Highlights — Some exciting recent scientific results from our group

The theory of general relativity passes a range of precise tests set by pair of extreme stars

An international team of researchers from ten countries led by Michael Kramer from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, has conducted a 16-year long experiment to challenge Einstein’s theory of general relativity with some of the most rigorous tests yet. Their study of a unique pair of extreme stars, so called pulsars, involved seven radio telescopes across the globe and revealed new relativistic effects that were expected and have now been observed for the first time. Einstein’s theory, which was conceived when neither these types of extreme stars nor the techniques used to study them could be imagined, agrees with the observation at a level of at least 99.99%. more

November 22, 2021
An enormous jet of particles emitted by the giant galaxy M87 can be observed astronomically in various wavelengths. Dr. Alejandro Cruz Osorio and Professor Luciano Rezzolla from Goethe University Frankfurt together with an international team of scientists including Professor Michael Kramer (MPIfR bonn) within the framework of the BlackHoleCam research project has succeeded in developing a theoretical model of the morphology of this jet using complex supercomputer calculations. The images from these calculations provide an unprecedented match with astronomical observations and confirm Einstein’s theory of general relativity (Press Release, Frankfurt University, November 04, 2021). more

The European Pulsar Timing Array provides a significant step forward

The European Pulsar Timing Array collaboration reports on the outcome of a 24 year observing campaign with five large-aperture radio telescopes in Europe, resulting in a candidate signal for the since-long sought gravitational wave background due to in-spiraling supermassive black-hole binaries. The collaboration brings together teams of astronomers around the largest European radio telescopes including the 100-m Effelsberg radio telescope of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, as well as groups specialized in data analysis and modelling of gravitational wave signals. Although a detection cannot be claimed yet, this represents a significant step in the effort to finally unveil gravitational waves at very low frequencies in the Nanohertz regime. The candidate signal has emerged from an unprecedented detailed analysis using two independent methodologies and shares strong similarities with results found from the analyses of other teams. more

October 13, 2021
An international research team led by Di Li and Pei Wang (National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) including Marylin Cruces, Michael Kramer and Laura Spitler from the MPIfR in Bonn caught an extreme episode of cosmic explosions from the Fast Radio Burst FRB 121102, using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). A total of 1,652 independent bursts were detected within 47 days (Nature Paper & NAOC Press release, October 13, 2021). more

Two powerful telescopes provide the most detailed radio maps of the Northern Galactic Plane

By combining two of the most powerful radio telescopes on Earth, an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, created the most sensitive maps of the radio emission of large parts of the Northern Galactic plane so far. The data were taken with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico in two different configurations and the 100-m Effelsberg telescope near Bonn. This provides for the first time a radio survey covering all angular scales down to 1.5 arc-seconds, the apparent size of a tennis ball lying on the ground and seen from a flying plane. Contrary to previous surveys, GLOSTAR observed not only the radio continuum in the frequency range from 4-8 GHz in full polarization, but simultaneously also spectral lines that trace the molecular gas (from methanol and formaldehyde) and atomic gas via radio recombination lines. more

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