News
Antique telescope moved to the atrium of the Gorlaeus Building
Sun 20 Apr 2025- The old telescope used to stand in the Huygens building, which housed the Leiden Observatory until last year’s move to the new Gorlaeus Building. Now, the telescope—resembling a cannon on a tripod—has found a beautiful and prominent new spot: right next to the grand staircase in the atrium.
Read more UL news itemPubl. Sun 20 Apr 2025
Breakthrough New Horizons in Physics Prize for Sebastiaan Haffert
Sun 6 Apr 2025- The Breakthrough Prize – popularly known as the “Oscars® of Science” – was created to celebrate the wonders of our scientific age. This year’s New Horizons in Physics Prizes honor early-career researchers across a wide range of fields. In astronomy, Sebastiaan Haffert, Rebecca Jensen-Clem and Maaike van Kooten have designed and enabled novel techniques for extreme adaptive optics, which are systems that compensate for the effects of Earth’s atmosphere on light reaching terrestrial telescopes. Their work promises to enable the direct detection of the smallest exoplanets.
Read more Laureate Haffert!Publ. Sun 6 Apr 2025
PhD candidate Julia Santos accepts the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship
Thu 3 Apr 2025- PhD candidate Julia Santos has accepted the prestigious 51 Pegasi b Fellowship and will conduct her postdoctoral research at Harvard University. Her work combines submillimeter and infrared observations with laboratory experiments using cryogenic vacuum apparatuses to investigate the physicochemical processes occurring in the icy mantles that coat interstellar dust grains. By studying these processes, she aims to understand how they shape the chemical ingredients available for forming planets and planetesimals.
Read more here Personal pagePubl. Thu 3 Apr 2025
Amy Louca @ Jort Kelder radio
Sat 29 Mar 2025- On Saturday March 29 Amy Louca was invited to be the 'young doctor' in the weekly radio talk show 'dr Kelder and Co' . She talked about her research on Exoplanets. You can hear her in the podcast (see link below) from 39:30 to 44:00 minutes into the show.
Radio podcast Direct link to the fragmentPubl. Sat 29 Mar 2025
Kilo-Degree Survey Confirms Standard Model of Cosmology
Wed 26 Mar 2025- An international research team has analyzed data from 41 million galaxies in order to estimate the distribution of matter in the universe. The data confirm a long-established model – much to the team’s surprise.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Wed 26 Mar 2025
Protoplanetary discs are much smaller than previously thought
Wed 26 Mar 2025- Many protoplanetary discs in which new planets are formed are much smaller than thought. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) scientists of the Leiden Observatory (the Netherlands) looked at 73 protoplanetary discs in the Lupus region. They found that many young stars host modest discs of gas and dust, some as small as 1.2 astronomical units. The research establishes an important link between observed protoplanetary discs and exoplanets.
Read more PreprintPubl. Wed 26 Mar 2025
Oxygen discovered in most distant known galaxy
Thu 20 Mar 2025- Two different teams of astronomers have detected oxygen in the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0. The discovery, reported in two separate studies, was made possible thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner. This record-breaking detection is making astronomers rethink how quickly galaxies formed in the early Universe.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Thu 20 Mar 2025
Euclid opens data treasure trove
Wed 19 Mar 2025- On 19 March 2025, the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission released its first batch of survey data, including a preview of its deep fields. Here, hundreds of thousands of galaxies in different shapes and sizes take centre stage and show a glimpse of their large-scale organisation in the cosmic web.
Read morePubl. Wed 19 Mar 2025
New Insights into the Mysterious Yellow Hypergiant Stars Outbursts
Tue 18 Feb 2025- A recent five-year study has uncovered new insights into the properties of Yellow Hypergiants, a heavy star class known for their dramatic outbursts. Scientists focused on Rho Cassiopeiae (Rho Cas), HR 8752, and HR 5171A, revealing that Rho Cas exhibits cyclical outbursts every 10 to 40 years, with large fluctuations of its surface temperature. Arnout van Genderen was initiator of this international study that combined historical data covering 138 years. The results, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, show that vigorous pulsations trigger these massive eruptions. They also offer a clearer understanding of the Yellow Hypergiants? fast evolution and their potential transformation into Luminous Blue Variable stars or explosive supernovae.
Read morePubl. Tue 18 Feb 2025
'World leader in star-planet interactions' appointed professor
Thu 13 Feb 2025- Aline Vidotto has been appointed professor of Stellar and Planetary Astrophysics at the Observatory from 1 February. Vidotto has been with the university for 3.5 years and for her, the appointment is ?a milestone in her career.?
Read morePubl. Thu 13 Feb 2025
The first stars in the Universe are not as massive as previously thought
Fri 31 Jan 2025- The general idea that the Universe's first generation of stars could grow up to 100,000 times the mass of the Sun is now challenged by new computer simulations. A team led by Leiden astrophysicist Piyush Sharda performed the first ever computer simulations to show that magnetic fields limit the mass of these 'metal-free' stars much more than the radiation pressure from their intense luminosity.
Read more Paper on arXivPubl. Fri 31 Jan 2025
Lost sulfur in the universe found in salt on dust and pebbles
Thu 16 Jan 2025- An international team led by astronomers at Leiden University has shown in laboratory experiments that sulfur can bind with ammonium under icy cosmic conditions and form a salt that sticks to dust and pebbles. The resulting sulfur salt not only helps to explain the mystery of the missing sulfur gas, but also a puzzling peak in data from the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument and other telescopes. The researchers publish their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Read morePubl. Thu 16 Jan 2025
Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia
Wed 15 Jan 2025- The European Space Agency?s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects over the last decade to revolutionise the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood.
Lees meer Read morePubl. Wed 15 Jan 2025
Erik Deul receives royal decoration
Sat 14 Dec 2024- Erik Deul was awarded a royal decoration on Wednesday afternoon. He has been appointed Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau. Mayor Peter Heijkoop of Leiden presented him with the honour.
Read morePubl. Sat 14 Dec 2024
Astronomen vinden oude eenzame quasars met onduidelijke oorsprong
Thu 17 Oct 2024- Een internationaal team van astronomen, met onder anderen de Leidse promovendus Elia Pizzati, heeft een aantal oude quasars waargenomen die verrassend genoeg in hun eentje lijken te zweven in het vroege heelal (minder dan een miljard jaar na de oerknal). Tot nu toe gingen astronomen er op basis van modellen van uit dat quasars zich altijd bevinden in drukke gebieden met veel naburige sterrenstelsels. Het onderzoek is vandaag gepubliceerd in het vakblad The Astrophysical Journal.
