Euclid space telescope delivers first scientific images
MPE researchers are excited and are eagerly awaiting the first results.
Ultracompact: The Black Hole at the center of our Milky Way
Every now and then, luminous gas is seen swirling around Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Now, astronomers at MPE have succeeded in measuring the black hole mass from this motion – and it perfectly matches the measurement honoured with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020. The conclusion: the 4.3 million solar masses are contained within an orbit smaller than that of Venus around the Sun.
Protostars feed from beyond their envelopes
A recent study led by MPE 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.
Euclid space telescope catches its first glimpse
Euclid, ESA’s newest space telescope with strong German participation, has delivered its first test images a few weeks after the rocket launch
Euclid telescope successfully launched into space
The ESA space telescope Euclid, with significant contributions by MPE, was launched into space today, 1 July 2023 at 17:12 CEST on a Falcon 9 rocket by the US space company SpaceX. It will observe over a third of the entire sky for at least six years, mapping the spatial distribution of billions of galaxies and measuring their properties to reveal how Dark Matter and Dark Energy influence the structure of the universe.
eROSITA sees changes in the most powerful quasar
Researchers have observed the X-ray emission of the most luminous quasar seen in the last 9 billion years of cosmic history. Significant changes in the quasar’s emission give a new perspective on the inner workings of quasars and how they interact with their environment.
JWST peeks into the birthplaces of exoplanets
Astronomers excited by first JWST spectra of planetary cradles showing a rich and diverse chemistry
Helium-burning white dwarf discovered
A team led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has found a binary star system in which matter flows onto the white dwarf from its companion. The system was found due to bright, so-called super-soft X-rays, which originate in the nuclear fusion of the overflowed gas near the surface of the white dwarf. The unusual thing about this source is that it is helium and not hydrogen that overflows and burns.
