👏Congrats to Paola Caselli, appointed 2026 #OortProfessor at @unileiden.bsky.social! With this honor, she will deliver the annual #OortLecture. As Director of the Center for Astrochemical Studies at #MPE, she's a leading voice in understanding star & planet formation. ➡️Read More: s.mpe.mpg.de/w5amb

📢#MPEPaperOfTheMonth📢 Ever wonder where all the sulfur in space is hiding? A new study led by Olli Sipilä from #MPE combines lab experiments & astrochemical modeling to show: It's likely locked up in icy dust grains! ➡️ s.mpe.mpg.de/j4ip8 Disclaimer: Image generated by Olli Sipilä using AI tools.

📢#MPEPaperOfTheMonth 🤯 Missing matter FOUND! Using data from #eROSITA X-Ray space telescope, #MPE researchers detected hot gas extending beyond galaxy clusters, revealing how they possibly grow by pulling in material from the cosmic web. ➡Read more: s.mpe.mpg.de/5oidn Photo: Xiaoyuan Zhang/MPE

Gas within the Solar System's heliosphere emits a complex pattern of soft X-rays. Dennerl et al. use the eROSITA X-ray survey to disentangle this foreground emission and determine where in the heliosphere it comes from. ☄️☀️🔭 #heliophysics #highenergyastro www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#MPE 🤝 #IUCAA We're happy to announce a new #MaxPlanck Partner group to study our nearest galactic neighbors using data from the #eROSITA X-ray telescope. This partnership was mainly established by Chandreyee Maitra, former researcher at MPE and now associate professor at IUCAA. s.mpe.mpg.de/oolrk

Okay, universe. You wanna hide your secrets? We'll find them! #MPE and the #Euclid Consortium needs YOU to hunt for 10,000+ gravitational lenses in Euclid data. Join the #SpaceWarps Project! ➡️Read more: s.mpe.mpg.de/4goov #CitizenScience #Astrophysics #Astronomy

👏👏Huge congratulations to Sarah Pappert for winning the #ZONTA International Women in STEM Award! Sarah is a PhD-Student at #MPE and works on #MICADO, a pioneering instrument for the #ELT. She is also highly engaged in public outreach and empowers women in science. ➡️ s.mpe.mpg.de/65838 #WomenInSTEM

“Like watching the Solar System breathe in X-Rays.” ☀️🌬️ Using the #eROSITA space telescope, scientists at #MPE disentangled #SWCX from other #astrophysics emissions, allowing them to reconstruct the clean soft X-ray sky as it would appear from outside the #solarsystem. ➡️ s.mpe.mpg.de/6sai1

👏Congratulations to #MPE scientist Stefan Gillessen for receiving the Von Seeliger Award as Best Lecturer! The award is presented by master students from @lmu.de to recognize excellence in teaching. Gillessen was honoured for his lecture “#BlackHoles: Theory and Observations.” ➡️ s.mpe.mpg.de/klbcf

📢 #MPEPaperOfTheMonth How do #BlackHoles ⚫ like Sagittarius A* in the heart of our milky way eat? A new study by a team of researchers led by #MPE links gas clouds to stellar winds from a #BinaryStar as a potential source of energy. ➡️https://s.mpe.mpg.de/j1d4h

A cosmic Game of Hide and Seek 🙈 👀 Hiding in a belt orbiting the #star #WISPIT, scientists have found not 1, but 2 forming #protoplanets thanks to #GRAVITY+. A prime example of how technological #innovation drives scientific breakthroughs! 👉 s.mpe.mpg.de/ssiaz #sciencenews #SpaceScience #science

📢Paper of the Month alert: Elements from a #protostar crashing into clouds in #space can create organic compounds: The Basis of complex #life 💫 🌌 💥 ⚛️ 🌱 👉 Link: www.mpe.mpg.de/8186220/pape... #sciencenews #paperofthemonth

Life without a sun? Impossible! Or not... Isolated worlds could stay warm for up to 4.3 billion years. Hydrogen can trap heat, keeping oceans liquid – the foundation of life. Life might not just circle stars, it could wander the galaxy 🌍✨ s.mpe.mpg.de/8gst1 #Astrobiology #Exomoons #SpaceScience

SN Winny is the only known strongly lensed superluminous supernova – and MPE astronomers have captured all five of its images. 💫 This rare system opens a new, one-step route to measure the universe’s expansion rate and address the Hubble tension. More: bit.ly/4tLRiHN

🌀 Supermassive black hole heartbeat + mini-flares! eRASSt J2344 shows QPEs every 12h + unprecedented short mini-flares – challenging black hole models. Thanks to Einstein Probe + XMM-Newton. 👉 Full story + cosmic ECG: bit.ly/MPE-J2344-heartbeat #BlackHoles #EinsteinProbe #Astrophysics #MPE #IMPRS

International Day of Women and Girls in Science! At @eso_supernova in Garching, "MPE’s Women in Astronomy" spotlighted Prof. Dr. Dominika Wylezalek (Heidelberg University & ARI) with her inspiring public talk “Black Holes and the Cosmic Web of Galaxies — A Journey Through Space and Time.” ✨

Astronomers win!🥳 Protest saves @eso.org #Paranal Observatory's dark skies from industrial project. #MPE director & #Nobel Laureate Reinhard Genzel leads successful fight to protect a unique site of world-class telescopes, including #VLT and the currently built #ELT. ➡️ www.mpe.mpg.de/8134359/news...

