News at MPA

Galaxies are the birthplace of most stars and black holes. However, scientists are still debating, how galaxies accrete the fuel to sustain their growth, and how they in turn pollute their environment with elements heavier than helium. An international team of astrophysicists has now directly observed the neighborhood of a massive galaxy in the early universe. They find that the gas all around the galaxy is enriched with heavy elements, which means it has been polluted by the galaxy itself and by embedded satellite galaxies. Furthermore, this gas is spiraling onto the massive galaxy, fueling further star formation. more

By Prof. George Efstathiou, University of Cambridge more

The MPA Partner Group at Kyambogo University in Uganda led by Dr. Benard Nsamba carried out their astronomy outreach activities for the first time in selected secondary schools in the Eastern region of Uganda. more

On November 17, the German Physical Society announced that it will award the Max Planck Medal, its highest award in Theoretical Physics, to Rashid Sunyaev. Thus the DPG honours “his numerous and fundamental contributions to relativistic astrophysics and to cosmology, in particular for the theoretical prediction of experimentally observed changes in the spectrum of cosmic background radiation passing through galaxy clusters.” more

The Nishina Memorial Foundation announced this week that Professor Eiichiro Komatsu, director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, receives the most prestigious Japanese physics award. The Nishina Memorial Prize is presented annually, honoring outstanding Japanese scientists who have made substantial contributions to physics research. Komatsu receives the prestigious award for his “contributions to the standard cosmology based on the cosmic microwave background”. The award will be presented during a ceremony in Tokyo on 6 December 2022. more

Former MPA research group leader Sherry Suyu has been selected as a Max Planck Fellow to complement her recent appointment as associate professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). For the next five years, she will continue to lead a small working group at MPA to use gravitational lensing as a probe of cosmology and astrophysics. more

The Partner Group of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics at Kyambogo University in Uganda will be led by MPA scientist Dr. Benard Nsamba. The Max Planck Society will support the partner group for up to a period of five years with 20,000 Euros every year. With these funds, Dr. Nsamba will build a research group in Astrophysics at Kyambogo University in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, covering expenses for travel, workshops, doctoral students and postdocs as well as minor equipment. more