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GRAVITY reveals details of a storm-wracked exoplanet

The GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has made the first direct observation of an exoplanet using optical interferometry. This method revealed a complex exoplanetary atmosphere with clouds of iron and silicates swirling in a planet-wide storm. The technique presents unique possibilities for characterising many of the exoplanets known today.

X-ray Chimneys in the Milky Way

Outflows of matter and energy from a galaxy’s centre are considered key players in the formation and evolution of galaxies and other structures in the Universe. Astronomers led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have now created the most extensive X-ray map of the central degrees of the Milky Way, thereby discovering a channel of X-ray emitting gas connecting the Milky Way centre to structures much further out.

A close-up look at the whirlpool around a gigantic black hole

Detailed observations of the quasar 3C 273 with the GRAVITY instrument reveal the structure of rapidly moving gas around the central super-massive black hole, the first time that the so-called “broad line region” could be resolved.

First Detailed Observations of Material Orbiting close to a Black Hole

GRAVITY instrument confirms black hole status of the Milky Way centre

First Successful Test of Einstein’s General Relativity Near Supermassive Black Hole

Observations of the Galactic Centre team at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) have for the first time revealed the effects predicted by Einstein’s general relativity on the motion of a star passing through the extreme gravitational field near the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way.

People and Project News

4MOST soll eROSITA-Quellen nachbeobachten

4MOST to follow up on eROSITA sources

On 6 March, a series of White Papers was published to introduce the 4MOST survey program to the scientific community. The 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope 4MOST will be the largest spectroscopic survey facility of its kind in the Southern hemisphere and will address today’s most pressing astronomical questions in the fields of Galactic archaeology, high-energy astrophysics, galaxy evolution and cosmology, starting its public survey program in 2022. MPE has contributed two of the White Papers with the aim of using 4MOST to the followup of eROSITA sources in two major surveys dedicated to Active Galactic Nuclei and Clusters of Galaxies, respectively.

RAS Honorary Fellowship in Astronomy awarded to MPE Director Ralf Bender

January 14, 2019

On Friday 11 January, the Royal Astronomical Society announced that MPE Director Ralf Bender is awarded an RAS Honorary Fellowship in Astronomy for the unique combination of research leadership and institutional service.

MPE-built optical assembly fully integrated on EUCLID-NISP

December 21, 2018

Last week at LAM Marseille, the optical assembly consisting of the camera lens assembly “CaLA” and the corrector lens assembly “CoLA” have been fully integrated on the near-infrared optics NISP for the Euclid satellite. Euclid is an ESA mission, planned to launch in 2022 to study the “Dark Universe”. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics are responsible for the overall optical design of the near-infrared instrument NISP NI-OA.

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Girls' Day

Girls can choose one of two offers for the Girls' Day at MPE: 1. Blick ins All mit "Infrarot- und Röntgenaugen" or 2. MPE Werkstatt: Bohren, Fräsen, Schneiden für die Astronomie.