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Latest news
Spitzer Space Telescope
Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech
 
In direct view, the two QSOs (J0005-0006 (left), J0303-0019 (right)) look inconspicuous.
Only spectral analysis reveals the true nature of the objects.
Images: MPIA/M. Pössel from SDSS data (RGB from filters z, i and r).
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Primitive Black Holes Identified
Astronomers have come across what appear to be two of the earliest and most primitive supermassive black
holes known. What distinguishes them from the other very distant so-called quasars is a lack of hot dust,
which indicates that these quasars are at an early evolutionary stage. The discovery was made by an
international team of astronomers including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and is based largely on observations from the Spitzer
Space Telescope.
Original publication:
Nature 464, 380-383 (2010)
Press releases:
MPIA press release
NASA (JPL) press release
Contact at MPE:
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(March 18, 2010)
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HM Cancri
Artwork: Rob Haynes, Louisiana State University
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Most extreme binary shows orbital period of a mere 5 minutes
That is real fast: Two suns orbit each other in a mere 5.4 minutes. This makes HM Cancri the binary
star system with by far the shortest known orbital period - and at the same time the smallest binary known.
Its size is equivalent to no more than a quarter of the distance from the Earth to the Moon, about 100,000
kilometres. This has been shown by an international team of astronomers from the Max Planck Institute
for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions.
Original publication
ApJ 711, L138-L142 (2010);
MPG press release
Warwick University press release
Keck observatory press release
Contact:
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(March 09, 2010)
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"Network"
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Curators visit MPA and MPE
Most colleagues have heard of the Curators at one point or another, but who are they and what
do they do? On Friday March 5, 2010 the joint curators for MPA and MPE will be visiting the MPE
to catch up on important developments at both institutes.
The curatorship (board of trustees) was set up by the Max-Planck-Society to get in touch with the public and
in particular with influential circles who are interested in research and might become funding institutions.
Representatives of science, industry, politics and media are appointed as curators to mediate on
behalf of the institute, to further interactions within the scientific and social environment and to
strengthen the public belief in the activities of the institute.
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(March 03, 2010)
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XMM-Newton satellite
MPE scientists discussing XMM data
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10th Anniversary of XMM-Newton
The MPE was highly involved in this mission during the telescope development and test, it
provides the EPIC-pn camera, and runs the survey science center.
The primary scientific objective of XMM-Newton is to perform high throughput spectroscopy of cosmic X-ray
sources over a broad band of energies ranging from 0.1 keV to 10 keV. The XMM-Newton spacecraft payload
includes three highly-nested grazing-incidence mirror modules of type Wolter I coupled to reflection grating
spectrometers and X-ray charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras with resolving powers ranging from 10 up to 1000
as well as one small optical/UV telescope.
For XMM-Newtons 10-year anniversary, the TV station EuroNews concentrated on the X-ray satellite in its
broadcast "space", which was produced in collaboration with the European Space Agency ESA and the MPE.
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(February 17, 2010)
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The Quasar J004457+4123 (encircled object on the left upper panel) looks like a weak point of light, hardly
to be distinguished from the huge number of stars in the Andromeda galaxy (right).
Copyright: TLS Tautenburg
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Spectacular flare of a distant Quasar
Using data from several telescopes, an international team of scientists from
the MPE, the Tautenburg observatory and others have now confirmed that an
object observed in 1992 as a so-called "nova" in our neighbouring Andromeda
galaxy is actually a much more distant quasar with a uniquely intense light
burst. The most likely explanation for the magnitude and shape of the light
curve is that a massive star came too close to the gigantic Black Hole at
the centre of this distant galaxy, where it was ripped apart and swallowed
by the gravitational pull of the black hole.
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(February 11, 2010)
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MPE Highlight:
(February 10, 2010)
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MPE Press Release:
IRAS 4B in NGC 1333 in the radio
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Pin-pointing water in space
For the first time, scientists succeeded in localising large amounts of water in a disk around a
young star
Water is regarded as a key ingredient for life - and water exists plenty in the universe. Now scientists
have found the precious element in a disk around a young star, similar to our Sun. This disk, supposedly
the birth place for future planets, contains a hundred times more than all oceans on Earth. The
astronomical observations obtained with the IRAM interferometer appear very promising to solve the
mystery around the origin of water in our solar system
[
 more ]
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(February 8, 2010)
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MPE Highlight:
Reinhard Genzel
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Honorary doctorate for Reinhard Genzel
On 8th February, the oldest Dutch university in Leiden bestowed a honorary doctorate on
Reinhard Genzel, astrophysicist and director at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial
Physics in Garching, Germany, for his ground-breaking research into interstellar matter and the
central regions of galaxies, in particular the evidence for a black hole at the centre of our
own galaxy, and his drive to get the required innovative infrared instrumentation developed.