Largest sulfur molecule ever detected in space may reveal clues to life’s origins. www.mpg.de/26040668/the... #astrophysics @mpe-garching.bsky.social

A new study by #MPE researchers, using the #eROSITA telescope, shows the fastest-feeding #Quasars have the strongest X-ray flickering. The likely cause? Powerful winds blasting away from the #blackhole, acting like a 'cosmic curtain' that block our view. ➡️https://www.mpe.mpg.de/8130783/news20260121

👏Congratulations to Michaela Benthaus, who just became the first ever wheelchair user to travel to space! Back in early 2023, Michaela did an internship at #MPE. And now to see her go to space make us incredibly proud. Amazing achievement, Michi, and all the best for your future! Next stop Mars??😉

Unveiling interstellar secrets! A science team including #MPE's Konrad Dennerl captured the first X-ray images of comet 3I/ATLAS using @esa.int #XMMNewton. This goes back to 1996 when the #ROSAT mission discovered that comets emit X-rays. Image: ESA/XMM-Newton/C. Lisse, S. Cabot & the XMM ISO Team

Check out "The Year in Physics" 2025 by @quantamagazine.bsky.social, with #MPE scientist Hannah Übler, who received an #ERC Starting Grant in 2024. Using the #JWST, they found a lonely black hole in the early universe with a mass of 50 million suns! 🤯 ➡️ More: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPoQ...

👏Congratulations to #MPE-director Reinhard Genzel on receiving the Bavarian Constitutional Order! He received the award from Ilse Aigner in honor for his groundbreaking black hole research & dedication to science in Bavaria! ➡️ www.mpe.mpg.de/8116474/news... Photos: Bayerischer Landtag/Matthias Balk

⚠️Skies at Risk! ⚠️ #NobelPrize Laureate and #MPE director Genzel, along with 29 astronomers, have written an open letter to the Chilean government, urging them to protect @eso.org #Paranal Observatory from light pollution & vibrations from the proposed INNA complex. ➡️ www.mpe.mpg.de/8115723/news...

Nobelpreisträger Reinhard Genzel führt dringenden Appell internationaler Astronomen zum Schutz der Paranal-Himmel an Nobelpreisträger Reinhard Genzel und fast 30 Spitzenastronomen fordern die chilenische Regierung auf, den INNA-Industriekompl... weiterlesen

📣 Job Opportunity 📣 Project Scientist | Wide Field Imager Instrument for NewAthena X-ray Observatory. The @mpe-garching.bsky.social (MPE) is looking for a Project Scientist for Wide Field Imager Instrument for NewAthena X-ray Observatory . More info 👇: www.mpe.mpg.de/8103082/job_...

First Light for 4MOST! The 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) has captured its very first spectra! Video Credit: AIP/R. de Jong, AIP/K. Riebe, AIP/A. Saviauk, CRAL/J.-K. Krogager

🤩The @4most-eu.bsky.social (#4MOST) facility on @eso.org VISTA telescope in Chile achieved first light. #MPE scientists played a leading role in developing the Operations System, enabling to link #eROSITA’s X-ray universe with large-scale structure of galaxies. ➡️ More: www.mpe.mpg.de/8102833/news...

🏃🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️Fast, faster, #MPE! With two teams, a group of MPE scientists participated in the #MunichMarathon 2025. On the left team "eRunita" - a neologism of "run" and #eROSITA -, and on the right the "WFI DEPFET Fliers", named after the #NewAthena #WFI. Great Performance, guys! 👏🥇

“I’m proud of my team – our work is read all around the world.” Huge congratulations to Ewine van Dishoeck! Named Citation Laureate 2025 by Clarivate for groundbreaking astrochemistry research. Her discoveries reshape how we understand the birth of stars & planets.

1/ Alles bereit für den Tag der offenen Tür 🚪 #TdoT25 der #Bundesregierung im #BMFTR am 23. und 24. August. Im Auftrag der @eso.org präsentieren #MPIA und @mpe-garching.bsky.social der @maxplanck.de das Extremely Large Telescope #ELT 🔭. #Astronomie #Weltraum #ESO 🌌

We're excited to welcome you soon at #MPE, @suchitra.bsky.social! 🤗

Double Congratulations for @mpe-garching.bsky.social #MPE! The German Astronomical Society (AG) honors two of our researchers with prestigious awards: Prof. Dr. Paola Caselli receives the Karl Schwarzschild Medal and Dr. Frank Grupp is honored with the Instrument Development Award. (1/3)

🤯Major milestone for #MICADO! The 5-ton cryostat - core of the 6m camera - arrived at #MPE. It keeps optics & detectors at ~82 K 🥶 to enable precise infrared observations for @eso.org Extremely Large Telescope #ELT. More about MICADO: lnkd.in/e5qVq6tY Video: Federico Biondi/MPE.