Lees meerPubl. Thu 17 Oct 2024
Space oddity: Most distant rotating disc galaxy found
Mon 7 Oct 2024- Researchers lead by a Dutch team have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day galaxies, but we see it as it was when the Universe was only 700 million years old. This is surprising since, according to our current understanding of galaxy formation, such early galaxies are expected to appear more chaotic. The rotation and structure of REBELS-25 were revealed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Mon 7 Oct 2024
Nederlandse sterrenkundigen zien gigantische straalstromen opgewekt door zwart gat
Wed 18 Sep 2024- Een internationaal team van sterrenkundigen onder leiding van de Nederlander Martijn Oei heeft het grootste paar straalstromen bij een zwart gat ooit ontdekt. De 'jumbojets' zijn samen 140 Melkwegen lang. De onderzoekers deden hun bevindingen met het LOFAR-telescoopnetwerk. Hun publicatie siert donderdag de cover van Nature.
Lees meerPubl. Wed 18 Sep 2024
Buitengebied zonnestelsel mogelijk gevormd door langsscherende ster
Thu 5 Sep 2024- De vele duizenden kleine hemellichamen voorbij de baan van Neptunus zijn daar mogelijk terechtgekomen doordat een ster miljarden jaren geleden langs het zonnestelsel scheerde. Dat laten gedetailleerde computersimulaties van een team van Duitse en Nederlandse onderzoekers (waaronder Simon Portegies Zwart) zien. Ze publiceren hun bevindingen in twee wetenschappelijke artikelen.
Lees meerPubl. Thu 5 Sep 2024
Astronomers clarify how organic macromolecules are formed
Tue 30 Jul 2024- An international team of researchers led by the Netherlands has used observation-based computer modelling to find an explanation for how macromolecules can form in a short time in disks of gas and dust around young stars. They publish their findings today in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Read morePubl. Tue 30 Jul 2024
First scientific images Euclid telescope exceed all expectations
Thu 23 May 2024- Five new portraits of our cosmos were captured during Euclid's early observations phase, each revealing amazing new science. Euclid's ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos is something you will not want to miss.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Thu 23 May 2024
Planetoide vernoemd naar Felix Bettonvil
Tue 21 May 2024- De Working Group on Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN) van de IAU heeft deze week besloten planetoide 677772 te vernoemen naar Felix Bettonvil. De vernoeming is bekend gemaakt in WGSBN-bulletin volume 4 nummer 7 van 20 mei 2024. Planetoide 677772 werd op 18 oktober 2012 ontdekt door Krisztián Sárnecszky en Marco Langbroek met de 0.6-meter Schmidt telescoop van MPC 461 Piszkéstetö Observatory in Hongarije en is ongeveer 0.5 tot 1 km groot. De planetoide is naar Felix vernoemd vanwege zijn grote verdienste voor de amateurastronomie (en specifiek meteoren).
Bulletin van de WGSBNPubl. Tue 21 May 2024
Final design of the ELT's METIS instrument completed
Tue 14 May 2024- The Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph, or METIS, has passed its Final Design Review, with ESO now giving the go-ahead on the manufacturing of all instrument components. METIS is a sophisticated multi-tool instrument that will operate on ESO?s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). It is the first of the ELT instruments to formally pass its Final Design Review, marking an important step for the METIS consortium, the ELT project, and the instrument-building community.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Tue 14 May 2024
Webb-data wijzen op mogelijke atmosfeer rond rotsachtige exoplaneet
Wed 8 May 2024- Astronomen hebben met de James Webb Space Telescope mogelijk atmosferische gassen ontdekt rond 55 Cancri e, een hete rotsachtige exoplaneet die 41 lichtjaar van de aarde is verwijderd. Dit is het beste bewijs tot nu toe voor het bestaan van een atmosfeer van een rotsachtige planeet buiten ons zonnestelsel. Gas dat opborrelt uit een met lava bedekt oppervlak op 55 Cancri e voedt mogelijk een atmosfeer die rijk is aan kooldioxide of koolmonoxide. De onderzoekers, onder wie astronomen van de Sterrewacht Leiden en SRON (Manta Zilinskas, Christiaan van Buchem en Yamila Miguel, publiceren hun bevindingen deze week in Nature.
Lees meer Nature articlePubl. Wed 8 May 2024
Radio astronomers bypass disturbing Earth's atmosphere with new calibration technique
Mon 6 May 2024- An international team of researchers led by astronomers from Leiden University (the Netherlands) has produced the first sharp radio maps of the universe at low frequencies. Thanks to a new calibration technique, they bypassed the disturbances of the Earth's ionosphere. They used the new method to study plasmas from ancient black hole bursts. Potentially, the technique might be useful for finding exoplanets that orbit small stars. The researchers report their technique in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Read more Nature Astronomy articlePubl. Mon 6 May 2024
Nightside clouds and disequilibrium chemistry on the hot Jupiter WASP-43b
Tue 30 Apr 2024- Hot Jupiters are among the best-studied exoplanets, but it is still poorly understood how their chemical composition and cloud properties vary with longitude. Theoretical models predict that clouds may condense on the nightside and that molecular abundances can be driven out of equilibrium by zonal winds. An international team of astronomers, among which Nicolas Crouzet, show their results provide strong evidence that the atmosphere of WASP-43b is shaped by disequilibrium processes and provide new insights into the properties of the planet's nightside clouds.
Read more Nature articlePubl. Tue 30 Apr 2024
Wetenschappers ontdekken grootste stellaire zwarte gat van de Melkweg
Tue 16 Apr 2024- Een Europees team van astronomen heeft het grootste stellaire zwarte gat van de Melkweg ontdekt. Het zwarte gat is ruim dertig keer zo zwaar als de onze zon en bevindt zich in het sterrenbeeld Arend op zo'n tweeduizend lichtjaar van de aarde. De sterrenkundigen deden hun bevinding bij toeval toen ze de vierde datarelease voorbereidden van ESA's Gaia-missie die van miljarden sterren in de Melkweg hun bewegingen volgt. Het zwarte gat werd opgemerkt omdat het een vreemde 'wiebelbeweging' teweegbrengt bij de ster die om hem heen draait. Gegevens van de Very Large Telescope (VLT) van de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht (ESO) zijn gebruikt om de massa van het zwarte gat te bevestigen. Betrokken vanuit Nederland zijn onder andere Anthony Brown, Amina Helmi en Eduardo Balbinot.
