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.
Emeritus Symposium in Honor of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Christensen
It was a farewell that had been a long time coming. Three years and two days, to be exact. In March 2020, the celebration of the retirement of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Christensen, Director at the MPS, had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with a delay of several years, it has been made up for.
JUICE: Next Steps before Launch
Approximately three months before embarking on its eight-year trek to the Jupiter system, ESA's spacecraft JUICE will undertake a much shorter journey in the next weeks. In the beginning of February, the probe will set off from Toulouse to its South American launch site in Kourou. Today, JUICE was officially bid farewell in Toulouse. Meanwhile, at the MPS, the scientific and technical teams are preparing for the commissioning of the SWI and PEP instruments in the weeks following launch.
Catching the Sun’s Dynamic Coronal Web
Using observational data from the U.S. weather satellites GOES, a team of researchers led by the MPS has taken an important step toward unlocking one of the Sun’s most persevering secrets: How does our star launch the particles constituting the solar wind into space? The data provide a unique view of a key region in the solar corona to which researchers have had little access so far. There, the team has for the first time captured a dynamic web-like network of elongated, interwoven plasma structures.
Asteroid Ryugu: A Traveler from the Edge of the Solar System
The asteroid Ryugu likely formed at the outer edge of the Solar System beyond the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, as high-precision measurements that determine the ratio of iron isotopes in rock samples from Ryugu suggest. An international group of researchers with participation of the MPS and the University of Göttingen describes these results in the journal Science Advances.
Research Departments
At a Glance
News
Seminars
News
It was a farewell that had been a long time coming. Three years and two days, to be exact. In March 2020, the celebration of the retirement of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Christensen, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), had had ...
Approximately three months before embarking on its eight-year-long trek to the Jupiter system, ESA's spacecraft Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) faces a shorter - and much more terrestrial - journey in the coming weeks. In early February, the probe ...
Using observational data from the U.S. weather satellites GOES, a team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany has taken an important step toward unlocking one of the Sun’s most persevering secrets ...
Prof. Dr. Peter Stubbe, a former scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy (now: Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research) and professor at the Georg August University of Göttingen, passed away in July this year.