Urknall, Weltall und das Leben" in the virtual Babelsberg Starry Nights series, and a live talk will be given in the mobile planetarium of the "Universe on Tour" roadshow at the Luisenplatz in Potsdam. Please note that both lectures will be given in German.

In May, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) will participate in two event formats as part of the BMBF Science Year “Our Universe”: the roadshow "Universe on Tour" and the exhibition ship MS Wissenschaft. Both the ship and the planetarium can be visited for free.

More than 100 scientists meet from 8 to 12 May in Potsdam for the SOLARNET II Conference: “The Many Scales of the Magnetic Sun”.

On 6 May 2023, the Potsdam Science Day will take place for the tenth time, with more than 30 universities, schools and research institutions in Brandenburg presenting themselves – including the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP).

This year's Girls' Day/Future Day Brandenburg on 27 April once again offers girls an insight into occupational fields in which women have so far been underrepresented.

For nearly two decades the AIP has been participating in the NASA mission RHESSI. The spaceraft made 16 years of solar X-ray and gamma-ray observations in its low-Earth orbit before the mission ended in 2018 due to loss of communications. It is expected to finally re-enter the atmosphere and burn up on the night of 20 April.

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.