The ceremony took place in the framework of the "Lustrum Dies Natalis 2010" celebration,
commemorating the university´s foundation in February 1575.
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more ]
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(February 5, 2010)
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MPE Highlight
Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov with the PK-3 Plus laboratory in MIM-2, the new Russian docking and
research module.
(Credit: Image courtesy of RKK-Energia).
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Plasma Experiment celebrates its anniversary on board ISS
On 27th January 2010 the 25th series of experiments studying complex plasmas will start on board
the international space station ISS. Physicists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics in Garching, Germany, will use them to study fundamental structure forming processes to better
understand what happens in liquids and solids.
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more ]
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(January 27, 2010)
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X-ray emission in the COSMOS field.
Credit: ESA
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XMM-Newton traces dark matter in faint, distant galaxy groups
Observations of faint and distant galaxy groups made with the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton
observatory have been used to probe the evolution of dark matter. The results of the study by researchers
including scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial Physics, Germany, are reported
in the 20 January issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
ESA press release
Original paper (ApJ 709, 97-114 (2010))
Contact:
Alexis Finoguenov
Dr. Hannelore Hämmerle (press officier)
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(January 25, 2010)
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Example of one of the 89 galaxies observed. The panel shows the
galaxy as it is observed in different wavelengths (colours).
Image: MPE
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Black Holes and their Galaxies: News from a Cosmic Neighbourhood
Among astronomers it is considered certain that huge Black Holes of millions of solar masses
reside in the centre of practically every galaxy. It is still unclear however as to what extent
the chronological development of the galaxies and their Black Holes in the centre mutually influence
one another. A research project under the aegis of Andrea Merloni at the Munich Excellence Cluster
Universe and the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics brought forward new findings in
this area.
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more ]
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(January 21, 2010)
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MPE Highlight and Press Release:
Herschel-PACS images of the 'GOODS-N' field in the constellation of
Ursa Major at far-infrared wavelengths of 100 and 160 µm.
Image: MPE
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Herschel Space Telescope uncovers the sources of the Cosmic Infrared
Background
A weak cosmic infrared radiation field that reaches Earth from all
directions contains not yet deciphered messages about the evolution of
galaxies. Using first observations with the PACS Instrument on board
ESA's Herschel Space Telescope, scientists from the Max Planck Institute
for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions have for the first
time resolved more than half of this radiation into its constituting
sources. Observations with Herschel open the road towards understanding
the properties of these galaxies, and trace the dusty side of galaxy
evolution.
[
more ]
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(December 16, 2009)
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(November 05, 2009)
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MPE Highlight:
(October 14, 2009)
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MPE Highlight:
Signing of contract
from left: Reichle, Wörner, Perminov
eROSITA
Images: MPE
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DLR and Roscosmos sign technical agreement for X-ray telescope eROSITA
With seven X-ray eyes the eROSITA telescope will scan the Universe
for black holes and dark matter. Today board members of the German
Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Russian Federal Space agency Roscosmos
signed an agreement which defines all organisational and technical
conditions.
This contract gives the go-ahead to the Max Planck Institute for
extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, which is responsible for the
development and building of eROSITA.
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(July 18, 2009)
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MPE Highlight:
The Cat's Eye nebula NGC6543 as seen by PACS
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Looking deep into the Cat's Eye with Herschel/PACS
After the surprising success of the earlier “sneak preview” of the PACS
photometer – a spectacular far-infrared colour image of the Whirlpool
Galaxy M51 – the first light observation of the spectrometer part
of the instrument was carried out on June 23.
Already, these very first data fulfill the expectations of the PACS-Team at MPE
at this point and are of unprecedented sensitivity.
"A lot of excitement is ahead of us"!
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more ]
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(July 10, 2009)
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Image Credit: Space Telescope Science Institute
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Living Fossils Hold Record of "Supermassive" Kick -
Star clusters point to black holes ejected from host galaxies
When two galaxies and the supermassive black holes in their centres merge,
the resulting recoil can catapult the black hole from the galaxy. Scientists
of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), MPE and Johns Hopkins University
have now found that the stellar clusters around these black holes show very unusual
properties and so open up a new possibility to study the event in detail. The
stars around evicted black holes orbit at a very high velocity, because only
stars orbiting faster than the kick velocity remain attached to the black hole
after the kick. As a kind of living fossils of a distant epoch they can shed
light on the turbulent past of merging galaxies in nearby clusters.
