Announcements

A star's mass determines its entire life story, from how it shines to how it dies. For young stars shrouded in dust, getting an accurate mass has long been difficult, but new radio measurements are beginning to change that. 

Lead researcher Dr. Sergio Abraham Dzib Quijano, from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, and his team used the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Long Baseline Array (NSF VLBA) to track the orbital motions of young binary star systems in the Orion star-forming complex with unprecedented precision. Analysing these movements makes it possible to calculate the stars' true masses without relying on theoretical models (NRAO Press Release, April 24, 2026). more

An international team of researchers from the KM3NeT Collaboration has investigated the origin of the most energetic cosmic neutrino ever observed, detected on 13 February 2023 by the KM3NeT/ARCA deep-sea neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. With an energy of about 220 PeV, the particle exceeds the energies of previously observed astrophysical neutrinos by more than an order of magnitude, raising the question of what kind of cosmic accelerator could produce such an extreme event.  

Scientists from the VLBI department at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy contributed to this work: Yuri Kovalev, Alexander Plavin, and Eduardo Ros. Their expertise is focused on radio observations of active galactic nuclei and relativistic jets, relevant in this case for understanding the environments where particles can be accelerated to extreme energies. more

On February 1, 2026, Prof. Dr. J. Anton Zensus will conclude his tenure as Director of the Radio Astronomy / Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Department at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR). He will remain associated with the institute as Director Emeritus and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society.
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Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief but powerful flashes of radio waves from distant galaxies. Most FRBs are only seen once, making it difficult to locate and study them. An international team with participation from scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) has achieved an exceptionally precise localisation of a rare repeating FRB. “These observations show that a previously known source of persistent radio emission is associated with the fast radio burst FRB 20190417A, and this possibly strengthens the connections of some FRBs to magnetars", explains Ramesh Karuppusamy from MPIfR. Magnetars are highly magnetized neutron stars that form when a massive star collapses at the end of its life.

The results were obtained using the European VLBI Network (EVN), a collection of radio telescopes spread across Europe and beyond that operate together as a single, Earth-sized instrument. The 100-meter telescope in Effelsberg played a central role.
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In October 2025, an international team of astronomers announced the discovery of a mysterious object with a mass of about one million times that of our Sun in the distant universe. It could not be observed directly, but was noticed due to the distortion in the image of a faraway galaxy.

In a new analysis published today in the journal Nature, the team tested various models designed to reveal the internal structure of the object. Surprisingly, the data can best be explained by a completely new class of objects: an extremely compact object embedded in an extended disk of matter that itself appears to emit no detectable radiation. The scientists combined radio telescopes around the world for their observations, including the 100-meter radio telescope in Effelsberg.
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Since 2021, the research group “Relativistic Jets in Active Galaxies” (FOR 5195), funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has been investigating the high-energy streams of particles that shoot out at nearly the speed of light from the vicinity of supermassive black holes. In the first funding phase, considerable progress was already made in the scientific understanding of these relativistic jets.

The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) is part of the research group, in which leading German universities and institutes cooperate with strong European partners. With the extension now approved for a further four years, the consortium will receive around 4.75 million euros to deepen the investigations. With Anton Zensus and Eduardo Ros, researchers from the MPIfR are once again taking on central roles in several projects and providing essential expertise in the millimetre very-long-baseline interferometry, which is a key technology for exploring the innermost regions of jets.
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The world’s biggest and most iconic radio telescopes including the Effelsberg 100-m telescope are joining forces with a bold aim – to make new images of black holes and their surroundings, in detail and in new colours.

Radio signals measured at high frequencies can be corrected for disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere, as long as signals from the same source are also measured at lower frequencies at the same time – just what a three-band camera provides.