Impressions from the #b2run 2025. A total of ~ 300 runners from all Munich #MaxPlanck Institutes and @maxplanck.de participated, 40 of them from #MPE alone! 💪 One "Extraterrestrial"👽finished in 35th place - out of 30.000 runners! #b2runmünchen #gemeinsamfit Photos: Felix Dickfeld/MPE; Jan Greune

🥳 Congratulations to @terevaldivia.bsky.social, who has been awarded both the prestigious #OttoHahnMedal and the #OttoHahnAward by @maxplanck.de for her outstanding dissertation! In this Interview she talks about her research, the award ceremony and her future work: www.mpe.mpg.de/8076532/news...

“The Vera Rubin Telescope will be transformational for my research in #cosmology," says Esra Bulbul, astronomer @mpe-garching.bsky.social. "With its wide field of view and depth, it will observe billions of #galaxies across vast distances.” www.mpg.de/24900555/ver... @vrubinobs.bsky.social

Germany’s new Federal Minister for Research, Technology, and Space, @dorobaer.bsky.social visited #MPE. She talked to MPE directors Reinhard Genzel, Kirpal Nandra and Frank Eisenhauer and visited #MICADO, a pioneering instrument for the upcoming #ELT being currently built in Chile by @eso.org.

#MPE & Kavli Institute for #Astronomy & #Astrophysics (KIAA) at Beijing University are happy to announce the launch of a new @maxplanck.de Max Planck partner group. The collaboration will be led by Dr. Jinyi Shangguan, researcher at KIAA and former postdoc at MPE. ➡️ www.mpe.mpg.de/8059933/news...

A catalogue of more than 380,000 #galaxies: the first comprehensive data release of the #Euclid space telescope provides insights into the depths of the #universe - thanks in part to strong German participation! www.mpg.de/24349746/euc... @mpi-astro.bsky.social @mpe-garching.bsky.social @esa.int

It's #Euclid data release day! @esa.int and the Euclid Consortium are making 63 deg² of Wide Survey data available to the world. Imaging and spectroscopy data, catalogues and masks for 20+ million galaxies, quasars, stars and substellar objects. #astronomy #science #space 1/4

The first data from @esa.int @ec-euclid.bsky.social #Euclid mission is here - with stunning insights! It's a major step forward to understand #DarkMatter and #DarkEnergy — and yet only the beginning of an adventure - where #MPE is right in the middle of it! Read more: www.mpe.mpg.de/8059041/news...

Science meets Diplomacy: Federal President Steinmeier & #MPE Director Reinhard Genzel call for relocating a planned industrial plant that threatens observations at @eso.org Paranal Observatory. With #Gravity+ & #MICADO, MPE is heavily involved in this research there. www.mpe.mpg.de/8055297/news...

A rare celestial duo! Using Widefield X-ray Telescope WXT of #EinsteinProbe, an international team, including #MPE scientists Chandreyee Maitra & Haonan Yang detected an X-ray outburst from a rare Be star–white dwarf system in the Small #MagellanicCloud. ➡️https://www.mpe.mpg.de/8054370/news20250228

Important milestone for #MICADO, first-light instrument of @eso.org #ELT! The De-rotator was mounted onto the support structure. The next big step will then be installing the cryostat. Learn more about ELT's Super Camera, which is built and designed under #MPE leadership: www.mpe.mpg.de/ir/micado

😱A Giant in the Cosmos! #MPE & #MPP Scientists have discovered the largest ever measured #superstructure in the nearby #universe, spanning 1.4 billion #lightyears! Made mostly of #DarkMatter, this cosmic giant reshapes our understanding of large-scale structures. ➡️ www.mpe.mpg.de/8053119/news...

As part of an #Erasmus program, students from schools in Ochsenhausen (🇩🇪), Maastricht (🇳🇱), Hlucin (🇨🇿), Moncalieri (🇮🇹) and Montarnaud (🇫🇷) visited #MPE last week. They learned a lot about the search for #exoplanets and built their own #spectrograph with 3D-printed parts. It was great having you! 🤗🤩

Last week, 70 participants from various institutions of #Euclid Consortium @ec-euclid.bsky.social met at #MPE. They discussed the general status of the mission & first galaxy clustering measurements. The meeting's outcome will be crucial for preparing the first data release, expected for late 2026.

🤯 #EinsteinProbe detected X-ray signals of a puzzling cosmic blast, making us rethink our current ideas of how gamma-ray bursts explode 💥 🔭 The mission is a collaboration led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences with ESA, @mpe-garching.bsky.social and @cnes.bsky.social.

🤯Just 3 months into its mission, #EinsteinProbe, a project by Chinese Academy of Sciences, #MPE, @esa.int & @cnes.bsky.social has detected a puzzling #XRay explosion from 12.5 billion light-years away, dating back to when the Universe was just 10% of its current age. ➡️ www.mpe.mpg.de/8049558/news...