Ten observatories in six European countries teamed up for recent observations of a stellar occultation by the dwarf planet Haumea, which surprisingly show a narrow and dense ring orbiting the dwarf planet. In addition, the astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and more than 50 further institutions were able to constrain the size, shape and density of Haumea,which are closer to theoretical predictions than previous estimates but still puzzling. [more]

Ten observatories put their sight on the dwarf planet [more]

The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina honors Joachim Trümper, Director Emeritus at the MPE, with the Cothenius Medal for his outstanding scientific lifetime achievement. The award will be presented to Joachim Trümper at the opening ceremony of the Annual General Meeting of the Leopoldina on Friday, 22 September 2017, in Halle (Saale). [more]

For many years of work on instrument development for the far infrared, the German Astronomical Society awards the newly instituted Prize for Instrument Development to Albrecht Poglitsch. In particular, Albrecht Poglitsch developed the PACS instrument for ESA’s Herschel space telescope, which led to many important discoveries in star formation and development as well as for distant galaxies and AGNs. [more]

For the first time, an international team of astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has observed a molecular outflow being launched from beyond the disk surrounding a young stellar object. Outflows carry away excess angular momentum and it has been proposed that these disk winds should be launched from a wide region in the protoplanetary disk. The recent observations now show that the outflows are asymmetric and that they are launched beyond the edge of the disk, at the position of the landing site of the in-falling material. [more]

Astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and using the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory report the discovery of a spectacular extended jet from a young brown dwarf. With masses too low to sustain hydrogen fusion in their interiors, brown dwarfs occupy the mass range between stars and giant planets. While young stars are commonly found to launch jets that extend over a light year or more, this is the first jet with a similar extent detected from a brown dwarf. The result lends new insight into how sub-stellar objects form. [more]

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Kirpal Nandra, Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), have signed a memorandum of understanding on Germany’s contribution to the MXT and ECLAIRs instruments that CNES is developing for the French-Chinese SVOM astronomy mission. [more]