Simulations of laminar and turbulent winds in colour scale on a dark background.

Clouds in turbulence: How do cold clouds survive turbulent galactic winds?
Simulation of cosmic structures highlighting a bright galaxy and massive black holes.

How the Universe’s First Supermassive Black Holes Were Born: New Simulations Reveal the Secrets of 'Little Red Dots'
four galaxies

An inside-out view of active supermassive black holes and their host galaxies
Two bright blue stars in space with one transferring material to the other.

Chemical Fingerprints Reveal Hidden Histories of Massive Stars
Map of the Milky Way galaxy with locations of three black holes marked by colored pointers.

Solving the Mystery of Gaia’s Quiet Black Holes
Image of the Milky Way with a stellar stream; credit: Ana Bonaca, Gaia/ESA

Stellar motions can tighten constraints on dark matter's nature
Illustration of the Leaning Tower of Pisa against a galaxy cluster background.

Dropping Dark Matter from the Pisa Tower: A new test of the Equivalence Principle with the Distortion of Time in Galaxy Clusters
6 Images with reddish galaxies; Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dale Kocevski (Colby College)

Radiative Transfer Shapes Hydrogen Lines in Little Red Dots
X-ray image of W50 nebula with SS433, showing energy levels in keV.

X-ray panorama of the “Manatee Nebula” by SRG/eROSITA

News at MPA

Alison Sills joins MPA for a Humboldt Award Sabbatical

October 22, 2026

Since September, Alison Sills has been working at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) on joint projects that bridge stellar and galactic scales. These projects are advancing our understanding of star cluster formation and evolution through innovative multi-physics simulations. Her sabbatical from McMaster University in Canada is funded by the prestigious Humboldt Research Award given annually to leading researchers in all disciplines.

Like voices in a choir

October 20, 2026

Unraveling the mysteries of gravity and dark matter through innovative, multi-data research, cosmologist Sveva Castello finds inspiration in music and mountains.

Advancing Physics and Astronomy in Uganda: Max Planck Collaboration Delivers Landmark PhD at Kyambogo University

August 10, 2026

Juma Kamulali is the first astrophysics PhD graduate from Kyambogo University in Uganda. In collaboration with the partner group of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), he conducted ground-breaking research that introduces a powerful new machine-learning tool, MAISTEP, which enables the precise determination of stellar properties from basic observational data. Applying this method to thousands of exoplanet-host stars, Kamulali discovered a clearer, deeper 'radius valley' between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes, shedding new light on planetary evolution and atmospheric loss.
All news
October 2026
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“When Worlds Collide: Inauguration of the Munich Center for Geoastronomy”

from Oct 5, 2026 10:00 AM to Oct 6, 2026 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Semi-Resolved Stellar Populations: Features and Prospects"

Oct 5, 2026 from 03:00 PM to 04:00 PM (London UTC+01:00)

“When Worlds Collide: Inauguration of the Munich Center for Geoastronomy”

from Oct 5, 2026 10:00 AM to Oct 6, 2026 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"A Toast to Dying Stars" & "How Jupiter Ran Away and Saturn Brought Him Back"

Oct 6, 2026 from 06:30 PM to 08:30 PM (Local Time Germany)

"A Clumpy Ring Galaxy at z = 4.0148"

Oct 9, 2026 from 03:00 PM to 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Gravitationswellen, Neutronenplaneten, und der Ursprung der Elemente"

Oct 14, 2026 from 07:00 PM to 09:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Introduction to Course & Journal Club - Wang et.al (2026): Volatile Depletion in Rocky Planets as a Chemical Fingerprint of Hybrid Accretion"

Oct 15, 2026 from 02:15 PM to 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

Application Deadline – MPCDF & NVIDIA Deep Learning Workshop on October 27, 2026

Oct 17, 2026 from 12:00 AM to 01:00 AM (Local Time Germany)

"Precision Cosmology and the Universe’s Expansion Rate"

Oct 20, 2026 from 05:15 PM to 06:15 PM (Local Time Germany)

"ESO Press Releases: Why Has My Paper Not Been Selected?"