Lees meer Read morePubl. Tue 16 Apr 2024
Sam de Regt schoont archiefdata op en onthult twee stellaire cocons
Wed 3 Apr 2024- Tijdens het bestuderen van zestien jaar aan meetgegevens van jonge sterren ontdekte de Leidse masterstudent Sam de Regt dat twee van die sterren nog gehuld waren in geboortewolken die nog niet eerder zo scherp waren gezien. Hij publiceert zijn opschoonmethode en de nieuwe afbeeldingen van de twee sterren in het vakblad Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Lees meer https://www.astronomie.nl/upload/files/2024/De-Regt-at-al-2024-NACO_PIPPIN.pdfPubl. Wed 3 Apr 2024
Cheers aan Harold Linnartz: Webb finds ethanol and other icy ingredients for worlds
Wed 13 Mar 2024- An international team of scientists, lead by Leiden Observatory astronomers, have used the James Webb telescoop to discover important ingredients for making potential livable planets near protosters in their early stages of life where no planets have yet been formed. This research is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Lees meer Read morePubl. Wed 13 Mar 2024
Elena Rossi and Aline Vidotto win Vici grants!
Thu 29 Feb 2024- Elena Maria Rossi en Aline De Almeida Vidotto win the prestigious NWO Vici grants each worth 1.5 million Euros. They are two of a total of six researchers at Leiden receiving this grant, an outstanding achievement for them and Leiden Observatory.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Thu 29 Feb 2024
Gravitational wave detector LISA officially accepted as ESA-spacemission
Thu 25 Jan 2024- The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) opens up a new part of the gravitational wave spectrum as the first space-based detector. It is now officially adopted by the European Space Agency (ESA) as one of its large class missions. Launch is scheduled for the mid-2030s. The Netherlands plays a large role in the development of hardware and software.
Read morePubl. Thu 25 Jan 2024
M87* one year later: proof of persistent black hole shadow
Thu 18 Jan 2024- A recent paper titled The persistent shadow of the supermassive black hole of M87 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics presents new images from the 2018 data that reveal a familiar ring the same size as the one observed in 2017. This bright ring surrounds a deep central depression, 'the shadow of the black hole', as predicted by general relativity. Excitingly, the brightness peak of the ring has shifted by about 30º compared to the images from 2017, which is consistent with our theoretical understanding of variability from turbulent material around black holes.
Read more Astronomy and Astrophysics articlePubl. Thu 18 Jan 2024
In memoriam Harold V.J. Linnartz 1965 – 2023: Unlocking the Chemistry of the Heavens
Wed 3 Jan 2024- With great sadness we share the news that Prof. Harold Linnartz passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday 31 December 2023. We are all in shock, and our thoughts are with his wife and children, other family, and friends. Harold was at the heart of our institute, as a researcher, as a supervisor, as education director and as head of the astrophysics lab. His passing will have an enormous impact on us all.
Read morePubl. Wed 3 Jan 2024
Sterrenstelsels hebben bipolaire gasuitstroom tot ver in intergalactische ruimte
Wed 6 Dec 2023- Sterrenkundigen hebben voor het eerst in drie dimensies waargenomen dat gas vanuit spiraalvormige sterrenstelsels met hoge snelheid naar boven en naar beneden wordt geblazen, ver het sterrenstelsel uit. Ze bevestigen hiermee de heersende theorie van de evolutie van sterrenstelsels die zegt dat stervormende sterrenstelsels intergalactische gasstromen veroorzaken door gas langs de polen te lozen. De astronomen publiceren hun bevindingen in Nature.
Lees meerPubl. Wed 6 Dec 2023
Eerste gedetailleerde kaart van ijs in planeetvormende schijf
Wed 6 Dec 2023- Een internationaal team van sterrenkundigen onder Nederlandse leiding heeft voor het eerst een tweedimensionale inventaris gemaakt van ijs in een planeetvormende schijf van stof en gas rond een jonge ster. Ze deden dat met de James Webb-ruimtetelescoop. De onderzoekers publiceren hun bevindingen op 6 december in het vakblad Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Lees meerPubl. Wed 6 Dec 2023
Planeet gevonden die te groot is voor zijn moederster
Thu 30 Nov 2023- De ontdekking van een planeet die veel te groot is voor zijn zon tart de modellen over de vorming van zonnestelsels en planeten. In een vandaag gepubliceerd artikel in Science rapporteren onderzoekers onder leiding van Guðmundur Stefánsson (Princeton Universiteit, VS) de ontdekking van een planeet die meer dan dertien keer zo zwaar is als de aarde en die rond de ultrakoele dwertgster LHS 3154 draait, die negen keer minder zwaar is dan de zon. De massaverhouding van de nieuwgevonden planeet en zijn moederster is meer dan 100 keer zo hoog als die van de aarde en de zon. Derde auteur van het artikel is Yamila Miguel (Sterrewacht Leiden en SRON).
Lees meerPubl. Thu 30 Nov 2023
Euclid's first images: the dazzling edge of darkness
Wed 8 Nov 2023- Today, ESA’s Euclid space mission reveals its first full-colour images of the cosmos. Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky, and looking so far into the distant Universe. These five images illustrate Euclid's full potential; they show that the telescope is ready to create the most extensive 3D map of the Universe yet, to uncover some of its hidden secrets.
ESA press release Read morePubl. Wed 8 Nov 2023
FLAMINGO: dark matter, ordinary matter, and neutrinos in largest cosmological simulation ever
Tue 24 Oct 2023- An international team of astronomers has carried out the largest ever cosmological computer simulation tracking not only dark but also ordinary matter. The FLAMINGO simulations calculate the evolution of all components of the universe - ordinary matter, dark matter, and dark energy - according to the laws of physics. As the simulation progresses, virtual galaxies and clusters of galaxies emerge. The simulations required more than 50 million CPU hours and produced more than 1 petabyte of data. The results have been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The first three articles describe the methods, present the simulations, and examine how well they reproduce the large-scale structure of the universe.
Read morePubl. Tue 24 Oct 2023
Dust cloud from two colliding ice planets dims light of parent star
Wed 11 Oct 2023- For the first time, an international group of astronomers have seen the heat glow of two ice giant planets colliding, and the resultant dust cloud then move in front of the parent star several years later. The star ASASSN-21qj - named after the network of telescopes that first detected the fading of the star at visible wavelengths - was then studied intensively by a network of amateur and professional astronomers including Dr. Matthew Kenworthy at Leiden Observatory (the Netherlands), who monitored the changes in the star’s brightness over the next two years. The result has been published today in Nature.
