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Simulation, originally developed for cosmology, shows that a strong magnetic field is indeed produced in the merger of two stars

An irresistible pull – when massive stars collide

The expansion rate of the Universe today is described by the so-called Hubble constant and different techniques have come to inconsistent results about how fast our Universe actually does expand. An international team led by the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) has now used two gravitational lenses as new tools to calibrate the distances to hundreds of observed supernovae and thus measure a fairly high value for the Hubble constant. While the uncertainty is still relatively large, this is higher than that inferred from the cosmic microwave background.

High value for Hubble constant from two gravitational lenses

Hot plasma fills the entire volume of galaxy clusters and makes these objects powerful sources of X-ray radiation. While the density and temperature of this gas can be readily measured, its material properties, such as its viscosity and thermal conductivity are largely unknown. The problem stems from the poorly understood role of weak magnetic fields permeating the gas. While such fields are too weak to directly affect large-scale motions of the gas, they might change the microscopic properties of the plasma. Recent long observations of the Coma cluster in the X-ray band have shown that this is indeed the case – the behavior of the gas is markedly different from expectations for un-magnetized plasma.

Viscosity of hot gas in galaxy clusters

New cosmological simulations targeting the evolution of the first quasars and their host galaxies now follow the effects of radiation from young stars on the interstellar medium. As the international team shows, stellar radiation can alter both the properties of the quasar host galaxy and its satellites, making them more diffuse and less tightly-bound. Satellites are more easily disrupted by the strong tidal forces of the massive central galaxy, which therefore contains a smaller satellite population.

The hidden satellites of the first massive galaxies and quasars

The Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium contributes substantially to the matter budget in the Universe – but it is only poorly studied, as it is very difficult to observe. Researchers at MPA have now predicted how it can be explored using heavier elements as tracers. Due to scattering of the cosmic X-ray background some of this line emission can be boosted substantially and should be accessible by the upcoming X-ray survey missions.

X-ray emission from Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, the University Observatory Munich, and collaborators have investigated the effect of heat conduction on the evolution of supernova blast waves and the structure of the supernova-driven interstellar medium (ISM). They find that thermal conduction has a strong impact on the volume filling fractions of cold, warm and hot gas. Thermal conduction also plays an important role for an accurate description of the hot ISM phase structure and the chemical composition of the cold phase of the turbulent ISM.

Heat conduction in the Interstellar Medium

For the first time MPA scientists and European collaborators have simulated the solar neighborhood interstellar medium (ISM), including physical processes following all major thermal and non-thermal components - ionized, neutral and molecular gas, dust, interstellar radiation, magnetic fields, and cosmic rays in the presence of star formation. As the different processes strongly influence each other, the simulations highlight the importance of including them all, in particular radiation and cosmic rays, for a realistic model of the star-forming ISM. Within the Gauss Center for Supercomputing (GCS) project SuperSILCC the team will use SuperMUC-NG, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, to reveal the physical origins of the ISM structure also in extreme environments at high redshift.

Towards a complete model of the interstellar medium

News at MPA

MPA scientists support global climate protests

On Friday, 20th September 2019, a group of MPA scientists joined 40 000 protesters in Munich for a global climate strike. While normally the astrophysicists are mainly interested in objects many light-years away from Earth, the scientists demonstrated that they are firmly rooted to our home planet by spending their (extended) lunch break in down-town Munich together with pupils, students and many others.
You can find here some impressions of the day:

A glimpse of extragalactic sky with the SRG Observatory: eROSITA opens its first eye

September 10, 2019

The SRG (Spektr-RG) Orbital Observatory has recently started one of its many tests by looking at a small patch of the extragalactic sky with one of the seven eROSITA telescope modules. The results are consistent with preflight expectations. The work on commissioning other modules is still underway and will be completed in the coming weeks before starting a 4-year long all-sky survey later this year.

Dirac Medal 2019 awarded to Rashid Sunyaev

August 08, 2019

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste has awarded its 2019 Dirac Medal and Prize to three physicists whose research has made a profound impact on modern cosmology. Rashid Sunyaev (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics) shares the prize with Viatcheslav Mukhanov (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) and Alexei Starobinsky (Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics) for “their outstanding contributions to the physics of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with experimentally tested implications that have helped to transform cosmology into a precision scientific discipline by combining microscopic physics with the large scale structure of the Universe.” All three winners have made important contributions to the understanding of the early Universe in the context of inflationary cosmology.

October 2019

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Protoplanetary disk brightness profile reconstruction at super-CLEAN resolution in <1 minute with a Gaussian process

from 10:00 to 11:00

Sternenstaub im antarktischen Schnee

from 19:00 to 20:30

Mental health disorders: awareness, pop culture, stigma

from 11:00 to 12:00

Gravitational-wave astronomy

from 13:30 to 14:30

Fragmentation of massive dense clumps: the first step towards cluster formation

from 11:00 to 12:00

Mechanical Engineering for Science Infrastructures: Principles, Procedures and Examples

from 10:30 to 11:30

Constraining dark matter models with strong gravitational lensing

from 15:30 to 16:30

Chondrule formation and its implications for the early solar system

from 10:00 to 11:00

The Physics Nobel Prize 2019

from 10:45 to 11:45

Generalized SU(2) Proca Inflation

from 14:15 to 15:15

The impact of hydrodynamical instabilities on the explosion mechanism of massive stars

from 15:30 to 16:30

The polarizing puzzle in dusty disks

from 12:00 to 13:00

Lensing in galaxy clusters, large-scale structure

from 15:15 to 16:00

Data science problems and approaches at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

from 14:00 to 15:00

Upcoming seminars

Generalized SU(2) Proca Inflation

Oct 21, 2019 14:15 - 15:15

Max-Planck-Institut für Physik / MPP, (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut), Föhringer Ring 6, 80805 München , Room: Seminar Room 313

The impact of hydrodynamical instabilities on the explosion mechanism of massive stars

Oct 21, 2019 15:30 - 16:30

MPA, Room: Large Lecture Hall E.0.11

The polarizing puzzle in dusty disks

Oct 22, 2019 12:00 - 13:00

ESO Headquarters, Garching, Room: Library (room 365)

Lensing in galaxy clusters, large-scale structure

Oct 24, 2019 15:15 - 16:00

ESO, Room: Auditorium "Eridanus"

Data science problems and approaches at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory

Oct 25, 2019 14:00 - 15:00

MPA, Room: New Seminar Room, E 0.11

All news

About MPA

Structure

Managing Director
Prof. Dr. Volker Springel

Scientific Members, Kollegium, Directors
Prof. Dr. Guinevere Kauffmann
Prof. Dr. Eiichiro Komatsu
Prof. Dr. Volker Springel
Prof. Dr. Simon D.M. White

External Scientific Members
Prof. Dr. Martin Asplund
Prof. Dr. Riccardo Giacconi †
Prof. Dr. Rolf-Peter Kudritzki
Prof. Dr. Werner Tscharnuter

Head of the administration
Hendrik Wanger

Contact

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Dr. Hannelore Haemmerle
Phone: 089 30000-3980
Cornelia Rickl
Phone: 089 30000-2201
Dr. Hans-Thomas Janka
Phone: 089 30000-2228

email: pr@mpa-garching.mpg.de