Paul Mollière, leader of the independent research group on exoplanet atmospheric modeling and retrieval in Laura Kreidberg's "Astrophysics of Exoplanets" department at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg has been awarded one of the highly coveted and lucrative grants from the European Research Council (ERC). His project, entitled "From photons to storms: Revealing the 3D structure of giant exoplanet atmospheres," will be funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant worth almost 2 million euros. more

Images of dust around distant exoplanets provide a glimpse of asteroids and comets in other solar systems more

In keeping with tradition, three scientists were once again awarded the Ernst Patzer Prize for the support of young scientists this year. Michael Cecil (MPIA), Elisa Schoesser (ZAH) and Xiangyu Zhang (MPIA) were honored at the award ceremony on November 28 as part of a festive colloquium at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA). more

A few days ago, the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile succeeded for the first time in using four lasers to create artificial stars in the upper atmosphere, enabling the four 8-meter telescopes of the VLTI to perform outstandingly sharp observations of the sky. The lasers are part of the GRAVITY+ upgrade of the VLT interferometer. This upgrade also increases the sensitivity of the system by a factor of 10 and makes it possible to study celestial objects at virtually any point in the sky. more

New instrument will provide numerous high-resolution spectra, complementing existing data more