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Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 09.12.2020

Breakthrough in nuclear physics
High-precision measurements of the strong interaction between stable and unstable particles The positively charged protons in atomic nuclei should actually repel each other, and yet even heavy nuclei with many protons and neutrons stick together. The so-called strong interaction is responsible for this.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 26.11.2020

Unknown Population of Stars Discovered
Near the centre of the Milky Way there exists a heretofore unknown population of stars that exhibits characteristic properties. It was discovered by an international research team under the direction of Dr Manuel Arca Sedda of Collaborative Research Centre "The Milky Way System" (CRC 881) of Heidelberg University.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 26.11.2020

Sun model completely confirmed for the first time
Borexino detector succeeds in measuring the sun's CNO fusion cycle The Borexino Experiment research team has succeeded in detecting neutrinos from the sun's second fusion process, the Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen cycle (CNO cycle) for the first time. This means that all of the theoretical predictions on how energy is generated within the sun have now also been experimentally verified.

Astronomy / Space Science - 23.11.2020

Stammbaum der Milchstraße
Galaxies like the Milky Way formed by the merging of smaller progenitor galaxies. An international team of astrophysicists led by Dr Diederik Kruijssen from the Centre for Astronomy at Heidelberg University has succeeded in reconstructing the merger history of our home galaxy, creating a complete family tree.

Astronomy / Space Science - 13.11.2020

Duration of solar system formation identified
This is an artist's impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which planets are forming. Using ALMA's 15-kilometre baseline astronomers were able to make the first detailed image of a protoplanetary disc, which revealed the complex structure of the disc. Concentric rings of gas, with gaps indicating planet formation, are visible in this artist's impression and were predicted by computer simulations.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 30.09.2020

Stellar explosion in Earth’s proximity
Discovery of iron-60 and manganese-53 substantiates supernova 2.5 million years ago When the brightness of the star Betelgeuse dropped dramatically a few months ago, some observers suspected an impending supernova - a stellar explosion that could also cause damage on Earth. While Betelgeuse has returned to normal, physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have found evidence of a supernova that exploded near the Earth around 2.5 million years ago.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 09.09.2020

Revealing the secrets of high-energy cosmic particles
P-ONE: Initiative for a new, large-scale Neutrino Observatory in the Pacific Ocean The "IceCube" neutrino observatory deep in the ice of the South Pole has already brought spectacular new insights into cosmic incidents of extremely high energies. In order to investigate the cosmic origins of elementary particles with even higher energies, Prof. Elisa Resconi from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now started an international initiative to build a neutrino telescope several cubic kilometers in size in the northeastern Pacific.

Astronomy / Space Science - 10.08.2020

Dwarf Planet Ceres: Evidence of Active Cryovolcanism
Until a million years ago, dwarf planet Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt, was the scene of cryovolcanic eruptions: below the Occator Crater, subsurface brine pushed upward; the water evaporated, leaving behind bright, salty deposits. This process is probably still ongoing. A team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany comes to these conclusions after evaluating high-resolution camera images of Ceres from the final phase of NASA's Dawn mission.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 28.07.2020

How stony-iron meteorites form
SAPHiR multi-anvil press solves mystery of the solar system Meteorites give us insight into the early development of the solar system. Using the SAPHiR instrument at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), a scientific team has for the first time simulated the formation of a class of stony-iron meteorites, so-called pallasites, on a purely experimental basis.

Astronomy / Space Science - 21.07.2020

Largest stony meteorite of Germany found: Researchers at the University of Münster confirm
Even in science, chance sometimes produces more thrilling discoveries that the most ambitious plans. In 1989, a homeowner was digging a cable trench on his property in Blaubeuren, in the German region of Swabia, when his spade hit a rock measuring 28 by 25 by 20 centimetres. Upon lifting it half a metre to the surface, he found that it was remarkably heavy.

Astronomy / Space Science - Environment - 25.06.2020

Super-Earths discovered orbiting nearby red dwarf
International researchers led by University of Göttingen find multiple planet system orbiting Gliese 887 The nearest exoplanets to us provide the best opportunities for detailed study, including searching for evidence of life outside the Solar System. In research led by the University of Göttingen, the RedDots team of astronomers has detected a system of super-Earth planets orbiting the nearby star Gliese 887, the brightest red dwarf star in the sky.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 17.06.2020

Surprising Signal in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
Scientists from the international XENON collaboration under participation of the University of Münster announced today that data from their XENON1T, the world's most sensitive dark matter experiment, show a surprising excess of events. The scientists do not claim to have found dark matter. Instead, they say to have observed an unexpected rate of events, the source of which is not yet fully understood.

Astronomy / Space Science - Chemistry - 16.06.2020

If there is life out there, can we detect it?
Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin publish two experimental studies in journal Astrobiology No 101/2020 from Jun 16, 2020 Instruments on-board future space missions are capable of detecting amino acids, fatty acids, and peptides, and even identify ongoing biological processes on ocean moons in our Solar System.

Astronomy / Space Science - 15.05.2020

Like Thunder Without Lightning
Mergers between black holes and neutron stars in dense star clusters are quite unlike those that form in isolated regions where stars are few. Their associated features could be crucial to the study of gravitational waves and their source. Dr Manuel Arca Sedda of the Institute for Astronomical Computing at Heidelberg University came to this conclusion in a study that used computer simulations.

Astronomy / Space Science - Environment - 17.02.2020

First research results on the "spectacular meteorite fall" of Flensburg
Planetologists from Münster University show that the meteorite contains minerals that formed under the presence of water on small planetesimals in the early history of our solar system. A fireball in the sky, accompanied by a bang, amazed hundreds of eyewitnesses in northern Germany in mid-September last year.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 08.01.2020

New Hubble constant measurement using cosmic lenses
New measurement of the universe's expansion rate strengthens call for new physics Using cosmic lenses an international team of astrophysicists determined the universe's expansion rate, completely independent of any previous method. The researchers' result further strengthens a troubling discrepancy between the expansion rate calculated from measurements of the local universe and the rate as predicted from background radiation of the early universe.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 27.09.2019

More accurate than expected
Despite their extremely small mass, neutrinos play a key role in cosmology and particle physics. After evaluation of the first measurement results in the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN), it is now clear: The previously unknown mass of the neutrinos must be less than 1 electron volt. This result is more accurate than previous measurements and raises hopes of discovering new neutrino properties.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 16.09.2019

New results for the mass of neutrinos
Apart from photons, the fundamental quanta of light, neutrinos are the most abundant elementary particles in the universe. As they possess a small non-zero mass, these “light-weights of the universe? play a key role in cosmology and particle physics. The most precise scale for neutrinos in the world is the international experiment "KATRIN" at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in which scientists of the University of Münster are also involved.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 05.09.2019

Closing in on elusive particles
In the quest to prove that matter can be produced without antimatter, the GERDA experiment at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory is looking for signs of neutrinoless double beta decay. The experiment has the greatest sensitivity worldwide for detecting the decay in question. To further improve the chances of success, a follow-up project, LEGEND, uses an even more refined decay experiment.

Astronomy / Space Science - 18.07.2019

"It was the greatest adventure of the 1960s"
Professor Schreiber, how big an impression did the Moon landing make on you when you were young? It wasn't just the Moon landing as such. What amazed me most were the steps that led up to it. It was a huge technical challenge. For example the question: How do I accelerate a rocket to reach the Moon? Back then, the technical possibilities were still quite limited.