METIS is one of the three first instruments for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), Europe’s next-generation ground-based telescope for optical and infrared wavelengths which is currently under construction at the ESO site at Cerro Armazones in Chile. This video introduces the instrument and the scientific goals it pursues.
In this talk, Thomas Henning explains the findings on biochemistry that led to the origin of life on Earth and possibly on other celestial bodies. The talk was a contribution to the conference “Life In The Universe” in Sofia, Bulgaria in October 2022.
On 25 October 2022, a partial lunar eclipse will take place at midday, during which between 15 and 35% of the Sun will be eclipsed in the German-speaking countries. This is an excellent opportunity to take a look at the formation and course of solar and lunar eclipses in advance.
In his lecture, Thomas Henning presents the development of large telescopes. He also discusses the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) and the James Webb Space Telescope.
The legendary Hubble Ultra-Deep Field is the sky field for which the best observations exist in many wavelengths. Until now, it has mainly been used to study the stars in high-redshift galaxies. New observations with ALMA now make it possible to also observe the molecular gas that is needed for future star formation. Taken together, the data from…
According to a widespread idea, the Universe is infinitely large. However, this model cannot really be rigorously verified. The lecture will convey the state of knowledge of astronomy on this topic and discuss in particular how large the observable range of the accelerated expanding Universe is in principle. The sophisticated methods astronomers…
Galaxies are not solitary entities. The Milky Way is also surrounded by numerous dwarf galaxies; if one of these dwarf galaxies gets too close to the Milky Way, it will be destroyed by it through tidal forces. In addition, the Milky Way even has a large neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy, to which it is gravitationally bound and with which it will…
Looking all the way back to the birth of the first stars and galaxies, finding exoplanets and using infrared cameras to peer into the time shortly after the Big Bang. This is what the new James Webb telescope is supposed to make possible. Now the first images have been published. Oliver Krause, head of the Infrared Space Astronomy Research Group…
The entire astronomically interested world is waiting impatiently for the first images and scientific data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) have selected some striking objects and observed them with the instruments of the…
There are over a million known asteroids in our solar system. Because they are much smaller than the planets in our solar system, they cannot be distinguished from stars at first glance. On the occasion of Asteroid Day on 30 June, we look at how you can observe asteroids with amateur means and what opportunities you have to contribute to further…
For a better understanding of the Universe, astronomers are using ever larger telescopes and ever more powerful instruments, whose development and production is usually at the edge of what is technically feasible. The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg has an excellent reputation for building astronomical instruments that…
