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Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have revealed an extremely distant and therefore very young galaxy that looks surprisingly like our Milky Way. The galaxy is so far away its light has taken more than 12 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 1.4 billion years old. It is also surprisingly unchaotic, contradicting theories that all galaxies in the early Universe were turbulent and unstable. This unexpected discovery challenges our understanding of how galaxies form, giving new insights into the past of our Universe.

Astronomers find most distant Milky Way look-alike with gravitational lensing

When interstellar gas falls towards a supermassive black hole, it liberates vast amounts of energy - so vast as to be capable of ejecting much of a galaxy’s gaseous reservoir. Ultimately, supermassive black holes may thus deprive themselves of further fuel and bring about the end of their own growth and that of their host galaxies. A new model developed at MPA now makes it possible to simulate winds accelerated by accreting black holes in galaxy evolution simulations in a physically accurate and validated way. By blowing dense gas from the galactic nucleus, and by halting inward flows from the galactic halo, the winds play a vital role in shaping the evolution of the black hole host galaxy.

How black holes power galactic super-winds

Two teams of astronomers have made a compelling case in the 33-year-old mystery surrounding Supernova 1987A. Based on observations with ALMA and a theoretical follow-up study, the scientists provide new insight for the argument that a neutron star is hiding deep inside the remains of the exploded star. This would be the youngest neutron star in our cosmic neighbourhood known to date.

ALMA finds possible sign of neutron star in Supernova 1987A

Recently, in correspondence with the 10th birthday of LOFAR, a core group of researchers including MPA scientists published the most stringent upper limits on the reionization signal from the early Universe. These observations are able to exclude some reionization models and constrain the thermal and ionization state of the intergalactic medium when the Universe was still in its infancy.

Towards a LOFAR detection of the 21cm line from the Epoch of Reionization

Extracting cosmological information from galaxy surveys is a difficult task – one to which MPA researchers are now one step closer. Using a theoretical framework known as effective field theory combined with a novel statistical approach, they were able to correctly recover the input cosmology based on a catalog of simplified simulated galaxies.

Toward robust and optimal cosmology from galaxy clustering

About 10 billion years ago, a galaxy smashed into our cosmic home, the Milky Way, in a violent “merger” event that changed the way the Galaxy looks. Researchers from MPA together with international collaborators from the UK, Chile and Italy, have managed to piece together the impact of this event using the largest and most sophisticated simulations of the Milky Way to date. In particular, they found that the damage inflicted on the Galaxy in its youth is commensurate with a satellite that weights about a billion Suns.

Stellar clues about significant merger in the young Milky Way’s history

Warm, cold, just right? The analysis of seven strongly gravitationally lensed quasars gives new clues about the temperature of dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up about a quarter of our universe. The results put a lower limit on the mass of a potential dark matter particle while not ruling out cold dark matter.

Taking the Temperature of Dark Matter

Magnetars are neutron stars endowed with the strongest magnetic fields observed in the Universe, but their origin remains controversial. In a study published in Science Advances, a team of scientists from CEA, Saclay, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris developed a new and unprecedentedly detailed computer model that can explain the genesis of these gigantic fields through the amplification of pre-existing weak fields when rapidly rotating neutron stars are born in collapsing massive stars. The work opens new avenues to understand the most powerful and most luminous explosions of such stars.

A new theory of magnetar formation

News at MPA

Note due to corona: Contacting MPA

To contain the spread of corona virus infections, the MPA has enacted certain changes to protect its employees. Wherever possible, MPA staff will work from their home offices. For the time being, the MPA will not offer public events, and its staff will not undertake travel or attend conferences. Meetings will be held via video conferencing.
Therefore it might be difficult to reach some staff members by telephone, please use Email instead. Mail continues to be received. Please note, however, that there might be some delays in getting a response.
For information about MPG research on the Corona virus, please see here:

Holy cow! Sherry Suyu to receive 2021 Berkeley Prize

July 30, 2020

Astrophysicist Sherry H. Suyu will receive the 2021 Lancelot M. Berkeley–New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy. Bestowed annually since 2011 by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and supported by a grant from the New York Community Trust, the Berkeley prize includes a monetary award and an invitation to give the closing plenary lecture at the AAS winter meeting, the “Super Bowl of Astronomy.” The 237th AAS meeting will be held virtually from 11 to 15 January 2021.

A million sources and the Milky Way on the X-ray map of the entire sky

June 22, 2020

eROSITA telescope aboard SRG observatory completed its first all-sky survey

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Managing Director
Prof. Dr. Volker Springel

Scientific Members, Kollegium, Directors
Prof. Dr. Guinevere Kauffmann
Prof. Dr. Eiichiro Komatsu
Prof. Dr. Volker Springel

Emeritus Directors
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

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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

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

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