Press Releases   2015/2014     2013     2012     2011     2010     2009     2008     2007     2006     2005...      When space and time are moving November 2010 SFB “Gravitational Wave Astronomy” will be funded for another four years Chinese Friendship award for Gerhard Börner October 2010 Just before the National Day celebrations, Prof. Gerhard Börner from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics received the ”Friendship Award“ of the Chinese government, the highest honour bestowed on foreigners. The award ceremony for 50 experts from 16 countries took place on 29.9.2010 in the ”Great Hall of the People“ in Beijing. Cluster Promotion prize for MPA student October 2010 This year’s “Universe Award” in the category “theory” goes to Jens Jasche for his dissertation “Bayesian Methods for Analyzing the Large Scale Structure of the Universe“. Jasche is now at University of Bonn, but did his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. He will present his work during the “Science Week” of the Excellence Cluster Universe, which for the third time awarded two outstanding dissertations in the fields of astro-, nuclear and particle physics in the categories “experiment” and “theory”. Planck's first glimpse at galaxy clusters and a new supercluster September 2010 Surveying the microwave sky, Planck is obtaining qualitatively new images of galaxy clusters, revealing one of them to be a previously unknown supercluster. Planck has provided by far most detailed images of clusters to date in the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE), a characteristic signature  which clusters imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This effect was predicted in 1969 by Rashid Sunyaev, presently director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and Yakov Zel'dovich. Planck delivers first all-sky image July 2010 Less than a year after routine operations began for the ESA Planck satellite, the international consortium now released the first all-sky image of the microwave sky, using data spanning the full frequency range of Planck from 30 to 857 GHz. It not only provides new insight into the way stars and galaxies form but also tells us how the Universe itself came to life after the Big Bang. Rashid Sunyaev receives German Federal Cross of Merit July 2010 End of June, the Bavarian Minister for Science, Research and Art, Dr. Wolfgang Heubisch, presented Rashid Sunyaev, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics with the German Federal Order of Merit on ribbon for his fundamental contributions to cosmology and astrophysics. Problem of spectral diversity in supernovae solved with asymmetric explosions — SN Ia are standard candles after all July 2010 A long-standing mystery regarding gigantic stellar explosions is now solved: A group of researchers from institutes around the world, including the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics have found the reason why supernovae that look like twins in their luminosities show substantial diversity in their spectra. Kippenhahn Prize 2010 June 2010 Rudolf-Kippenhahn-Prize for Ákos Bogdan LOFAR - Birth of a European Radio Telescope June 2010 Official launch of the LOFAR telescope network with French, German, Dutch, Swedish and British participation Details in the Structure of a distant Quasar June 2010 First high-resolution image from the LOFAR radio telescope array Biermann lectures 2010 June 2010 Exoplanets in this year's Biermann lectures Café & Kosmos — The Big Bang in a tunnel May 2010 In a relaxed atmosphere, interesting discussions about current research are now possible with the new event series ”Café & Kosmos“, which will start on 31st May 2010. Demise of a star under surprising circumstances May 2010 Supernovae, gigantic stellar explosions, are not only used as cosmic yardsticks by cosmologists, they are also important chemical element factories in our Universe. So far, astrophysicists know of two physical processes giving rise to these bursts: one is the core collapse of a massive star at the end of its lifetime, the other the thermonuclear detonation of an old white dwarf star. An international team of researchers, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, have now identified a third type of these stellar explosions, arising from a helium-rich, old stellar system. (Nature, 20 May 2010) How a supernova obtains its shape May 2010 Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching managed for the first time to reproduce the asymmetries and fast-moving iron clumps of observed supernovae by complex computer simulations in all three dimensions. To this end they successfully followed the outburst in their models consistently from milliseconds after the onset of the blast to the demise of the star several hours later. (Astrophysical Journal, 10 May 2010) Planck highlights the complexity of star formation April 2010 New images from ESA’s Planck space observatory reveal the forces driving star formation and give astronomers a way to understand the complex physics that shape the dust and gas in our Galaxy. The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching represents Germany in the consortium of groups and institutions across Europe operating the Planck mission and works mainly on two areas, the data-simulation pipeline and the software infrastructure for data analysis. Federal Cross of Merit for Guinevere Kauffmann April 2010 Dr. Guinevere Kauffmann from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics was awarded with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer, who suggested her for this distinction, presented Dr. Kauffmann personally with the Cross of Merit (on ribbon) and the certificate in the name of the German President on 21 April 2010. Successful Girls’ Day in Garching April 2010 Fifty girls visited MPA and MPE to find out more about a career in astrophysics Clouds in the Milky Way as seen by Planck March 2010 Giant filaments of cold dust stretching through our Galaxy are revealed in a new image from ESA's Planck satellite, for which software for data processing has been developed at MPA. Analysing these structures could help to determine the forces that shape our Galaxy and trigger star formation. First all sky radio image with LOFAR antennas near Garching February 2010 Not everyone was celebrating carnival in mid February; some scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching were eagerly waiting for the first images of their new radio telescope. On Friday 12th February the wait was over: The LOFAR station in Unterweilenbach took the first all sky image. Fuse for key cosmic explosions found February 2010 With the help of new data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics found the origins of a certain type of supernova, a cosmic explosion that is critical for measuring distances in the universe. Gerhard Börner wins CAS Award February 2010 The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced that Professor Dr. Gerhard Börner from MPA won the CAS Award for International Cooperation in Science and Technology for 2009 together with space astrophysicist Professor Roger Bonnet (France) and botanist Professor Peter Raven (USA). The award was bestowed at the CAS’ annual conference held 25-27January 2010 in Beijing. Violent explosions in space January 2010 Astronomers simulate how white dwarf stars merge and become a supernova

© 2003, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, München