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.
Auroras down to the Caribbean
151 years ago, a powerful solar storm hit Earth: on February 4, 1872, telegraph offices in many parts of the world reported hours of disturbances and outages; auroras were visible in India, Sudan and the Caribbean. In the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal, a group of 22 researchers led by the Nagoya University in Japan and including a MPS scientist presents the most comprehensive investigation of the unusual event to date.
Giant doubts about giant exomoons
Only two of the more than 5300 known exoplanets have so far provided evidence of moons in orbit around them. In observations of the planets Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b from the Kepler and Hubble space telescopes, researchers had discovered traces of such moons for the first time. A new study now raises doubts about these previous claims. As scientists from the MPS and the Sonnenberg Observatory report in Nature Astronomy, "planet-only" interpretations of the observations are more conclusive.
ERC Synergy Grant for research project REVEAL
In the search for life-friendly exoplanets, researchers from Germany, the UK and the USA join forces in a pioneering research project. The European Research Council will support the project REVEAL (Revealing Signatures of Habitable Worlds Hidden by Stellat Activity) with an ERC Synergy Grant.
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.
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Only two of the more than 5300 known exoplanets have so far provided evidence of moons in orbit around them. In observations of the planets Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b from the Kepler and Hubble space telescopes, researchers had discovered traces ...
151 years ago, a powerful solar storm hit Earth: on February 4, 1872, telegraph offices in many parts of the world reported hours of disturbances and outages; auroras were visible in India, Sudan and the Caribbean. In the scientific journal The ...
The US-based Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry have awarded Prof. Dr. Thorsten Kleine, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen (Germany), the title “Geochemistry Fellow”. The ...
They want to develop a new mathematical language, research the regenerative abilities of the axolotl brain, are looking for habitable worlds outside our solar system and are working on transmitting scents via the internet. This year's ERC Synergy ...