Euclid is a new ESA space telescope with the participation of a scientific consortium from fourteen European countries, the USA, Canada and Japan. Euclid was launched on 1 July 2023. Over the next 6 years, Euclid will record images and spectra of a third of the entire sky. The goal: to get to the bottom of the nature of dark matter and dark energy…
Astronomical (imaging) data are generally heavily post-processed, and/or analysed in a complex way. Especially high-contrast observations require specific post-processing methods to remove image residuals that remain after all the sophisticated optical suppression methods. One such method, angular differential imaging, is explained in this video…
The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, employs people from around 60 countries from all over the world. On the occasion of the Open Day on 14 October 2023, we have produced a video in which some of them introduce themselves. They talk about how they came to MPIA and how they experience their working…
Animation illustrating the distribution of diazenylium and hydrogen cyanide within the Whirlpool Galaxy. Starting from an overview of the galaxy captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the animation zooms in on the central region. Subsequently, overlays of the signatures of both molecules are presented. While their intensity uniformly increases and…
The animation explains the detection of water in the zone near the star PDS 70, where rocky planets usually form. First we see the starry sky and approach the position of PDS 70. Then the video shows two different observations of the planet-forming disk with the positions of the two gas giant planets. Finally, we see a section of the spectrum with…
In this short documentary, Oliver Krause reports on the MPIA's contribution to the James Webb Space Telescope and other future projects. The documentary was filmed as part of the YouTube channel "Quasi klar!" at the MPIA.The video provides automatically translated subtitles.
This video introduces the team at MPIA working on Euclid, an ESA mission designed to explore the composition and evolution of the dark universe. This space telescope is set to launch on 1 July 2023 at 17:11 h CEST from Cape Canaveral using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. MPIA is a member of the Euclid Consortium and has been involved in the project…
The James Webb Space Telescope allows us to see what kind of molecules exist in the regions where planets are forming, and offers an insight into how the building-blocks for complex organic molecules arrived on Earth. MPIA director Thomas Henning tells us about the discovery of water in the planet-forming disk of young star PDS-70, as well as how…
The James Webb Space Telescope allows us to characterize the atmospheres of distant exoplanets like never before - including the seven rocky planets orbiting red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. In this video, MPIA director Laura Kreidberg describes the some of the exciting new findings made in this field using JWST data, and what was discovered on planets…
Thanks to infrared instruments like MIRI, the James Webb Space Telescope allows us to study some of the oldest and most distant objects in the universe. Oliver Krause, head of the Infrared Space Astronomy Research Group, describes the technical challenges of observing in the infrared, as well as some of the exciting discoveries and record-breaking…
In order to work in outer space, the various instruments aboard the James Webb Space Telescope had to undergo a series of rigorous tests. Among these instruments is the MIRI, with its filter wheel built and tested by MPIA staff, including Dr. Silvia Scheithauer of the Instrumentation Team. In this video, Silvia discusses the challenges encountered…