RIT Press Release
Original paper
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(July 10, 2009)
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Title of the journal Physical Review Letters of 26 June 2009
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MPE Research Result as Title Page of the Journal
Physical Review Letters
The title of the journal Physical Review Letters of 26 June 2009 shows
an experiment which was conducted in the Complex Plasma Group of the
Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics: A microparticle drop
is shown which forms in a complex plasma - an ionised gas into which small
charged plastic particles are introduced. Under specific conditions new
phenomena occur in these systems: Blobs like the one shown on the title
form, and also bubbles form and explode upwards into the void. Another
phenomenon are peaks which form on the lower brink in the particle cloud
and face upwards. These cones remind of so-called Taylor cones, which
form in fluids under the influence of an electrical field and surface
tension.
News page of the MPE Theory group
"On the Cover" - Physical Review Letters
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(June 30, 2009)
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(June 19, 2009)
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Correlation between black hole mass and bulge mass.
Image: Tim Jones/UT-Austin nach K. Cordes & S. Brown (STScI)
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MPE Astronomer Finds Most Massive Black Hole in the Nearby Galaxy M87
Astronomers Jens Thomas (MPE) and Karl Gebhardt (University of Texas) use
new computer modeling techniques to discover that the black hole at the
heart of M87, one the largest nearby giant galaxies, is two to three times
more massive than previously thought. Weighing in at 6.4 billion times the
Sun's mass, it is the most massive black hole yet measured with a robust
technique, and suggests that the accepted black hole masses in nearby large
galaxies may be off by similar amounts. This has consequences for theories
of how galaxies form and grow, and might even solve a long-standing
astronomical paradox.
[
more (in German language) ]
Press Release of the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas (Austin)
Preprint in astro-ph (#0906.1492)
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(June 8, 2009)
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Outer halos and intra-cluster light in the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
Image: Chris Mihos, Case Western Reserve University / ESO
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M 87: The End of a Giant Galaxy's Light and the Transition to
Intergalactic Stars
Astronomers of MPE and ESO have probed the edge of the giant galaxy
Messier 87 for the first time, and found that the stars beyond its
edge are all intergalactic. The scientists believe that the outer
parts of M 87 are missing because of still-not-understood effects
during the formation of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
[
more (in German language) ]
Original paper in astro-ph
ESO press release
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(May 20, 2009)
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PACS photometer detector unit during integration into the PACS focal plane unit
(FPU).
Copyright: MPE, Garching, Germany; CEA, Saclay, France
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Herschel Space Observatory successfully launched
On 14 May Herschel, the largest space telescope ever, has been sent
into space aboard an Ariane 5 launcher. For the Max Planck Institute
for extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, Germany, this event
crowns more than ten years spent designing and building one of the
three instruments aboard the satellite: PACS (Photodetector Array
Camera and Spectrometer) was built by the MPE in cooperation with
partners from six European countries. Including the operation of the
Instrument Control Centre during the mission, the PACS project has
cost the countries nearly 100 million euros.
MPE pre-launch release, 8 May 2009
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(May 15, 2009)
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MPE Highlight:
Herschel satellite in orbit
Artist's view by D. Ducros, ESA, 2009
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Looking into the Nursery of Stars
After ten years of developing and building Herschel, the ESA mission will
start into space on the 14th of May. In 1.5 million kilometres distance from earth
the space probe will orbit the sun for 3½ years. With its three instruments
it will especially detect and analyse infrared radiation, which contains
information on a wide range of phenomena like the evolution of distant
galaxies and the existence of water in our solar system. Two of the three
instruments on board have been developed or co-developed by the Max Planck
Institutes for extraterrestrial Physics, Astronomy, Radio Astronomy and
Solar System Research.
[
more ]
MPG press release
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(May 04, 2009)
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In this picture the afterglow of GRB090423 is the red object shining only
in some of the used color channels.
Image: GROND/MPE
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Gamma-Ray Burst 090423 detected at a record distance
Following a Gamma-Ray burst alarm of the NASA Swift Satellite on April
23, several groups world-wide started searching for the afterglow emission.
The MPE built
GROND
instrument mounted at the MPI/ESO telesope at La Silla Observatory (Chile)
observed this afterglow simultaneously in the spectral bands g'r'i'z'JHK
about 15 hours after the burst. The simultaneous measurements in the
seven spectral bands enabled scientists at MPE led by Jochen Greiner, to
rapidly estimate the redshift of the burst to be around z = 8 which puts it
into a new record distance.