Read morePubl. Wed 11 Oct 2023
Tussentijdse Gaia data release brengt een bolhoop, zwaartekrachtlenzen en planetoïden met grote precisie in kaart
Tue 10 Oct 2023- Het Europese ruimtevaartagentschap ESA heeft een tussentijdse data release gepubliceerd van Gaia, de ruimtetelescoop die de Melkweg in 3D in kaart brengt. De eerste wetenschappelijke artikelen die vandaag zijn gepubliceerd onthullen een half miljoen sterren in de bolvormige sterrenhoop Omega Centauri, bijna 400 kandidaat-zwaartekrachtlenzen en de posities van meer dan 150.000 planetoïden in het zonnestelsel.
'Deze data release is weer een prachtige demonstratie van de enorme impact van Gaia op alle takken van de sterrenkunde, van het ongelooflijk nauwkeurig in kaart brengen van planetoïden in ons zonnestelsel tot het opsporen van nieuwe gelensde quasars in de verste uiteinden van het heelal. Ik kijk uit naar de creatieve wetenschappelijke toepassingen van deze data release', zegt het hoofd van het Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium Anthony Brown (Universiteit Leiden).
Astronomie.nl esa.intPubl. Tue 10 Oct 2023
Nienke van der Marel receives the New Horizons in Physics Prize 2024
Thu 14 Sep 2023- Nienke van der Marel has been awarded the New Horizons in Physics Prize 2024. The New Horizons Prize, part of the annual Breakthrough Prize, recognizes early career physicists and mathematicians who are making major advances in their fields of research. Van der Marel receives the prize for the prediction, discovery, and modelling of 'dust traps' in young circumstellar disks, solving a long-standing problem in planet formation.
Read more Breakthrough prize announcementPubl. Thu 14 Sep 2023
Motion of stars near Milky Way's central black hole is only predictable for few hundred years
Wed 13 Sep 2023- "Already after 462 years, we cannot predict the orbits with confidence. That is astonishingly short," says astronomer Simon Portegies Zwart (Leiden University, the Netherlands). He compares it to our solar system, which is no longer predictable with confidence after 12 million years.
Read morePubl. Wed 13 Sep 2023
Pavel Mancera Piña wins VENI grant
Fri 4 Aug 2023- Pavel Mancera Piña will receive a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to continue his work on galaxy evolution and to study the nature of dark matter. The Veni subsidy is offered to promising young researchers in the Netherlands and gives them an opportunity to further develop their own ideas over a period of three years.
Read morePubl. Fri 4 Aug 2023
Nieuwe toewijzing voor Astrochemie en James Webb Space Telescope
Thu 13 Jul 2023- Op 25 mei heeft het domeinbestuur ENW het Dutch Astrochemistry Network (DAN) toegewezen voor hun onderzoeksprogramma ‘Dutch Astrochemistry in the era of the James Webb Telescope (JWST)’. De DAN onderzoekers ontvangen een bedrag van 1,6 miljoen euro om nieuwe inzichten te verkrijgen in de oorsprong en evolutie van moleculen in de ruimte en hun rol in het heelal door gebruik te maken van JWST-waarnemingen.
Lees meerPubl. Thu 13 Jul 2023
Piyush Sharda and William McDonald win prestigious prizes
Fri 7 Jul 2023- Recently Piyush Sharda won the IAU Division H PhD prize and the Charlene Heisler Prize for the best PhD in astronomy in Australia in 2022. Also William McDonald, one of our new PhD students, won the Bart Bok Prize for the best bachelors/masters thesis in astronomy in Australia in 2022.
IAU Division H PhD prize Astronomical Society of Australia prizesPubl. Fri 7 Jul 2023
Sjoert van Velzen receives Vidi grant to solve 'riddles from the universe'
Mon 3 Jul 2023- Minuscule elementary particles from space colliding with Earth can give us an insight into the distant objects they come from. But first, you need to know how to catch them. With a Vidi grant from NWO, researcher Sjoert van Velzen will 'hunt' for neutrinos coming from exploding black holes.
Read morePubl. Mon 3 Jul 2023
Euclid successfully launched
Sat 1 Jul 2023- Today (July 1st, 2023) the EUCLID telescope has been successfully launced and is on its way to the L2 point.
Read more abour EUCLID Relive the launchPubl. Sat 1 Jul 2023
Verrassend molecuul helpt bij detecteren protoplaneten
Tue 27 Jun 2023- Een team wetenschappers met daarbij Alice Booth (Universiteit Leiden) heeft met behulp van de ALMA-telescopen siliciummonosulfide-moleculen in de stofschijf rondom een jonge ster ontdekt die duiden op planeetvorming. De methode vormt een alternatief voor als directe waarneming of beeldvorming van protoplaneten niet mogelijk is. Het team publiceert de resultaten binnenkort in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Lees meerPubl. Tue 27 Jun 2023
Infrared measurements of TRAPPIST-1 c indicate that it is probably not as Venus-like as once imagined
Mon 19 Jun 2023- An international team of researchers, led by Sebastian Zieba (MPIA, Sterrewacht Leiden) has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to calculate the amount of heat energy coming from the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c. The result suggests that the planet’s atmosphere – if it exists at all – is extremely thin.
Read more Nature article (restricted access)Publ. Mon 19 Jun 2023
Upcoming Oort Fellow Marie van de Sande wins 2023 Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship
Mon 19 Jun 2023- Dr Marie Van de Sande, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at the University of Leeds, is the winner of the 2023 Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship, awarded by the Herschel Society in association with the RAS.
In September, Marie will begin the next stage of her promising career when she becomes an Oort Fellow at Leiden Observatory.
Read more The Caroline Herschel Prize LectureshipPubl. Mon 19 Jun 2023
Pooneh Nazari wins Gruber Foundation Fellowships 2023
Mon 29 May 2023- Each year the Gruber Foundation, in collaboration with the International Astronomical Union (IAU), funds a US$75 000 fellowship programme for promising young astronomers. As last year, the Selection Committee decided to award this year's fellowship jointly to three outstanding candidates, each receiving US$25 000.
Read morePubl. Mon 29 May 2023
Jackie Hodge and Yamila Miguel win ERC Consolidator grants
Thu 18 May 2023- The Consolidator Grant is for promising researchers with seven to 12 years of experience since completing their PhD. They can use the grant of up to 2m euros to fund their team of researchers and support staff for a period of five years.
