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.
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.
Magnetic Switchback in the Solar Corona
During Solar Orbiter's yet closest flyby of the Sun earlier this year, the coronagraph Metis witnessed a switchback in the solar corona. The phenomenon has been known for decades from solar wind measurements, where it shows up as a brief reversal of the magnetic field. The new data from ESA’s Solar Orbiter together with new computer simulations now make it possible to trace the origin of the phenomenon down to the lower corona.
Predicting solar storms earlier than before
Prof. Dr. Maarit Korpi-Lagg of Aalto University in Espoo (Finland) and the MPS has received a Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). In the next year and a half, Prof. Dr. Korpi-Lagg intends to develop an innovative method to predict solar storms. The novel approach to space weather forecasts could increase the possible warning times by a few days, thus allowing for better protection of Earth satellites and other technical infrastructure.
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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.
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. The Japanese space probe ...
Prof. Dr. Maarit Korpi-Lagg of Aalto University in Espoo (Finland) and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen (Germany) has received a Proof of Concept Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). In the next year ...