Videos for the general public

A video series on the research topics and working groups at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy more

Paul Mollière explains how the James Webb Space Telescope is revolutionising the observation and modelling of exoplanet atmospheres. What new insights can we gain thanks to its advanced technology? more

There are too few exoplanets that are twice the size of the Earth. Remo Burn from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has discovered that this is because many planets do not stay where they were formed. Rocky planets that migrate inwards lose… more

James Webb Space Telescope: What can we learn about the atmospheres of exoplanets with the largest space telescope? How is the JWST revolutionising our knowledge of exoplanets? Eva-Maria Ahrer reports on research into the atmospheres of exoplanets… more

How can the performance of an earthbound telescope be improved? Silvia Scheithauer reports on the CIAO instrument, the adaptive optics for the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. more

Euclid is a new ESA space telescope with the participation of a scientific consortium from fourteen European countries, the USA, Canada and Japan. Euclid was launched on 1 July 2023. Over the next 6 years, Euclid will record images and spectra of a… more

Good news for Earth-like planets and for life in the Universe: planets like our Earth, including those with water, could form even in the most inhospitable star-forming environments known, flooded by energetic UV light from massive stars. María… more

In the beginning was light – around 13.8 billion years ago, the Big Bang marked the beginning of the history of our cosmos. How could stars and galaxies suddenly appear out of the darkness? What did the light of the first day look like? Hans-Walter… more