Read morePubl. Thu 18 May 2023
Sterrenkundigen zien voor het eerst benzeen in planeetvormende schijf rond ster
Thu 11 May 2023- Een internationaal team van sterrenkundigen met daarbij diverse Nederlandse onderzoekers heeft voor het eerst het gas benzeen (C6H6) waargenomen in een planeetvormende schijf rond een jonge ster. Naast benzeen zagen ze veel andere, kleinere koolstofverbindingen en weinig zuurstofrijke moleculen. De waarnemingen duiden erop dat de planeten die in deze schijf ontstaan, net als onze aarde, relatief weinig koolstof bevatten. De wetenschappers publiceren hun bevindingen donderdagavond in het vakblad Nature Astronomy.
Lees meerPubl. Thu 11 May 2023
Announcing the 2023 Class of 51 Pegasi b Fellows
Fri 31 Mar 2023- The Heising-Simons Foundation is pleased to announce the 2023 recipients of the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship. The eight postdoctoral fellows, among which Yapeng Zhang, were selected based on their outstanding research achievements, innovative research plans, and potential to impact the field of planetary astronomy.
Read morePubl. Fri 31 Mar 2023
Astronomers witness the birth of a very distant cluster of galaxies from the early Universe
Fri 31 Mar 2023- Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which ESO is a partner, astronomers have discovered a large reservoir of hot gas in the still-forming galaxy cluster around the Spiderweb galaxy — the most distant detection of such hot gas yet. Galaxy clusters are some of the largest objects known in the Universe and this result, published today in Nature, further reveals just how early these structures begin to form.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Fri 31 Mar 2023
Astronomers find missing link for water in the Solar System
Wed 8 Mar 2023- Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected gaseous water in the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. This water carries a chemical signature that explains the journey of water from star-forming gas clouds to planets, and supports the idea that water on Earth is even older than our Sun.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Wed 8 Mar 2023
New Campus building
Tue 28 Feb 2023- The new campus building construction is well underway. This image shows the current state of the 4th floor, the Observatory wing. If you want to know more about the new building, follow the link below.
Read morePubl. Tue 28 Feb 2023
Mariska Kriek wins VICI grant
Tue 28 Feb 2023- Mariska Kriek wins a VICI grant to allow her to do in-depth research on the origins and evolution of galaxies using the James Webb space telescope. She gets 1,5 million euro for a period of five years to develop a new research line and to extend her own research group.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Tue 28 Feb 2023
€18 miljoen voor ontwikkeling en bouw instrumenten voor de Extremely Large Telescope
Mon 20 Feb 2023- Een consortium onder leiding van de Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie (NOVA) heeft van onderzoeksfinancier NWO voor de komende 10 jaar een bedrag van bijna 18 miljoen euro toegekend gekregen voor de ontwikkeling en bouw van instrumenten op de toekomstige Europese Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in het noorden van Chili. NOVA is de alliantie van de sterrenkundige instituten van de universiteiten van Amsterdam, Groningen Leiden en Nijmegen.
Lees meerPubl. Mon 20 Feb 2023
Webb onthult nieuwe details in Pandora’s Cluster – nieuw venster op kosmologie
Wed 15 Feb 2023- Astronomen hebben met de James Webb Space Telescope een nieuw ‘deep field’ vastgelegd van Pandora's Cluster (Abell 2744), met nooit eerder vertoonde details. Bij het internationale onderzoek zijn Marijn Franx en Mariska Kriek (beiden Universiteit Leiden), Pratika Dayal (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) en Ivo Labbé (Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australië) betrokken. De resultaten zijn beschreven in vier wetenschappelijke artikelen.
Lees meer VideoPubl. Wed 15 Feb 2023
Yamila Miguel wins ERC consolidator grant
Wed 1 Feb 2023- Yamila Miguel (SRON/Universiteit Leiden) will use this grant to study the internal structure of gaseous giants in our solar system. She will be using data from the Cassini- en Juno-missions that orbited Saturn and Jupiter. In addition she will use detailed observations of exoplanet atmospheres that the James Webb Telescope made recently.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Wed 1 Feb 2023
Leidse astronomen onthullen donkere kant van pre-stellaire ijschemie
Tue 24 Jan 2023- Een internationaal team onder leiding van astronomen van de Universiteit Leiden heeft met behulp van de Webb-telescoop diverse moleculen in ijsvorm aangetoond op de donkerste en koudste plekken van een grote stervormingswolk. De resultaten laten zien dat de chemische ingrediënten om grotere en complexe moleculen te maken al aanwezig zijn, lang voordat een nieuwe ster wordt geboren. De onderzoekers publiceren hun bevindingen maandagavond in Nature Astronomy.
Lees meer Read morePubl. Tue 24 Jan 2023
Cornelia Pabst best SOFIA PhD Thesis award
Thu 5 Jan 2023- Each year during the Winter AAS meeting, the SOFIA program awards prizes to remarkable published papers and PhD theses based on SOFIA data. This year Cornelia Pabst (IFF-CSIC) was awarded with a best SOFIA thesis prize for her Leiden University PhD Thesis "Orion's Dragon and other stories: Feedback by massive stars"
Read morePubl. Thu 5 Jan 2023
Internationaal onderzoeksteam ontvangt subsidie voor speciale modelleer software
Wed 21 Dec 2022- Een international team van astronomen onder leiden van prof. dr. Simon
Portegies Zwart van de Leidse Sterrewacht, heeft een subsidie van
225.000 Euro ontvangen van het Nederlandse eScience center voor de
verdere ontwikkeling van het Astrophysics Multipurpose Software
Environment (AMUSE). Met deze subsidie willen ze de simulatie
software klaarstomen voor de nieuwe numerieke uitdagingen van het
komende decennium. Deze uitdagingen hebben o.a. te maken met de
schaalbaarheid van de onderliggende algoritmes op a breed scala van
moderne computers, het verbeteren van de nauwkeurigheid waarop
multi-schaal en multi-fysica problemen kunnen worden geadresseerd en
de gebruiksvriendelijkheid van de programmatuur.
AMUSE HomePubl. Wed 21 Dec 2022
Pavel E. Mancera Piña wins Van Swinderen prize 2022
Fri 16 Dec 2022- On 13 December dr. Pavel E. Mancera Piña was awarded the Koninklijk Natuurkundig Genootschap (KNG)'s Van Swinderen prize 2022 for his PhD thesis Dark matter and angular momentum in nearby disc galaxies.
