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.
High Honor for Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta
The Solar Physics Division (SPD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has awarded this year's Karen Harvey Prize to MPS researcher Dr. Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta. In his research, Chitta studies the corona, the Sun’s hot atmosphere. This is where the solar wind and solar flares originate. His findings have transformed our understanding of the Sun. They demonstrate how tiny magnetic structures and processes determine the dynamic nature of the corona.
A Mars Rover for MPS
Three years before “Rosalind Franklin” is scheduled to land on Mars, MPS trainees have completed their own model of the Mars rover. From the initial idea to the finished model, every step of the process was handled by the twelve young craftsmen from the precision mechanics workshop, the metalworking shop, and the computer center.
Magnetic Avalanche on the Sun
At the end of 2024, ESA’s Solar Orbiter was lucky to witness a strong solar flare – and observed the events leading up to this firework with unprecedented precision. A new analysis of these data has now been published.
Apparently, small restructuring processes in the Sun's magnetic field build up like an avalanche – and then discharge explosively.
Kees de Jager Prize for Theodosios Chatzistergos
MPS scientist Theodosios Chatzistergos has been awarded this year's Kees de Jager Prize for the best publication of the past year in the journal Solar Physics. The prize has now been presented.
In the publication, the researcher critically reassesses a widely used reconstruction of the Sun's irradiance since 1700, updates and improves it. Unlike the original reconstruction, the modernized version shows only modest variations in the Sun’s irradiance since 1700.