Oct 21, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM (Local Time Germany)

"When User Interfaces Work Against Users: Detecting Dark Patterns From Screens to Interactions and Beyond"

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

Please note: Starting with this session, the event will begin directly with the talk at 13:15. Participants are welcome to stay after the presentation for informal discussions and networking.

"Mass Transfer in 1D Binaries: From Atmospheric Overflow to Delayed Dynamical Instability"

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

“Space Weather – Threats to Our Communication World”

Oct 21, 2026 from 07:00 PM to 08:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Black Hole Probes Under T-Duality" & "Constraining the NΣ Interaction Using Femtoscopy With ALICE"

Oct 22, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"The Search for Earth 2.0"

Oct 22, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"An Evolutionary System of Mineralogy: Discovering the Deep-Time History of Planets"

Oct 22, 2026 from 02:15 PM to 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Opening the Black Box: Reading the Minds of AI Systems"

Oct 23, 2026 from 03:00 PM to 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Syntax, Not Science: What LLMs Make Possible and What They Quietly Break"

Oct 26, 2026 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"SFB1258 Colloquy"

Oct 26, 2026 from 02:40 PM to 06:10 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Fundamentals of Deep Learning"

Oct 27, 2026 from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"A Brief History of Herbig (Ae/Be) Stars and the Current Perspective on This Population"

Oct 27, 2026 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany)

"Constrained Gravity"

Oct 27, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)

"Linearity in a Nonlinear World: Modeling the Evolution of Voids"

Oct 27, 2026 from 11:30 AM to 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"ORIGINS CN1 Cosmological Connector Mid-Year Pulse "

Oct 28, 2026 from 09:30 AM to 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

UNIVERSE+ Online Seminar (32/34)

Oct 28, 2026 from 04:00 PM to 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Chemical Abundances in the Nuclear Star Cluster"

Oct 29, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

“What Do Galaxy Surveys Really Measure? Introduction to Relativistic Effects and Cosmological Tests of Gravity”

Oct 29, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Foundation Model Video Transformers for Astroparticle Physics"

Oct 29, 2026 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Light Curves From Stellar Interactions"

Oct 29, 2026 from 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

"From Dust to Giants: Planet Formation in the Solar System and Abroad"

Oct 29, 2026 from 02:15 PM to 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)

Upcoming seminars

"From Dust Grains to Molecular Collisions: Adaptive Quantum Chemistry Algorithms for Astrochemistry"

Nov 2, 2026 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
MPE, Room: Old Seminar Room, X2/209

"Phenomenological Consequences of Diffeomorphism Invariance: KK Graviton Decay and Separating Fermion and Gauge Resonances With Species-Dependent Lightcones"

Nov 2, 2026 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
MPP, Room: A.1.01 - Alps Süd

"Stellar Streams as Dark Matter Probes"

Nov 2, 2026 03:30 PM - 04:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
MPA, Room: New Seminar Room, E.0.11

"Intrinsic Alignments in the FLAMINGO Simulations and Consequences for Weak Lensing"

Nov 3, 2026 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
MPA, Room: Lecture Hall E.0.11

"What Fuels the Most Extreme Galaxies? - Molecular Gas in Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies Across Cosmic Time"

Nov 3, 2026 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM (Local Time Germany)
ESO Garching, Room: Auditorium Telescopium

Job Offers

Postdoctoral position in microwave polarization analysis with FYST / CCAT (m/f/d)

September 28, 2026

Postdoctoral position in lattice simulations of cosmic inflation with gauge fields (m/f/d)

September 28, 2026

MPA Postdoctoral Fellowships in Astrophysics

September 01, 2026

Meet our MPA fellows

Like voices in a choir

October 20, 2026

Unraveling the mysteries of gravity and dark matter through innovative, multi-data research, cosmologist Sveva Castello finds inspiration in music and mountains.

Open Day

October 03, 2026
Look behind the scenes of our research on cosmology and galaxy formation, the physics of black holes, the evolution of stars, and stellar explosions. We build models for these processes, partially using simulations or supercomputers. On the Open Day, we offer a varied programme for all ages. 

About MPA

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 30000-2179
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

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