Read more ThesisPubl. Fri 16 Dec 2022
RADIOBLOCKS: A New European Consortium to develop Next Generation Technologies for Radio Astronomy Infrastructures
Mon 12 Dec 2022- The RADIOBLOCKS project, coordinated by JIVE ERIC and including major European research infrastructures for radio astronomy, together with partners from industry and academia, has been granted 10 M€ by the European Commission to develop “common building blocks” for technological solutions beyond state-of-the-art, that will enable a broad range of new science and enhance European scientific competitiveness. The RADIOBLOCKS project will start on 1 March 2023.
"It is great that many Dutch universities, institutes and companies participate in this consortium", says Huib Jan van Langevelde, employed at JIVE, the Leiden University and project director of the Event Horizon Telescope. "This project fits the Dutch ambitions, for instance in the case of making the best image of black holes".
Read morePubl. Mon 12 Dec 2022
Webb reveals chemical profile of atmosphere of exoplanet WASP-39 b
Tue 22 Nov 2022- An international team of astronomers has revealed the first 'chemical profile' of an exoplanet's atmosphere. The team, including Leiden astronomer Yamila Miguel and provenda Amy Louca, made the profile using so-called Early Release Science data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The results have been submitted for publication in five papers and are available on the preprint server.
Read morePubl. Tue 22 Nov 2022
Colliding magnetic fields reveal unknown planets
Wed 16 Nov 2022- Northern lights, stellar winds and exoplanets. This is what astronomer's PhD research revolved around. PhD candidate astronomer Rob Kavanagh developed mathematical models to better understand the interactions between exoplanets and stellar winds and to define features of exoplanets. He received his doctorate on 15 November.
Read morePubl. Wed 16 Nov 2022
In memory of dr. Carolina Ödman
Tue 15 Nov 2022- The staff, postdocs and students of Leiden Observatory were distressed by the sad news that Carolina Ödman, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of the Western Cape, passed away this morning, November 15.
Carolina worked at the Sterrewacht from 2005 until 2009. While at the Sterrewacht she built up the Universe Awareness programme into an activity that reached more than 400,000 young children in more than 60 countries. For this she received the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) in 2012 from Science Magazine.
She was a remarkable inspirational person with many impressive achievements and a beautiful personality that we are privileged to have known and worked with on our staff. During the last few years Carolina fought a brave fight against pancreatic cancer together with her husband Kevin Govender and their two young sons. Their courage was highlighted in this recent film about her made by UWC (linked below).
We offer our deepest sympathy to Kevin, their boys, their family and friends. We need more people like Carolina to make the world a better place.
Carolina Ödman - a journey of hopePubl. Tue 15 Nov 2022
Berkeley Prize 2023 for Gaia collaboration
Wed 9 Nov 2022- The consortium of researchers, constructors and inventors of the Gaia satellite, that tracks the movements of stars in the Milky Way, will receive the 2023 Berkeley Prize. This has just been announced by the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Anthony Brown, leader of the data processing team, will collect the award on behalf of the consortium on January 12, 2023.
Read morePubl. Wed 9 Nov 2022
LOFAR antennas unveil giant glow of radio emission surrounding cluster of galaxies
Wed 2 Nov 2022- A Dutch-Italian-German team of astronomers has observed a huge glow of radio emission around a cluster of thousands of galaxies. They combined data from thousands of LOFAR antennas that were focused for 18 nights on an area the size of four full moons. This is the first time astronomers have been able to capture radio emission from such a large area for such a long time and in such detail. They publish their findings Wednesday night in the journal Science Advances.
Read morePubl. Wed 2 Nov 2022
Clusters van sterrenstelsels beter in beeld dankzij radio-röntgencombinatie
Mon 17 Oct 2022-
Een team van onderzoekers heeft door slim gebruik van twee soorten telescopen, prachtige beelden geproduceerd van clusters van sterrenstelsels. Het levert niet alleen mooie plaatjes op, maar geeft ook meer informatie over de enorme hoeveelheden energie die vrijkomen rond superzware zwarte gaten in clusters. De astronomen, geleid door promovendus Roland Timmerman (Universiteit Leiden), publiceren hun werkwijze binnenkort in het vakblad Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Lees meerPubl. Mon 17 Oct 2022
Ewine van Dishoeck receives the Niels Bohr medal
Fri 7 Oct 2022- Ewine van Dishoeck was presented with the Niels Bohr International Gold Medal on Friday 7 October. The medal, instigated by the Danish Society of Engineers IDA, was awarded by Queen Margrethe of Denmark at a ceremony at the Carlsberg Academy in Copenhagen.
Read more Lees meerPubl. Fri 7 Oct 2022
Ignas Snellen gets Spinoza 'statue' at prize winning ceremony
Thu 6 Oct 2022- Minister Dijkgraaf, himself a former Spinoza laureate, handed the statuettes as a symbol of the prize to the six scientists, aming which Ignas Snellen, in a packed theatre.
Read morePubl. Thu 6 Oct 2022
Sterrenkunde viert 60 jaar ESO
Mon 3 Oct 2022- De Nederlandse sterrenkunde heeft op maandag 26 september in Museum Boerhaave in Leiden de 60ste verjaardag gevierd van de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrewacht (ESO) en de samenwerking met de Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie (NOVA) op het gebied van instrumentatie, wetenschap en maatschappelijke relevantie.
Lees meerPubl. Mon 3 Oct 2022
Gigantic radio sources discovered in the universe
Thu 29 Sep 2022- An international team of researchers, among which Reinout van Weeren and Huub Röttgering, discovered four radio sources of gigantic size. These so-called Megahalos are up to ten million light years in size and could now be detected for the first time with the help of the radio telescope LOFAR. This discovery was published in the journal Nature.
Read morePubl. Thu 29 Sep 2022
Maarten Schmidt passed away
Tue 20 Sep 2022- Maarten Schmidt, former Leiden graduate, the first Leiden Oort Professor and Francis L. Moseley Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus, at Caltech, passed away on Saturday, September 17, 2022. He was 92 years old. Schmidt is well known for his 1963 discovery of quasars—extremely bright and distant cosmic objects powered by active supermassive black holes.
Read more Interview by Alan LightmanPubl. Tue 20 Sep 2022
Oort Lecture recording
Thu 15 Sep 2022- The 2022 Oort Lecture by Jim Moran (Harvard) has been recorded. You can view the full lecture via the link below
View recordingPubl. Thu 15 Sep 2022
Early Release JWST Science program Photodissociation Regions for All reveal spectacular view of Orion Nebula
Mon 12 Sep 2022- “We are blown away by the breathtaking images of the Orion Nebula. We started this project in 2017, so we have been waiting more than five years to get these data,” said Western astrophysicist Els Peeters who obtained images as part of the Early Release Science program Photodissociation Regions for All (PDRs4All ID 1288) on Webb. Leiden Astronomer Xander Tielens is member of the core team.
