News at MPA

Researchers have finished equipping the Subaru Telescope with a new special “compound eye” culminating several years of effort. This new instrument features approximately 2,400 fibers scattered across the extremely wide field of view available at the Subaru Telescope’s primary focus, allowing for simultaneous spectroscopic observation of thousands of celestial objects. This unrivaled capability will help researchers precisely understand the formation and evolution of galaxies and the Universe once it begins scientific operations in February 2025. more

The MPG Commission »Quality Management of Max Planck Gender Equality Plans (GEP)« awarded the Gold label to MPA’s plan, for meeting  the Max Planck standards – comprehensiveness, institute-specific and sustainability – to an outstanding degree. The MPA presents an excellent gender equality strategy, which, among other things, impresses with a comprehensive inventory, a stringent, data-based selection of fields of action, goals and measures, and a comprehensive portfolio of measures. more

With twelve Synergy Grants, the Max Planck Society claims top spot in the ERC ranking more

ERC Synergy grant will fund researchers at MPA, the Observatories of Rome and Trieste in Italy, and Chalmers in Sweden to unravel the complexity of the Epoch of Reionization. more

European Research Council funds scientists at MPA, RTWH Aachen, and IA-FORTH to map Galaxy in 3D more

In early 2024, the European Space Agency officially adopted the LISA mission (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) as the world’s first space-based gravitational wave observatory, with its launch set for 2035. LISA will provide a revolutionary view into the Universe by capturing gravitational waves in a frequency range inaccessible to ground-based detectors, allowing scientists to study entirely new astrophysical phenomena. As LISA opens this unexplored window, it poses exciting challenges for the astrophysics community, which must now focus on identifying the scientific questions that LISA will answer and developing the tools to do so. From November 5 to 7, 2024, more than a 100 researchers will gather at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) in Garching bei München to participate in the LISA Astrophysics Working Group Meeting, where they will explore how LISA can deepen our understanding of black holes, stars, galaxies, and other astrophysical objects across the Universe. more

The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) is proud to announce that Dr. Max Gronke, leader of the Max Planck Research Group 'Multiphase Gas', has been awarded a highly competitive European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant. This prestigious grant will fund Dr. Gronke's innovative research project "Resolving the Multiscale, Multiphase Universe" (ReMMU) over the next five years. more