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Artificial intelligence expands into all areas of the daily life, including research. Neural networks learn to solve complex tasks by training them on the basis of enormous amounts of examples. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching have now succeeded in combining several networks, each one specializing in a different task, to jointly solve tasks using Bayesian logic in areas none was originally trained on. This enables the recycling of expensively trained networks and is an important step towards universally deductive artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence combined

By examining the Auriga suite, a large sample of simulated Milky Way galaxies formed in the full cosmological context, scientists at MPA have been able to place constraints on the history of the Milky Way's formation. By comparing these simulations to observations of the Milky Way — and specifically to how fast stars of different metallicities in the inner regions of the Galaxy move around its centre — they were able to exclude certain formation histories. In particular they found that our galaxy had to be quite isolated with the last major merger happening over 12 billion years ago and with a galaxy less than 10% of the mass of the Milky Way.

Our Milky Way – not a typical spiral galaxy

New Hubble Constant Measurement Strengthens Discrepancy in Universe's Expansion Rate

Cosmic Magnifying Glasses Yield Independent Measure of Universe's Expansion

Rather than trying to study special regions in large-volume simulations, scientists at MPA have used the IllustrisTNG model to create whole separate universes with a modified cosmology. Their study of these separate universes shows that when the baryon density (the density of ordinary matter) changes, the number of galaxies can increase or decrease depending on how this number is measured. Also, the large-scale distribution of matter is affected by the effects of baryons, with various measures reacting differently.

Galaxy formation in separate universes

Galactic fountains and carousels

Quasars are amongst the brightest non-transient sources in the sky. Thanks to their high luminosity, they can be observed even at early cosmic times, where – surprisingly – these first quasars appear as already evolved systems: with black holes with masses exceeding one billion solar masses hosted by massive and heavily star forming galaxies. To explain such rapid growth, theorists believe these systems must reside in peculiarly dense environments, where huge gas reservoirs favour efficient inflow of material onto seed super-massive black holes. An international team of astronomers has recently found the first clear observational evidence that this is indeed the case. The new “panoramic” spectrograph called MUSE unveiled, for the first time, the almost ubiquitous presence of large amounts of cool gas in close proximity to the first quasars. This pristine fuel will fall on the primordial galaxies and sustain their growth in both stellar and black hole mass.

Cool dense hydrogen gas around the first quasars

Globular clusters are the densest gravitationally bound stellar systems in the Universe. They are found in all galaxy types, even low mass dwarf galaxies and they can be almost as old as the Universe. The formation mechanisms of these enigmatic systems are not yet understood. Scientist at MPA and the University of Helsinki, together with international collaborators, have now presented the first hydro-dynamical simulation at sub-parsec resolution following the entire formation history of spatially resolved globular cluster candidates in merging dwarf galaxies. This provides a general model for the formation of metal-poor globular clusters in chemically unevolved starbursting environments of low-mass galaxies at high redshifts.

Globular cluster formation deciphered

News at MPA

One sixth of the sky with the telescope SRG/eROSITA

February 04, 2020

A little more than a month has passed since the beginning of the regular all-sky survey of the SRG observatory, moving on a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. Since the start of the scan, the ART-XC and eROSITA telescopes have already covered more than 1/6 of the entire celestial sphere and demonstrated the excellent capabilities of SRG in mapping the X-ray sky. By mid-June 2020, the scientists will have the first map of the entire sky, and after four years, each part of the sky will be covered 8 times, increasing the sensitivity of the survey by a record 20-30 times compared to the ROSAT map.

Progress in understanding the brightest explosions in the Universe

January 24, 2020

Some unidentified features in one of the brightest stellar explosions ever witnessed, SN 2006gy, have now been explained by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. The spectral lines arise from neutral iron - very unusual for such a high-energy event - and imply that more than a third of a solar mass of this heavy element was created. The dominance of iron in the spectrum rules out several previously proposed scenarios for SN 2006gy and instead opened up the door for a new one.

Of harps, Christmas trees, a wandering star and the mysterious streams of cosmic rays

December 19, 2019

Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP), and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching (MPA), have investigated galactic radio objects that adopt shapes such as Christmas trees and harps. They were able to answer the old question of the transport of cosmic rays.

February 2020

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"Meet the speaker''

from 16:00 to 17:00

Dynamic properties of energy materials from first-principles

from 17:15 to 18:30

When Galaxy Clusters Collide: Shocking tales of structure formation

from 11:00 to 12:00

Developments in CMOS Image Sensors for Single Photon Counting

from 13:00 to 14:00

Phenomenology of a rolling axion in the early and late universe

from 14:00 to 15:00

From Astronomy to Medical Physics: Treatment Planning for Radiosurgery"

from 16:00 to 17:00

Dwarf Galaxies - Fossils of Galaxy Evolution

from 15:00 to 16:00

New time!

Gammablitze – strahlende Energiemonster im Universum

from 19:00 to 20:30

Achtung: Anderer Veranstaltungsort!

Galaktische Archäologie: Öffentlicher Vortrag zur Würdigung von Frauen in der Astronomie

from 19:00 to 20:00

Information field theory: from astronomical imaging to artificial intelligence

from 15:15 to 16:00

Women in STEM and the challenges they face

from 10:00 to 12:30

Studying the effect of AGN driven outflows on a stellar-feedback regulated ISM

from 15:30 to 16:30

Constraints on accreting giant planets with hydrogen-line observations

from 10:15 to 11:15

Searching for Gamma-ray Spiders

from 16:15 to 17:15

STRAW and STRAW-b: Pathfinder missions for a new large scale neutrino telescope in the Pacific ocean

from 11:00 to 12:30

Detector systematic effects and your science

from 10:45 to 11:45

Ionized Carbon as a Star Formation Rate Tracer in Dwarf Galaxy Mergers

from 11:00 to 12:00

Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES) reveals planets, brown dwarfs, and disks in Sco-Cen

from 12:00 to 13:00

Galaxy evolution in over-dense environments

from 10:45 to 11:45

Planet Formation around Supermassive Black Holes

from 11:00 to 12:30

Powering galactic super-winds with small-scale AGN winds

from 11:10 to 12:00

Powering galactic super-winds with small-scale AGN winds

from 11:00 to 12:00

Cold gas in galaxies in a z = 2.5 protocluster

from 15:00 to 16:00

Upcoming seminars

Detector systematic effects and your science

Feb 24, 2020 10:45 - 11:45

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

Ionized Carbon as a Star Formation Rate Tracer in Dwarf Galaxy Mergers

Feb 25, 2020 11:00 - 12:00

MPA, Room: Old Lecture Hall 401

Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES) reveals planets, brown dwarfs, and disks in Sco-Cen

Feb 25, 2020 12:00 - 13:00

ESO Headquarters, Garching, Room: Auditorium "Telescopium"

Galaxy evolution in over-dense environments

Feb 26, 2020 10:45 - 11:45

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

Planet Formation around Supermassive Black Holes

Feb 27, 2020 11:00 - 12:30

MPE, Room: New Seminar Room (X5 1.1.18b)

Powering galactic super-winds with small-scale AGN winds

Feb 27, 2020 11:10 - 12:00

MPA, Room: Library (room 365)

Powering galactic super-winds with small-scale AGN winds

Feb 28, 2020 11:00 - 12:00

MPA, Room: Old Lecture Hall 401

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

Emeritus Scientific Members
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hillebrandt
Prof. Dr. Rashid Sunyaev
Prof. Dr. Simon White

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

Head of the administration
Hendrik Wanger

Contact

Press and Public Relations
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

Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1
Postfach 1317
D-85741 Garching, Germany

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