Read morePubl. Mon 12 Sep 2022
Webb detecteert koolstofdioxide in atmosfeer exoplaneet
Thu 25 Aug 2022- De James Webb Space Telescope heeft definitief bewijs gevonden voor de aanwezigheid van kooldioxide (CO2) in de atmosfeer van een reuzenplaneet die rond een zonachtige ster draait op 700 lichtjaar van ons vandaan. Het resultaat verschaft belangrijke inzichten in de samenstelling en vorming van deze gasreus, en is een goede aanwijzing voor het vermogen van Webb om CO2 op te sporen en te meten in de dunnere atmosferen van kleinere rotsachtige planeten rond sterren buiten ons zonnestelsel. Het resultaat van de internationale groep van astronomen, onder wie Yamila Miguel (Sterrewacht Leiden, SRON) en Jean-Michel Désert (UvA), is geaccepteerd voor publicatie in Nature.
Lees meerPubl. Thu 25 Aug 2022
Leiden University Observing Trips to the INT
Thu 14 Jul 2022- Since 2008, undergraduate students from Leiden University have been visiting the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) as part of their astronomy bachelor's degree programme. This programme gives students the opportunity to gain valuable experience in the field of observational astronomy. Through this programme they learn how to write a proposal, plan and execute their observations, and acquire the skills to analyse and present their findings.
Read morePubl. Thu 14 Jul 2022
BBQ 2022
Thu 23 Jun 2022- Photo gallery of the STRW BBQ 2022, visible on the intranet site only.
Photo gallery (intranet)Publ. Thu 23 Jun 2022
Spinoza Prize for Ignas Snellen
Fri 17 Jun 2022- With his clever measuring methods Ignas Snellen – together with his team – was the first to detect carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of exoplanets. For his pioneering work the Leiden astrophysicist has been awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest academic honour in the Netherlands. The prize of 2.5 million euros will enable his research group to continue the search for a twin to Earth, a habitable planet.
Read more Publ. Fri 17 Jun 2022
Gaia ziet vreemde sterren in meest gedetailleerde Melkweg-survey tot nu toe
Mon 13 Jun 2022- De Gaia-missie van ESA heeft als doel de meest nauwkeurige en complete multidimensionale kaart van de Melkweg te creëren. Met deze informatie kunnen astronomen de structuur van ons sterrenstelsel en de evolutie in het verleden over miljarden jaren reconstrueren en de levenscyclus van sterren en onze plaats in het heelal beter begrijpen.
Lees meerPubl. Mon 13 Jun 2022
First photo of black hole at the heart of our Galaxy
Thu 12 May 2022- Finally we know for sure that there is a black hole at the centre of our own galaxy. Today, astronomers unveiled the first ever photo of Sagittarius A*, a super-massive object at the centre of the Milky Way. This picture could only be taken thanks to the cooperation of telescopes worldwide.
Read morePubl. Thu 12 May 2022
Planet-forming disks evolve in surprisingly similar ways
Fri 6 May 2022- A group of astronomers, led by Sierk van Terwisga (former Leiden Observatory PostDoc) from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, have analysed the mass distribution of over 870 planet-forming disks in the Orion A cloud. By exploiting the statistical properties of this unprecedented large sample of disks and developing an innovative data processing scheme, they found that far away from harsh environments like hot stars, the decline in disk mass only depends on their age. The results indicate that, at least within 1000 light-years of the Earth, planet-forming disks and planetary systems evolve in similar ways
Read morePubl. Fri 6 May 2022
NASA's Webb In Full Focus, Ready for Instrument Commissioning
Fri 29 Apr 2022- As Ewine van Dishoeck explained this morning in Radio 1, the alignment of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is now complete. After full review, the observatory has been confirmed to be capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images with each of its four powerful onboard science instruments.
Read morePubl. Fri 29 Apr 2022
Henk Hoekstra awarded ERC Advanced Grant for dark matter research
Tue 26 Apr 2022- Dark matter. Something invisible that, according to calculations, comprises about 85% of the matter in the universe. With an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million, Professor of Observational Cosmology Henk Hoekstra will map out even more precisely where this dark matter is to be found.
Read morePubl. Tue 26 Apr 2022
Twee Nederlandse sterrenkundigen vallen in de Europese prijzen
Fri 11 Mar 2022- De Fritz Zwicky-prijs 2022 voor astrofysica & kosmologie is toegekend aan Prof. Ewine F. van Dishoeck (Universiteit Leiden, Nederland) voor haar baanbrekende, decennialange werk in de astrochemie en moleculaire spectroscopie, en voor haar leiderschap binnen de astronomische gemeenschap. De MERAC-prijs 2022 voor het beste proefschrift op het gebied van de theoretische astrofysica is toegekend aan Dr. Helmer Koppelman (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) voor zijn veelzijdige benadering van de galactische archeologie, die ons begrip van de geschiedenis en de dynamiek van de Melkweg heeft veranderd. De toekenning van de prijzen is vandaag bekendgemaakt door de European Astronomical Society (EAS).
Lees meerPubl. Fri 11 Mar 2022
Grootste molecuul ooit in een planeetvormende schijf ontdekt
Tue 8 Mar 2022- Zes vrouwelijke onderzoekers van de Sterrewacht Leiden hebben voor het eerst dimethylether gedetecteerd in een planeetvormende schijf. Met negen atomen is dit het grootste molecuul dat tot nu toe in een schijf is geïdentificeerd. Dimethylether is ook een voorloper van grotere organische moleculen die kunnen leiden tot het ontstaan van leven. Dimethylether wordt vaak gezien in stervormende wolken, maar werd nog nooit aangetroffen in een schijf, precies op de plaats waar mogelijk een nieuwe planeet wordt gevormd. Het resultaat is geaccepteerd voor publicatie in het vaktijdschrift Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Lees meer English article (pdf).Publ. Tue 8 Mar 2022
Nederlandse onderzoekers brengen verscholen superzwaar zwart gat aan het licht
Wed 16 Feb 2022- Een internationaal team sterrenkundigen onder leiding van Violeta Gámez Rosas (Universiteit Leiden) heeft een superzwaar zwart gat waargenomen dat verscholen is in een ring van stof. Deze ontdekking past bij het idee dat de zogeheten actieve centra van sterrenstelsels veel meer op elkaar lijken dan uit waarnemingen blijkt, omdat de kijkhoek vanaf aarde voor vertekeningen zorgt. Het onderzoek werd gedaan met het mede in Nederland ontwikkelde MATISSE-instrument dat het infrarode licht van vier Europese Very Large Telescopes in Chili combineert.
