We study the formation of stars on all scales and the birth of planetary systems and their evolution. The Department established observational programs to search for extrasolar planets and to characterize their properties. We investigate the chemical and physical state of the interstellar medium and protoplanetary disks in dedicated laboratory experiments where we study the formation of complex organic molecules and cosmic dust analogues.
Star formation is a key process in the universe, shaping the structure of entire galaxies and driving their chemical evolution and, at the same time, providing the conditions for the formation of planets. Our goal is to understand the different modes of star formation, from massive star clusters to more isolated groups of low-mass stars.
We want to unravel the mysteries of planet formation from tiny dust grains to the formation of giant planets and their migration in gas disks. At the same time, we establish new search strategies for brown dwarfs and exoplanets and are beginning to characterize their atmospheres.
To this end, we combine multi-wavelength observations from large ground-based telescopes and space-born infrared observatories with large-scale numerical simulations on supercomputers, theoretical models, and dedicated laboratory experiments. Our research places extreme demands on observational techniques, pushing available angular resolution, dynamic range, and spectral resolving power to their limits. We help develop and construct astronomical instruments to meet these demanding requirements. Our particular fields of expertise are adaptive optics and interferometry for ground-based observations, and sensitive space-based infrared instruments.
Heidelberg Initiative for the Origins of Life – HIFOL
The Heidelberg Initiative for the Origins of Life (HIFOL) seeks to understand one of the most fundamental questions of humanity: how did life emerge on Earth and does life exist elsewhere in the Universe. HIFOL facilitates a wide range of interdisciplinary theoretical, experimental, and observational research covering the fields of astronomy, physics, geosciences, chemistry, biology and life sciences from a range of research institutes based in Heidelberg. HIFOL brings together researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg Institute of Theoretical Studies, and Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, each tackling different aspects of the same problem.
Astrophysicists aim to understand how planets form around stars and search for habitable Earth analogues, characterizing their atmospheres, using both space- and ground-based telescopes. Using both meteoritic and earth samples, geoscientists strive to unravel the past evolutionary history of the solar system and earth itself, including its interior, crust and hydrosphere. Chemists focus on studying the conditions at which amino acids, nucleotides and their first chains could be abiogenically synthesized and started the self-catalytic replication cycle, while biologists seek to figure out how transition from a non-living to a living world has occurred and where on early Earth it has happened, and how first cells, their membranes, metabolic and reproduction systems have emerged.
Astrophysicists aim to understand how planets form around stars and search for habitable Earth analogues, characterizing their atmospheres, using both space- and ground-based telescopes. Using both meteoritic and earth samples, geoscientists strive to unravel the past evolutionary history of the solar system and earth itself, including its interior, crust and hydrosphere. Chemists focus on studying the conditions at which amino acids, nucleotides and their first chains could be abiogenically synthesized and started the self-catalytic replication cycle, while biologists seek to figure out how transition from a non-living to a living world has occurred and where on early Earth it has happened, and how first cells, their membranes, metabolic and reproduction systems have emerged.
Contact:
Dr. Myriam Benisty
Director
benisty@mpia.de
Office:
Christelle Hiemstra
Assistant to the Managing Director
tel:06221/528-436
hiemstra@mpia.de
Director Emeritus:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Thomas K. Henning
tel:+49 6221 528-200
henning@mpia.de
