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A black hole with swirling light and distant stars in the background.

Astronomers confounded by a mysterious million solar-mass dark object whose inner structure defies explanation

large, bright star transfers matter to a black hole with an accretion disk. image by ESA, Hubble

Explosive endpoints of a life next to a black hole

Gas clouds in purple with small yellow dots.

MOGLI: Following the Hidden Life of Astrophysical Gas

Sequence of a star transforming into a compact object beside another star.

The Hidden Efficiency of Stellar Interactions

A grayscale image featuring a central dark circle surrounded by a faint circular pattern, with bright red arcs and dots scattered around, to the right an enlarged version of the yellow-orange arc with a slight dent in the middle.

Astronomers ‘image’ a mysterious dark object in the distant Universe

Simulation of a dwarf galaxy with 4 properies shown in 4 panels

Nuclear star clusters boost the growth of intermediate mass black holes

simulation of a cold gas cloud in shades of green to purple.

Clouds in the Wind: Why Cold Gas Fades in Galactic Outflows

Nine panels displaying galaxies with vibrant gas halos in blue and green hues against a dark background.

QSO MUSEUM: A large atlas of cosmic structures surrounding high-redshift quasars

News at MPA

Graduate holding diploma and medal, flanked by two faculty members in academic robes.

MPA Postdoc Claude Cournoyer-Cloutier awarded Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal

December 09, 2025

For her excellent graduate studies, Claude Cournoyer-Cloutier, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, received the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal at the McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada at the end of November.

Marat Gilfanov appointed Distinguished Guest Professor at Nanjing University

November 18, 2025

The School of Frontier Science at Nanjing University has announced the appointment of Prof. Dr. Marat Gilfanov, Senior Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), as a Distinguished Guest Professor. Currently, Gilfanov is working with the Nanjing scientists on a joint project studying intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs).

Biermann Lectures 2025: Diving deep into the stars with asteroseismology

September 29, 2025

By Prof. Conny Aerts, KU Leuven, Belgium

All news

January 2026

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"Introdution to Wolfram Mathematica"

Jan 12, 2026 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Bayesian Tools for the LHC: A Proof of Concept in Di-Higgs Searches"

Jan 12, 2026 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"MICADO's LGS Mode: Expected Performances of MORFEO"

Jan 12, 2026 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Gas Giant Planets Caught While Feeding"

Jan 14, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Innovative Focal-Plane Coupling Optics for Millimeter and Submillimeter Imaging"

Jan 14, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"SN 2024ggi: The Making Of"

Jan 14, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"The Search for Magnetic Fields in Protoplanetary Disks"

Jan 14, 2026 from 03:00 PM to 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

IMPRS Colloquium

Jan 15, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Supermassive Black Holes: Discoveries and the Unknown" & "Ice Ice Baby - The Dark and Cold Birth of Stars and Planets"

Jan 15, 2026 from 07:00 PM to 09:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"SFB1258 Colloquy"

Jan 19, 2026 from 09:30 AM to 12:15 PM (Local Time Germany)

"From Galaxies to Primordial Black Holes"

Jan 19, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Probing Chemical Enrichment in Star-Forming Emission-Line Galaxies From Direct Elemental Abundances"

Jan 20, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Origins of Life Laboratory: Experimental Capabilities on Dust, Ice, and Energetic Processing"

Jan 20, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"How Does Telescope Access (And Usage), and Leadership of Publications Correlate With Site-Hosting? A Biased (But Diverse) View of the ESO-Chile Case"

Jan 21, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)

"A Lego-Like Strategy to Assemble the Next Generation of Radiopharmaceuticals"

Jan 21, 2026 from 01:00 PM to 02:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"123D Modelling of Massive Stars up to Collapse"

Jan 21, 2026 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

TBA

Jan 21, 2026 from 03:00 PM to 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Constraining the Evolution of the UV Luminosity Function of Galaxies at z~7-15 With JWST"

Jan 22, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)

"Report From the MPG Chemistry, Physics, and Technology Section"

Jan 22, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)

TBA

Upcoming seminars

"Probing Chemical Enrichment in Star-Forming Emission-Line Galaxies From Direct Elemental Abundances"

Jan 20, 2026 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

ESO , Room: Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching)

"Origins of Life Laboratory: Experimental Capabilities on Dust, Ice, and Energetic Processing"

Jan 20, 2026 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

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

"123D Modelling of Massive Stars up to Collapse"

Jan 21, 2026 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

MPA, Room: Lecture Hall E.0.11

"Report From the MPG Chemistry, Physics, and Technology Section"

Jan 22, 2026 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)

MPA, Room: Lecture Hall E.0.11

TBA

Jan 22, 2026 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

MPA, Room: MPA Lecture Hall E.0.11

TBA

Thursday

Jan 22, 2026 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)

MPA, Room: Lecture Hall E.0.11

"Massive Black Holes and Their Environments in the First Few Billion Years"

Jan 22, 2026 03:15 PM - 04:15 PM (Local Time Germany)

ESO Garching, Room: Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching)

Job Offers

No Vacancies

Meet our MPA fellows

Spirals, waves and gliding along

September 06, 2023

While concerned with massive objects such as neutron stars and black holes in her work, Martyna Chruslinska loves the lightweight feeling of figure skating in her spare time.

A look back forward

2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Max Planck Society. On February 26, 1948, in Göttingen, the proven concept of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society as a successful model of non-university research funding was rescued for the young Federal Republic, but also changed in a forward-looking way. Both are the basis of the MPG in its present form and success. The anniversary is celebrated as the most important caesura within the history of the MPG, which goes back to 1911, and at the same time sets the course for the future viability of the society, which must be discussed again and again.
Find out more in the MAX Intranet:

Structure

Managing Director
Prof. Dr. Selma E. de Mink

Scientific Members, Kollegium, Directors
Prof. Dr. Selma E. de Mink
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. Rolf-Peter Kudritzki
Prof. Dr. Werner Tscharnuter

Head of the administration
Pia Fischhaber

Contact

Press and Public Relations
Dr. Hannelore Haemmerle
Phone: 089 30000-3980
email: pr@mpa-garching.mpg.de

Dr. Hans-Thomas Janka
Phone: 089 30000-2228
(contact per phone only)

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

Click for Travel directions

Astronomers confounded by a mysterious million solar-mass dark object whose inner structure defies explanation

Explosive endpoints of a life next to a black hole

MOGLI: Following the Hidden Life of Astrophysical Gas

The Hidden Efficiency of Stellar Interactions

Astronomers ‘image’ a mysterious dark object in the distant Universe

Nuclear star clusters boost the growth of intermediate mass black holes

Clouds in the Wind: Why Cold Gas Fades in Galactic Outflows

QSO MUSEUM: A large atlas of cosmic structures surrounding high-redshift quasars

News at MPA

Upcoming seminars

Job Offers

Meet our MPA fellows

About MPA

Structure

Contact