Lees meerPubl. Wed 16 Feb 2022
Grootste radiostelsel ooit
Wed 16 Feb 2022- Een team onder leiding van Martijn Oei heeft bij toeval een radiostelsel ontdekt van minstens 16 miljoen lichtjaar lang. Het sterrenstelsel, vergelijkbaar met honderd Melkwegen op een rij, vormt de grootste structuur die tot nu toe gevonden is. De vondst trekt gangbare ideeën over de groei van radiostelsels in twijfel. De onderzoekers publiceren hun bevindingen binnenkort in het vakblad Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Lees meerPubl. Wed 16 Feb 2022
Nieuwe opsporingsmethode voor quasars in het vroege heelal
Sat 12 Feb 2022- Astronomen van de Sterrewacht Leiden hebben een nieuwe methode ontwikkeld om verre quasars te vinden en beter te onderscheiden van andere objecten die erop lijken, met behulp van technieken voor machinaal leren. Het onderzoeksresultaat is geaccepteerd voor publicatie in het vakblad Astronomy & Astrophysics. Het is het laatste artikel waarop Maolin Zhang coauteur is, de veelbelovende Leidse promovendus van Chinese komaf die in 2019 om het leven kwam bij een brand in zijn woning.
Lees meerPubl. Sat 12 Feb 2022
Astronomen doen nauwkeurigste kosmische simulatie ooit
Sat 12 Feb 2022- Een internationaal team van onderzoekers, met onder hen Matthieu Schaller van de Sterrewacht Leiden en het Leids Instituut voor Onderzoek in de Natuurkunde, heeft de grootste en nauwkeurigste virtuele weergave van ons heelal tot nu toe geproduceerd. De onderzoekers hebben supercomputersimulaties gebruikt om de volledige evolutie van de kosmos, van de oerknal tot nu, na te bootsen. Het onderzoeksresultaat is gepubliceerd in het vakblad Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
Lees meerPubl. Sat 12 Feb 2022
From the birth of galaxies to an IMAX movie on the big screen. Leiden partnership wins award from the Royal Astronomical Society
Mon 17 Jan 2022- Simulation project EAGLE has won the 2022 Group Achievement Award of the Royal Astronomical Society. EAGLE is a large collection of simulations about the formation of galaxies. The largest simulation contains as many as 6.8 billion particles and took months to calculate on the world's fastest supercomputers.
Read morePubl. Mon 17 Jan 2022
JWST mirror fully deployed
Sat 8 Jan 2022- The primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope is completely deployed. This was the final step of its unprecedented two-week deployment phase that began with a Dec. 25 launch.
However, the mirror still needs configuration of the 18 segments, starting with pointing each segment to produce a single star image instead of 18 individual stellar representations. After pointing a phase synchronization has to take place in order to position each segment on the same wavefront location. This whole process will last until the beginning of April!
Read more @ space.comPubl. Sat 8 Jan 2022
James Webb Ruimtetelescoop succesvol gelanceerd
Sat 25 Dec 2021- De James Webb Ruimtetelescoop (Webb in het kort) is vanmiddag aan boord van een Ariane 5-draagraket succesvol gelanceerd vanaf de Europese basis in Kourou, Frans-Guyana. Na de lancering en het loskoppelen heeft het missiecontrolecentrum in Baltimore (VS) bevestigd dat het zonnepaneel is uitgevouwen en het observatorium in goede staat verkeert.
Webb is on its way! (NASA) Lees meer (astronomie.nl)Publ. Sat 25 Dec 2021
Weighing the Milky Way? Yes, we CAN!
Thu 11 Nov 2021- Over the past few weeks students of the MSc course Radio Astronomy
made radio telescopes out of paint cans. They used these "telescopes"
to actually measure the orbital velocity of hydrogen in our Milky
Way. The faster it orbits, the heavier our galaxy must be to prevent
the gas from flying away. Our Milky Way has a maximum rotational speed
of approximately 220 km/s, which is fortunately what the paint can
telescopes actually confirm!
A measurement like this requires accurate calibration to determine the
properties of antenna and electronics in isolation. We are grateful
that Dutch Microwave Absorber Solutions (https://dmas.eu), based in
nearby Zoeterwoude provided us with high tech microwave absorbing
material free of charge (the anthracite-coloured spikes).
This material is normally used in specialist laboratories for
antenna-research, radar technology, and radio interference. Dutch
Microwave Absorber Solutions is global market leader in sustainable,
top-quality radio-absorbing materials and entirely "Made in NL".
Michiel Brentjens Dutch Microwave Absorber SolutionsPubl. Thu 11 Nov 2021
Dutch student receives highest mark simulating chaotic interactions of three black holes
Wed 20 Oct 2021- Leiden master's student in astronomy Arend Moerman spent a year investigating the dynamic interactions and collisions between three imaginary black holes. The interactions between three bodies such as stars or planets or black holes cannot be predicted with an elegant formula. Moerman therefore used a computer that calculates what happens for a short period of time and then uses the result for the next period of time.
Read morePubl. Wed 20 Oct 2021
Volcanic ‘activity’ in black holes blows monumental bubbles spanning hundreds of thousands of light years
Tue 19 Oct 2021- An international team of researchers, which included astronomers from the Netherlands Institutes for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and Space Research (SRON) as well as Leiden University, observed the full extent of the evolution of hot gas produced by an active black hole for the first time. As it evolves, the hot gas encompasses a much larger area than previously thought and even impacts objects residing at great distances. Their study is published today in Nature Astronomy.
Read morePubl. Tue 19 Oct 2021
Astronomers see disk around young super-Jupiter which may form moons
Wed 13 Oct 2021- An international team of astronomers led by scientists from Leiden University (Tomas Stolker) has for the first time characterized a dust disk surrounding a young super-Jupiter, which is either a giant planet or brown dwarf. They used so-called direct imaging observations at mid-infrared wavelengths. They detected emission from the disk and speculate that moons may have formed. The researchers will publish their findings in The Astronomical Journal.
Read morePubl. Wed 13 Oct 2021