The cosmic-ray ionization rate in the local Milky Way is ten times lower than previously thought
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.
Open House Day 2024
Join us at MPE on October 3, 2024 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and get an exciting insight into our work! The tour of MPE will take you to 18 stations. From black holes and galaxies to telescopes, electronics and the precision mechanics workshop: There's something to discover everywhere!
There will also be a children's program as part of the Door Opener Day with the Sendung mit der Maus. You can also look forward to exciting presentations and much more. So come and explore the secrets of the universe with us!
Hyper-luminous, Yet Surprisingly Organized
The galaxy PJ0116-24 lives about 10 billion years ago and appears about 10,000 times brighter in the infrared than our Milky Way. It belongs to a rare population of so-called hyper-luminous infrared galaxies (HyLIRG), which are usually formed by the collision of several galaxies. Members of the Infrared Group at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) including Daizhong Liu and Natascha M. Förster Schreiber, together with researchers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other international institutes, now showed that a HyLIRG can also arise in a massive turbulent rotating disk within a single galaxy, where the gas is organized in a structured way. This finding was made possible through new observations including from the novel ERIS instrument at the ESO Very Large Telescope, built by a consortium also led by the MPE Infrared Group, and strong magnification caused by a massive elliptical galaxy that lies between us and PJ0116-24. This galaxy acts as a gravitational lens stretching PJ0116-24 in an “Einstein ring” and making it appear 17 times brighter.
JWST sheds Light on the Journey of Cosmic Icy Grains
Using the JWST, a team of researchers including Paola Caselli and Michela Giuliano 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.
Massive black holes in low-mass galaxies: what happened to the X-ray Corona?
Identifying massive black holes in low-mass galaxies is crucial for understanding black hole formation and growth over cosmic time but challenging due to their low accretion luminosities. Astronomers at MPE, led by Riccardo Arcodia, used the eROSITA X-ray telescope's all-sky survey to study massive black hole candidates selected based on variability in other wavelength ranges. Surprisingly, despite being flagged as accreting MBHs, the X-rays were weak and didn't match predictions from more massive AGN scaling relations. This discrepancy suggests either the absence of a canonical X-ray corona or the presence of unusual accretion modes and spectral energy distributions in these dwarf galaxy MBHs.
Webb Finds Plethora of Carbon Molecules Around Young Star
An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/Webb James Webb Space Telescope to study the disc around a young and very low-mass star. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disc (including the first extrasolar detection of ethane) and contribute to our evolving understanding of the diversity of planetary systems.
ESA's Euclid celebrates first science with sparkling cosmic views
Analysis of the early release observations provides insights into the evolution of the Perseus galaxy cluster
Cosmic dance of the ‘Space Clover’
A group led by MPE has, for the first time, detected X-ray gas at the location of the cloverleaf ORC, an odd radio circle (ORC). The origin of ORCs is unknown; in the case of the cloverleaf ORC, the combined data from different wavelengths indicate that the emission is due to a merger of two small galaxy groups.
Einstein Probe First Light
Images confirm new X-ray satellite’s revolutionary capability to detect and follow-up explosive events in the high-energy Universe
eROSITA relaxes cosmological tension
Results from the first X-ray sky survey resolve the previous inconsistency between competing measurements of the structure of the Universe
The X-ray sky opens to the world
First eROSITA sky-survey data release makes public the largest ever catalogue of high-energy cosmic sources