In Sweden, Chalmers University of Technology has just received a 13 million SEK grant to build such a new, three-band camera for the country’s flagship radio telescope, the 20-metre telescope at Onsala Space Observatory (Chalmers University Press Release, November 26, 2025)
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Agata Karska (University Torun & MPIfR) and Iason Skretas (MPIfR) used the MIRI instrument onboard JWST to identify the presence of ultraviolet radiation in five young stars in the Ophiuchus region, and understand its role in the formation of stars. The research results of their team indicate the necessity to include the production of UV radiation in the models describing the formation of stars. The results are presented in today’s issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (Nicolaus Copernicus University Torun Press Release, November 13, 2025). more

Germany’s Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär has emphasised the impact of SKAO membership during an event in Berlin to mark a significant SKAO construction contract being awarded to a German technology company more

An international team of astronomers has found a low mass dark object in the distant Universe, not by directly observing any emitted light, but by detecting its tiny gravitational distortion of the light from another distant galaxy. This mysterious object, named TXS 1938+666, has a mass of about one million times that of our Sun, and its discovery seems consistent with the current best theory about how galaxies like our own Milky Way formed. The observations were made within the framework of the European VLBI Network (EVN) with the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope as a crucial part of the network (JIVE Press Release, October 09, 2025). more

A number of Video Postcards to honour the former director of the Millimeter and Submillimeter Astronomy Research Department at MPIfR Bonn more

Jonah Wagenveld from MPIfR Bonn is awarded the Doctoral Thesis Prize for his outstanding PhD thesis, titled "Testing Large-Scale Cosmology with MeerKAT" at the MPIfR. He graduated with summa cum laude in 2024. Central to his work was the study of the cosmic radio dipole—an anisotropy in the distribution of radio sources that mirrors the dipole seen in the cosmic microwave background. He developed novel techniques for measuring the radio dipole in large radio surveys to the highest degree of precision to date. Using data of the MeerKAT radio telescope, he carried out meticulous calibration and data processing to allow for a measurement of the dipole using fainter radio sources than ever before. His results revealed a significant discrepancy in the amplitude of the cosmic dipole when derived from radio sources compared to the cosmic microwave background, suggesting a possible challenge to the cosmological principle (Press Release of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, August 14, 2025).
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WACKEN OPEN AIR is expanding its 2025 festival program to include a space camp with partners from the fields of space travel and astronomy. Participants include the Astronomical Society (AG), the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), the House of Astronomy (HdA), the University of Potsdam, the Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF), Fraunhofer Aviation & Space, Bundesverband der Deutschen Luft- und Raumfahrtindustrie (BDLI) , Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DGLR) and the space companies OHB and Polaris Spaceplanes. The MPIfR's contribution deals with the impact of terrestrial radio and light radiation on observational astronomy (Press Release AG, July 11, 2025, in German language). more

2025 Frontiers of Science Award for the international Double Pulsar research team more

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration will hold its 2025 yearly face-to-face meeting in Berlin-Dahlem on July 14-18. The meeting is hosted by the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie. This meeting follows on from a series of gatherings held in various international locations, including Mexico City, Taichung, Granada, Hilo, Nijmegen and Cambridge. It is anticipated that approximately 120 participants from multiple countries across various continents will attend, making it a substantial international event for the collaboration. more

The galaxy M87, located about 55 million light-years from Earth, hosts at its core the supermassive black hole M87*, whose image whose image went viral around the globe in 2019 thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). A recent study in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) demonstrates that the slightly elongated shape of the ring is not caused by gravity or by the black hole’s spin, but by turbulent astrophysical processes in the surrounding plasma. The research team includes a number of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy within the ETH Collaboration (IAA-CSIC Press release, July 10, 2025). more

SKA Science Meeting 2025 in Görlitz more

South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope has successfully conducted very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations with telescopes of the European VLBI Network (EVN)—currently the world’s most sensitive VLBI network. Their synergy sets a new standard for global collaboration and significantly enhances both resolution and sensitivity, opening new avenues for scientific exploration. The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy is part of the EVN with its 100-m Effelsberg radio telescope and also collaborating in the MeerKAT project and its extension, providing receiver equipment for this radio telescope in South Africa (JIVE Press Release, June 10, 2025). more

