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.
A New Birthplace for Asteroid Ryugu
Asteroid Ryugu possibly did not travel as far from its place of origin to its current near-Earth orbit as previously assumed. New research suggests that Ryugu was formed near Jupiter. Earlier studies had pointed to an origin beyond the orbit of Saturn. Four years ago, the Japanese space probe Hayabusa 2 brought samples of Ryugu back to Earth. Researchers led by the MPS have now compared which types of nickel are found in these samples as well as in typical carbon-rich meteorites.
JUICE: A Look at our Blue Planet
Around four weeks after the successful Moon and Earth flyby of ESA’s space probe JUICE, the scientific and technical teams at the MPS have analyzed the first observational data from their two instruments on board. The data not only reveal that both SWI and PEP-JEI are functioning as expected. The results also invite a kind of cosmic control experiment: What could an extraterrestrial space probe, equipped like JUICE and with no prior knowledge of Earth and its inhabitants, find out about our planet?
Dwarf planet Ceres: Origin in the asteroid belt?
Dwarf planet Ceres may have originated in the asteroid belt - and did not necessarily “migrate” there from the outer edge of the Solar System. This is indicated by bright, ammonium-rich deposits in Consus Crater, as a MPS-led research team MPS argues in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets. The researchers analyzed data from NASA's Dawn mission. Like other bright deposits on Ceres, the ammonium-rich material may have been transported to the surface from within by cryovolcanism.
Cluster mission: Salsa's last dance
The research mission of the first of four Cluster satellites will end on Sunday, September 8, 2024, with its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. The upcoming fireworks will mark the end of a unique research expedition: for 24 years, Salsa has been travelling through Earth's magnetosphere in a “formation dance” with its siblings Rumba, Samba and Tango - and has thus witnessed for more than two solar cycles how the magnetic shield protects our planet from particles and radiation from the Sun.
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Asteroid Ryugu possibly did not travel as far from its place of origin to its current near-Earth orbit as previously assumed. New research published today in the journal Science Advances suggests that Ryugu was formed near Jupiter. Earlier studies ...
Approximately four weeks after the successful Moon and Earth flyby of ESA’s space probe Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), the scientific and technical teams at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany have analyzed the ...
Dwarf planet Ceres may have originated in the asteroid belt - and did not necessarily “migrate” there from the outer edge of the Solar System. This is indicated by bright, ammonium-rich deposits in Consus Crater, as a research team led by the Max ...
The research mission of the first of ESA's four Cluster satellites will end on Sunday, September 8, 2024, with its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere over the South Pacific. Monitored by control centers and telescopes on Earth as well as a research ...