Starting in the winter semester 2016/2017, the University of Potsdam will offer students an Astrophysics master programme.

Astrophysicists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have for the first time measured the rotation periods of stars in a cluster nearly as old as the Sun and found them to be similar.

May 11th 1916 marks the death of Karl Schwarzschild, one of the most versatile astrophysicists and scientists of his time.

On the 9th of May at 1:12 p.m. local time, Mercury will begin its transit in front of the Sun – seen from the point of view of our Earth.

An international team of astronomers led by Dr. Andrea Kunder of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) in Germany and Dr. R. Michael Rich of UCLA has discovered that the central 2000 light years within the Milky Way Galaxy hosts an ancient population of stars.

The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA) has released all of the data assembled over six years of work.

When re-analysing catalogued and updated observational data of brown dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood, astronomers from Potsdam have found that a significant number of nearby brown dwarfs should still be out there, awaiting their discovery.

The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) organizes in collaboration with the University of Innsbruck the 13th Thinkshop under the title "Near Field Cosmology".

Scientists and engineers have begun mapping out the detailed specifications for the High Resolution Spectrograph HIRES that will be part of the instrument suite on ESO’s forthcoming European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

The European Southern Observatory has signed a phase A study contract with the MOSAIC consortium. The multi-object spectrograph will be the workhorse instrument for the E-ELT, with its 39m diameter primary mirror the biggest telescope in the world.

There is no place in Potsdam for hostility towards foreigners and those seeking refuge, argue the heads of educational and research institutes in Potsdam in an open letter published on 16 March 2016 in the Märkischen Allgemeinen, the Potsdamer Neuesten Nachrichten and other newspapers.

LOFAR, the Low-Frequency Array Radio Telescope, observed ultra-short, bright radio pulses of elementary particles entering the Earth atmosphere at almost the speed of light.

The European Research Council (ERC) announced Prof. Dr. Maria-Rosa Cioni to be winner of one of the ERC Consolidator Grants worth 2 million Euros. ERC Consolidator Grants are awarded to outstanding researchers once a year.

The BOSS survey has scanned the sky measuring the redshifts of more than 1 million galaxies, yielding a three dimensional picture of luminous sources in our Universe covering about 4.5 billion years.

The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) has successfully raised funding for a new project as part of the funding scheme "Zwanzig20" (Federal Ministry of Education and Research).

With the first successful measurement of gravitational waves by the LIGO observatory in the USA, a scientific sensation was confirmed on February 11 that brings astrophysics into a new era.

New images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory show the spectacular aftermath of a 360 million year old cosmic collision in great detail.

From December 7 to 9 the state of astrophysical research in Germany will be presented and strategies for the next decade will be discussed at a workshop organized by the Council of German Observatories (Rat Deutscher Sternwarten, RDS) and the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) on Telegrafenberg in Potsdam.

The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) was given excellent marks in the independent evaluation process by the Leibniz Association, which takes place every seven years. The development of the institute over the past years was described to be extremely successful.