[
more ]
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(April 28, 2009)
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Image: MPE
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Formation of S0 galaxies as common in groups as in clusters
MPE astrophysicist Dave Wilman has gained new insight into the formation
of a special category of galaxies, the so-called S0 galaxies, which will
influence studies of galaxies in general.
[
more ]
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(March 11, 2009)
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Image: MPE
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PACS is ready for Launch
Engineers and scientists of the MPE, together with other colleagues from
the PACS consortium, have thoroughly checked our instrument for the
Herschel satellite one last time at the ESA spaceport in Kourou
(French Guiana) and now signal to their colleagues in Garching:
green light - PACS is ready for launch!
Web pages of the PACS group at MPE
Herschel web pages at ESA
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(March 11, 2009)
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ROSAT colour coded image of the field of A3571. The X-ray transient is
indicated with the pointer.
Image: MPE
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A candidate tidal disruption event in the Galaxy cluster Abell 3571
The authors of the paper, several from MPE, serendipitously detected with ROSAT
an X-ray source that is strongly declining in luminosity, in the galaxy cluster A3571.
The period of decay is of about 13 years, and the source was identified as a
member of the cluster. This event is consistent with a tidal disruption of a
star by a black hole of 107 solar masses. Since the black
hole only accretes a small amount of mass, the observed event must correspond
to a partial or explosive disruption of the star.
This paper was selected as an
A&A Highlight
by the Editors of Astronomy & Astrophysics, who
are trying to attract the readers' attention to some works in the current
issue that they find particularly exciting and/or intriguing for those
outside the speciality.
Original article in
Astron. & Astrophys. 495, 523-535 (2009)
More information can be provided by the author
Nico Cappelluti
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(March 02, 2009)
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31.7 hours after GRB 080916C exploded, the MPE Gamma-Ray Burst
Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND), began acquiring
images of the blast's fading afterglow (circled).
Image: MPE / GROND
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NASA'S FERMI TELESCOPE SEES MOST EXTREME GAMMA-RAY BLAST YET
The first gamma-ray burst to be seen with substantial GeV emission from
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one for the record books. The
blast had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the
highest-energy initial emissions ever seen.
[
more ]
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(February 19, 2009)
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The MPE parable flight team.
Image: MPE
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Parable Flights in Bordeaux
At a three-day parable flight campaign in Bordeaux, the MPE group
Theory and Complex Plasmas carried out the experiment "Fast PK-3 Plus",
which is supposed to complement the tests on the International Space
Station (ISS): With the aid of a new data entry system, which is able
to record up to 1000 pictures per second, very fast effects in complex
plasmas can be studied.
[
more ]
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(February 17, 2009)
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MPE Highlight and Press Release:
The elliptical galaxies NGC 4649 (left) and NGC 4621 (right) in the Virgo
galaxy cluster. These two galaxies belong to the sample of galaxies that
Kormendy and Bender investigated.
Image: courtesy of Sloan Digital Sky Survey/WIKISKY
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Astronomers Discover Link Between Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy
Formation
A pair of astronomers from Texas and Germany have used a telescope at The
University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory together with the
Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes around the world to uncover
new evidence that the largest, most massive galaxies in the universe and
the supermassive black holes at their hearts grew together over time.
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(February 02, 2009)
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Logo of the 10. Mission.
Image: MPE
Celebration after the successful ending of the experiment.
Picture: MPE
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10th Mission PK-3 Plus successfully completed
Exactly three years after the start of the operational phase of PK-3
Plus aboard the International Space Station (ISS) the 10th mission was
successfully completed with another three experiments. The plasma
laboratory PK-3 Plus, operated by the Max Planck Institute for
extraterrestrial Physics and Russian institutions, is the second
facility of this kind aboard the ISS. It continues the successful
story of the previous plasma laboratory PKE-Nefedov, the first science
experiment aboard ISS and the most successful one in the history of the
space station. Just as its predecessor it provides an insight into
complex plasma. In complex plasma the properties of so-called plasma
crystals and fluids can be studied on the most fundamental level, the
kinetic one. This time experiments (each of 90 minutes) of crystallisation,
"string fluids" and "bubbles" inside a thermophoretic complex plasma were
on the list.
On the occasion of the 10th mission a logo was designed, for use on stickers,
T-shirts and cups, which after successful completion of the experiments
were inaugurated immediately at a party in Korolyov (Moscow) near the
Russian control centre.
At the end of the year the operational phase of PK-3 Plus was supposed to end,
however the facility still works perfectly. That is why the Russians strive
for continuation, and MPE totally agrees. So many other exciting missions can
be expected.
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(January 27, 2009)
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News before 2009 can be found in the
archive.
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MPE
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