Institute Reports

An international team of scientists, including Ivelina Momcheva from MPIA, today released the largest near-infrared image ever taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, operated by NASA and ESA. It enables astronomers to map the star-forming regions of the Universe and learn how the earliest, most distant galaxies originated. Named 3D-DASH, this high-resolution survey will allow researchers to find rare objects and targets for follow-up observations with the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during its decade-long mission. more

Conny Aerts, professor of astronomy at KU Leuven and MPIA external scientific member, today was selected by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters to share the Kavli Prize 2022 in astrophysics, the highest award an astrophysicist can receive after the Nobel Prize . She shares the prize with American astrophysicist Roger Ulrich and Danish astrophysicist Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard for their pioneering work and leadership in the development of helio- and asteroseismology that laid the foundations of solar and stellar structure theory, revolutionizing our understanding of the interiors of stars. more

The Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBTO), one of the largest and most advanced optical telescopes in the world, is proud to announce the appointment of its new Director, Prof. Joseph Shields, who will assume the position effective June 06, 2022. more

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has published the first set of test images from all of its instruments, demonstrating in an impressive manner that its 6.5 meter mirror, which consists of 18 segments that need to be aligned very precisely, is now fully aligned. The set includes images taken with the MIRI and NIRSPEC instruments, parts of which were constructed at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg (MPIA). The completion of mirror alignment marks the beginning of the instrument commissioning phase, where MIRI, NIRSPEC and two additional instruments will become fully operational. more

Hans-Walter Rix, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and head of the Galaxies and Cosmology Department, has been awarded one of the prestigious and highly endowed funding awards of the European Research Council – an ERC Advanced Grant. His project, entitled "Hunting Dormant Black Holes in the Galaxy", will be funded with 2.85 million euros.
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