CAS News and Highlights

With unprecedented detail, a team of astronomers led by MPE have imaged the youngest disks around new-born stars. These glowing, chaotic systems are hotter and heavier than expected, hinting that planets may start forming much earlier than previously thought. more

The German Astronomical Society (AG) has awarded the prestigious Karl Schwarzschild Medal 2025 to Prof. Dr. Paola Caselli, Director of the Center for astrochemical studies (CAS) at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, for her groundbreaking work in the fields of astrochemistry and star formation. more

Teresa Valdivia-Mena receives both Otto Hahn Medal and Otto Hahn Award from the Max Planck Society more

For the first time, a team at Leiden University led by Ewine van Dishoek, an external scientific member of MPE, has robustly detected semi-heavy water ice around a young, sun-like star. These results support the theory that some of the water in our solar system originated before the Sun and its planets formed. The researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to make their discovery, which they have published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. more

Studies of rock and dust from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and analyzed by, among others, researchers from MPE’s Center of Astrochemistry (CAS), have revealed molecules that, on our planet, are key to life, as well as a history of saltwater that could have served as the “broth” for these compounds to interact and combine.
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In collaboration with the astrochemistry group of Prof. Caselli, Prof. Barbara Ercolano will work on the birth environments of exoplanets as new Max Planck Fellow at the MPE. Currently working at the University Observatory Munich, this joint position will strengthen the cooperation between MPG and LMU. more

An international group of astrophysicists, led by MPE scientists Marta Obolentseva, Alexei Ivlev, Kedron Silsbee, and Paola Caselli, have revisited the long-standing problem of evaluating the rate at which cosmic rays ionize gas in the interstellar medium. By combining available observational data for diffuse molecular clouds with novel developments in understanding the dust and gas distribution in these regions and applying numerical modeling, the scientists were able to compute the cosmic-ray ionization rate (or its upper limit) for a dozen nearby clouds. They showed that earlier estimates were a factor of ten too high. more

Using the JWST, a team of researchers including Paola Caselli, Barbara Michela Giuliano and Basile Husquinet from MPE, have probed deep into dense cloud cores, revealing details of interstellar ice that were previously unobservable. The study focuses on the Chamaeleon I region, using JWST’s NIRCam to measure spectroscopic lines towards hundreds of stars behind the cloud. more

In a groundbreaking study, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observed the early stages of the growth of dust grains in the dense Chamaeleon I cloud. These cold dust grains have accumulated molecular solids on their surface early in the process leading to star formation, challenging previous assumptions on where and when grain growth occurs. The findings indicate that the growth of these „icy grains” begins even before the protostellar phase. This not only sheds light on the intricacies of grain evolution before the birth of stars and planets but also poses challenges for chemical abundance determination due to the deformation of observed profiles. more

A recent study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics challenges conventional notions of star formation by revealing the intricate connection between streamers and filaments. Focusing on the star-forming region Barnard 5, the study traces the journey of material from larger scales to protostellar disks, uncovering a remarkable relationship between elongated filaments and gas streamers. In particular, the team discovered a sizeable streamer, which suggests that young stars can receive additional material even after the so-believed main accretion phase. more