Announcements

The IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (CPS), has released a paper entitled that states its recommendations for the mitigation of satellite constellations’ impact on astronomy. The document is the culmination of 18 months’ work by a multidisciplinary group of experts, including astronomers, industry representatives and policy advisors, led by Gyula I. G. Józsa of MPIfR, co-coordinator of the Opticon RadioNet Pilot Sky Protection Group. It represents the view of the IAU Centre on what steps should now be taken to address the issue (CPS Release, March 14, 2024). more

Feedback fingerprints in the clouds of 30 Doradus observed with APEX

An area of nearly 14 square degrees in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) was observed in the 12CO (3 − 2) molecular line with the APEX telescope in Chile. A research team led by Konstantin Grishunin & Axel Weiß (MPIfR Bonn) presents the results of their search for large-scale feedback fingerprints in the molecular clouds of the LMC's 30 Doradus region. The ongoing APEX LMC CO line Legacy Survey will extend the work to an unbiased view of the full molecular gas distribution in that galaxy (Original Paper by K. Grishunin et al., Astronomy & Astrophysics, published online on February 13, 2024). more

Arno A. Penzias received a Nobel prize in Physics 1978 together with Robert W. Wilson for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation. Between 1978 and 1984 he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board (Fachbeirat) of the MPIfR (Link to Bell Labs News Release, January 23, 2024). more

On December 20, 2023, the Federal Cabinet approved Germany's accession to the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO). The world's largest super telescope is currently under construction in South Africa and Australia. The MPIfR and the MPG are already involved in the project, with radio telescopes which will be added to the core of the telescope, MeerKAT, in South Africa. (BMBF Release, December 20, 2023, in German language). more

World Radiocommunication Conference puts radio astronomy on the agenda

New studies to improve the protection of radio astronomy measurements from satellite systems more

Although the origins of Venus and Earth share some similarities, their atmospheres evolved in a markedly different way. The composition of Venus' atmosphere - mainly carbon dioxide and nitrogen - results from a running greenhouse effect in the past. The UV radiation from the sun dissociates the carbon dioxide, but to date, the thus released atomic oxygen has not been evidenced yet. Employing the far-infrared spectrometer upGreat, developed and built at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) and the Institute of Physics at the University of Cologne in cooperation with the DLR Institute for Optical Sensor Systems, Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers from the DLR institute and his collaborators succeeded in directly detecting the element. As the data analysis suggests, the oxygen is transported from the dayside to the nightside of Venus. The work, which is published today in the journal Nature Communications, is coauthored by three collaborators from MPIfR. more

The „Astroplot of the Week” Twitter image on October 14, 2023 is taken from the publication “Metrewave Galactic Plane with the uGMRT (MeGaPluG) Survey: Lessons from the pilot study” in Astronomy & Astrophysics with Rohit Dokara/MPIfR as first author (A&A 678, A72, Fig. 7). more

ngVLA Open Day Event at mtex

September 28, 2023

mtex antenna technology was awarded the contract by NRAO & AUI to develop, design, and produce the first 18-metre prototype telescope for the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) radio astronomy facility. Top scientists from the USA and Germany including Anton Zensus from MPIfR will deliver remarks and celebrate this exciting collaboration in technological advancement and scientific discovery at the Open Day ceremony in Schkeuditz/Saxonia (mtex News,September 28, 2023). more

For being the first to envision imaging the immediate surroundings of a black hole, and for his leadership of the “Event Horizon Telescope”, specifically designed for this purpose, Prof. Heino Falcke (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands & MPI for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany) will receive this year’s Balzan prizes (Announcement Balzan Foundation, September 11, 2023). more

Open Day at Effelsberg Radio Observatory

on Saturday, September 09, 2023 more

Recent detection of polarized thermal emission from dust grains in a high-redshift, rapidly star-forming galaxy can give us an insight into the formation and evolution of magnetic fields in large-scale structures of the early Universe. News & View Comment by Rainer Beck / MPIfR on the publication “Polarized thermal emission from dust in a galaxy at redshift 2.6” in “Nature”. more

ERC Starting Grant for Dr. Aditya Parthasarathy

How do galaxies evolve? What happens when supermassive black holes merge? How did the Universe look like just after the Big Bang? more

The German Astronomical Society (Astronomische Gesellschaft, AG) today announces prize winners for this year. Felicitas Mokler of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy will receive the Hanno and Ruth Roelin Prize for Science Journalism. The award ceremony will take place at the AG's annual meeting in Berlin in September (AG press release, August 30, 2023). more

On July 13, 2023, Prof. J. Anton Zensus will be awarded the prestigious Tycho Brahe Medal of the European Astronomical Society (EAS) in Krakow. Zensus is being honored for significant advances in Very Long Baseline Interferometry that led to the first images of the shadows of supermassive black holes at the centers of the galaxy Messier 87 and our Milky Way. The Tycho Brahe Medal honors outstanding scientists for the development or use of European research instruments or for significant discoveries based largely on work with such instruments. Prof. J. Anton Zensus is director at the MPIfR and heads the research department 'Very Long Baseline Interferometry' (VLBI), which focuses on the study of galaxies in the universe millions of light-years away from us (EAS Press Release on 2023 prizes).
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As part of the SOFIA program SALSA ("Survey on extragALactic magnetiSm with SOFIA"), the magnetic fields of 14 galaxies were studied with the HAWC+ instrument on board the SOFIA aircraft observatory. Rainer Beck and Sui-Ann Mao of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy are involved in the project. The combination with radio data (Effelsberg, VLA) at similar angular resolution allows to compare the magnetic field structure of the cold interstellar medium with that of the warm interstellar medium for these galaxies (DSI News, June 16, 2023, in German language). more

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