Facilities and Technology

APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, is a collaboration between Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) at 55%, Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) at 13%, and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) at 32% to construct and operate a modified ALMA prototype antenna as a single dish on the high altitude site of Llano Chajnantor. The telescope was manufactured by VERTEX Antennentechnik in Duisburg, Germany. more

With a diameter of 100 meters, the Radio Telescope Effelsberg is one of the largest fully steerable radio telescopes on earth. Since operations started in 1972, the technology has been continually improved (i.e. new surface for the antenna-dish, better reception of high-quality data, extremely low noise electronics) making it one of the most advanced modern telescopes worldwide. more

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a joint project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR; German Aerospace Centre, grant: 50OK0901). The German component of the SOFIA project is being carried out under the auspices of DLR, with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie; BMWi) under a resolution passed by the German Federal Parliament, and with funding from the State of Baden-Württemberg and the University of Stuttgart. Scientific operations are coordinated by the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, U.S.A. more

IRAM is a collaboration of French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), the German MPG (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) and the Spanish IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional) and operates the 30-meter telescope located on Pico Veleta near Granada in Spain, and the NOEMA observatory (an array of twelve 15-meter antennas) in the French Alps. more

The state-of-the-art instrumentation for the detection of both coherent and incoherent sub-millimeter radiation from space are provided by the Submillimeter Technology Division, led by Prof. Dr. Bernd Klein, Head of the technical divisions "Submillimeter-Technology" and "Digital Signal Processing", MPIfR. more