Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
The research focus of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research is our cosmic neighborhood: the solar system with its planets and moons, comets and asteroids as well as the sun. The aim of the scientists is to describe the processes in the solar system in models and to simulate them on the computer. In addition, instruments are being developed and built to study these bodies from space. The Institute is involved in numerous space missions.
Small-scale magnetism leads to large-scale solar atmosphere
Thanks to close-up images of the Sun obtained during Solar Orbiter’s perihelion passage of October 2022, solar physicists have seen how fleeting magnetic fields at the solar surface build up into the solar atmosphere. A team of researchers led by the MPS reports on these findings in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A stereo view of the Sun’s magnetic field
Two space probes see more than one - especially when they look at their research object from two different directions as is the case for ESA’s Solar Orbiter and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. A team of scientists led by the MPS has now succeeded in combining observational data from both spacecraft from March of last year in such a way that the magnetic field at the visible surface of the Sun can be unambiguously determined for the first time.
International Awards for
Yuto Bekki
Dr. Yuto Bekki of the MPS received awards from two international associations of professional astronomers. He received the Patricia Edwin PhD Thesis Prize from the Solar Physics Division of the European Physical Society and an honorable mention from the Sun and Heliosphere Division of the International Astronomical Union. Using a suite of computer simulations, which he developed from scratch, the young researcher characterized a class of long period oscillations.
Tiny plasma jets power the solar wind
Tiny plasma jets on the Sun, racing from the solar corona into space at speeds of a few hundred kilometers per hour, could be the long-sought source of the solar wind. As a team of researchers led by the MPS reports in the journal Science, a large number of such tiny jets can be found in high-resolution images of a coronal hole taken by ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft in March 2022.
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Dr. Erhard Kirsch, former scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, passed away on 12 September, 2023 at the age of 89.
Two space probes see more than one - especially when they look at their research object from two different directions as is the case for ESA’s Solar Orbiter and NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. A team of scientists led by the Max Planck Institute ...
Dr. Yuto Bekki of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Germany received awards from two international associations of professional astronomers. He received the Patricia Edwin PhD Thesis Prize from the Solar Physics Division of ...
Tiny plasma jets on the Sun, racing from the solar corona into space at speeds of a few hundred kilometers per second, could be the long-sought source of the solar wind. As a team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System ...