First Interferometric Signal Detection Between MPIfR’s two Radio Telescopes more

Consortium led by the Universities of Cologne and Bonn successful with cluster application on astrophysics as part of the Excellence Strategy more

The galaxy M87 is one of the prime targets for high resolution radio imaging to investigate the ring-like “shadow” of its supermassive black hole, the innermost regions of accretion flow, and the formation of the relativistic jet. In 2018, observations with the Global mm-VLBI array (GMVA) including the Effelsberg 100-m telescope and with the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) at 86 GHz enabled the simultaneous reconstruction of a ring structure and the extended jet emission. Jong-Seo Kim and a number of additional scientists, predominantly from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, revisited the GMVA observations in 2018 using novel imaging algorithms. This work confirms the ring and jet detection at 86GHz and provides higher resolution images with more precise measurement of the ring and jet features (2025, A&A, 696, A169). more

25 distinct plasma structures in the direction of the millisecond pulsar PSR J0437−4715 have been found in observations obtained with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. The results provide insights into the turbulent interstellar medium and the plasma content of the local bubble, the neighbourhood of our Sun in the Milky Way. Several scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, are co-authors of the paper which has been published in “Nature Astronomy” on April 22, 2025. more

An international team of astronomers, including MPIfR scientists, has mapped the cold gas of the Milky Way using the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa. The “MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey” (MALS) is the most comprehensive catalog of its kind to date. Astronomers are using this MALS survey to understand why the Milky Way is still forming new stars, even though it is billions of years old. The study has been accepted for publication in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” (IUCAA Press Release, April 02, 2025). more

Position of Director (f/m/d) at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy more

The first image from the international SKA Observatory’s telescope in Australia, SKA-Low, has been released in March 2025 – a significant milestone in its quest to reveal an unparalleled view of our Universe. Jonathan Pritchard’s new research group on Radio Cosmology at MPIfR is dealing with these issues. Low frequency telescopes like SKA-LOW will soon map the 21cm line of neutral hydrogen to learn about cosmology and the first stars and galaxies. This research group works to bring together theoretical modelling and statistical tools to enable cosmology through 21cm and line intensity mapping (SKAO News from March 17,2025). more

Using the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, a team of astronomers including Gerd Weigelt form MPIfR (Bonn, Germany) has disentangled the sources of infrared radiation near the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy NGC 1068. They discovered that the surrounding dusty wind is heated by the hot central accretion disk and shocks generated by a collimated gas jet (MPIA Press Release, January 17, 2025). more

Das European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) ist eine weitreichende Kollaboration, an der Astronomen und Experten für Gravitationswellen aus mehr als zehn Institutionen in ganz Europa beteiligt sind, darunter das MPIfR in Bonn. Es sammelt und analysiert Pulsar-Zeitdaten von sechs der empfindlichsten Radioteleskope der Welt, darunter dem 100-m-Radioteleskop in Effelsberg (RAS-Pressemitteilung, 10. Januar 2025). more

03 October 1957 — 30 December 2024 more

Photo of a dying giant star (November 21, 2024). This is the first image of a star beyond the Milky Way. The red supergiant WOH G64 is the most extreme of its kind: a cocoon of gas and dust indicates an impending supernova explosion. Scientists from the MPIfR were involved in the research project (MPG, December 19.2024). more

For the first time, scientists succeeded in taking a zoomed-in image of a dying star in a galaxy outside our own Milky Way. Located a staggering 160 000 light-years from us, the star WOH G64 was imaged thanks to the impressive sharpness offered by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI). The new observations reveal a star puffing out gas and dust, in the last stages before it becomes a supernova. Scientists from MPIfR in Bonn, Germany, participated in the research project (ESO Media Release, November 21, 2024). more