All News (2011 - ...)

The galaxy PJ0116-24 lives about 10 billion years ago and appears about 10,000 times brighter in the infrared than our Milky Way. It belongs to a rare population of so-called hyper-luminous infrared galaxies (HyLIRG), which are usually formed by the collision of several galaxies. Members of the Infrared Group at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) including Daizhong Liu and Natascha M. Förster Schreiber, together with researchers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other international institutes, now showed that a HyLIRG can also arise in a massive turbulent rotating disk within a single galaxy, where the gas is organized in a structured way. This finding was made possible through new observations including from the novel ERIS instrument at the ESO Very Large Telescope, built by a consortium also led by the MPE Infrared Group, and strong magnification caused by a massive elliptical galaxy that lies between us and PJ0116-24. This galaxy acts as a gravitational lens stretching PJ0116-24 in an “Einstein ring” and making it appear 17 times brighter. more

Using the JWST, a team of researchers including Paola Caselli, Barbara Michela Giuliano and Basile Husquinet from MPE, have probed deep into dense cloud cores, revealing details of interstellar ice that were previously unobservable. The study focuses on the Chamaeleon I region, using JWST’s NIRCam to measure spectroscopic lines towards hundreds of stars behind the cloud. more

Guillaume Bourdarot, a postdoctoral researcher from the Infrared Group, received a Nobel Laureate Fellowship at the 75th Annual General Meeting of the Max Planck Society. Nominated by Nobel laureate Reinhard Genzel, Bourdarot is recognized for his work on high-resolution infrared observations of astrophysical objects.  more

Identifying massive black holes in low-mass galaxies is crucial for understanding black hole formation and growth over cosmic time but challenging due to their low accretion luminosities. Astronomers at MPE, led by Riccardo Arcodia, used the eROSITA X-ray telescope's all-sky survey to study massive black hole candidates selected based on variability in other wavelength ranges. Surprisingly, despite being flagged as accreting MBHs, the X-rays were weak and didn't match predictions from more massive AGN scaling relations. This discrepancy suggests either the absence of a canonical X-ray corona or the presence of unusual accretion modes and spectral energy distributions in these dwarf galaxy MBHs. more

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/Webb James Webb Space Telescope to study the disc around a young and very low-mass star. The results reveal the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disc (including the first extrasolar detection of ethane) and contribute to our evolving understanding of the diversity of planetary systems. more

Analysis of the early release observations provides insights into the evolution of the Perseus galaxy cluster more

Odd radio circles (ORC), a recently identified new class of extended faint radio sources, have captivated the curiosity of astronomers worldwide. A groundbreaking discovery by a team led by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics unveils the first detection of diffuse X-ray gas in the vicinity of the Cloverleaf ORC. Leveraging the advanced capabilities of the XMM-Newton telescope and the complementary multi-wavelength observations, the team unveiled the origin of the ORC as a cosmic dance of two galaxy groups.  more

Images confirm new X-ray satellite’s revolutionary capability to detect and follow-up explosive events in the high-energy Universe
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Today the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the German Astronomical Society (Astronomische Gesellschaft, AG) announced that Linda Tacconi from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching (MPE), Germany, receives the 2024 Caroline Herschel Medal, their joint award. The medal recognizes her world-leading observational studies of the cosmic evolution of dense, star-forming molecular gas in galaxies, as well as her unique contributions to international leadership in astronomy, and service to the European astronomical community. more

Here you can find images and graphics for download for the cosmology results from the first eROSITA sky-survey data release.
You are free to use the visuals for your own eROSITA reporting, please give the appropriate credit with each visual. more

Results from the first X-ray sky survey resolve the previous inconsistency between competing measurements of the structure of the Universe
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Here you can find images and graphics for download for the first eROSITA sky-survey data release (eRASS1).
You are free to use the visuals for your own eROSITA reporting, please give the appropriate credit with each visual. more