Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) is a German research institute. It is the successor of the

Berlin Observatory The Berlin Observatory (Berliner Sternwarte) is a German astronomical institution with a series of observatories and related organizations in and around the city of Berlin in Germany, starting from the 18th century. It has its origins in 1700 w ...

founded in 1700 and of the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam (AOP) founded in 1874. The latter was the world's first observatory to emphasize explicitly the research area of astrophysics. The AIP was founded in 1992, in a re-structuring following the German reunification. The AIP is privately funded and member of the

Leibniz Association The Leibniz Association (German: ''Leibniz-Gemeinschaft'' or ''Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz'') is a union of German non-university research institutes from various disciplines. As of 2020, 96 non-university research insti ...

. It is located in

Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter ('' Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Pala ...

in the state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

, just west of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, though the

Einstein Tower The Einstein Tower (German: ''Einsteinturm'') is an astrophysical observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in Potsdam, Germany built by architect Erich Mendelsohn. It was built on the summit of the Potsdam '' Telegraphenberg'' to house ...

solar observatory and the great

refractor telescope A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens (optics), lens as its objective (optics), objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptrics, dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope d ...

Great Refractor telescope
at Telegrafenberg on Telegrafenberg in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

belong to the AIP. The key topics of the AIP are cosmic magnetic fields (

magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is the study of the magnetic properties and behaviour of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas, liquid metals, ...

) on various scales and extragalactic astrophysics. Astronomical and astrophysical fields studied at the AIP range from solar and stellar physics to stellar and

galactic evolution The study of galaxy formation and evolution is concerned with the processes that formed a heterogeneous universe from a homogeneous beginning, the formation of the first galaxies, the way galaxies change over time, and the processes that have gen ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

. The institute also develops research technology in the fields of spectroscopy and

robotic telescope A robotic telescope is an astronomical telescope and detector system that makes observations without the intervention of a human. In astronomical disciplines, a telescope qualifies as robotic if it makes those observations without being operated ...

s. It is a partner of the

Large Binocular Telescope The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is an optical telescope for astronomy located on Mount Graham, in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, United States. It is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. When using both ...

in Arizona, has erected robotic telescopes in

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

and the Antarctic, develops astronomical instrumentation for large telescopes such as the VLT of the ESO. Furthermore, work on several

e-Science E-Science or eScience is computationally intensive science that is carried out in highly distributed network environments, or science that uses immense data sets that require grid computing; the term sometimes includes technologies that enable dist ...

projects are carried out at the AIP.

History

Origin

The history of astronomy in

really began in Berlin in 1700. Initiated by Gottfried W. Leibniz, on July 11, 1700 the "Brandenburgische Societät" (later called the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

) was founded by the elector Friedrich III in Berlin. Two months earlier the national calendar monopoly provided the funding for an observatory. By May 18 the first director,

Gottfried Kirch Gottfried Kirch (; also KircheKenneth Glyn Jones, ''The Search for the Nebulae'', Alpha Academic, 1975, p. 19. , Kirkius; 18 December 1639 – 25 July 1710) was a German astronomer and the first "Astronomer Royal" in Berlin and, as such, directo ...

, had been appointed. This happened in a hurry, because the profits from the national basic calendar, calculated and sold by the observatory, should have been the financial source for the academy. This kind of financing existed until the beginning of the 19th century, but the basic calendar was calculated until very recently (it stopped after the '' Wende'' in 1991). In 1711 the first observatory was built in Dorotheen Street in Berlin and in 1835 a new observatory building, which was designed by the famous architect

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassic ...

, was completed in Linden Street (near Hallesches Tor).

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

was then promoting astronomy by his famous "Kosmos" lectures in 1827–28. He played an important role in providing the funds for both observatory and instruments. The

became known worldwide when

Johann Gottfried Galle Johann Gottfried Galle (9 June 1812 – 10 July 1910) was a German astronomer from Radis, Germany, at the Berlin Observatory who, on 23 September 1846, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the first person to view the pl ...

discovered the planet Neptune in 1846. The discoveries of the

canal rays An anode ray (also positive ray or canal ray) is a beam of positive ions that is created by certain types of gas-discharge tubes. They were first observed in Crookes tubes during experiments by the German scientist Eugen Goldstein, in 1886. La ...

by Eugen Goldstein in 1886 in the physical laboratory of the observatory and of the variation in the altitude of the Earth's pole by Karl Friedrich Küstner in 1888 were likewise important. The last two scientific events took place when Wilhelm Julius Foerster was director of the observatory, which was meanwhile attached to the University of Berlin. He prepared the basis for the astronomical observatories in Potsdam: in 1874 the foundation of the AOP on the Telegrafenberg and in 1913 the removal of the Berlin Observatory to Babelsberg.

Foundation of the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam (AOP)

In the middle of the 19th century spectral analysis was developed by

Gustav Kirchhoff Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (; 12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. He ...

and

Robert Bunsen Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (; 30 March 1811 – 16 August 1899) was a German chemist. He investigated emission spectra of heated elements, and discovered caesium (in 1860) and rubidium (in 1861) with the physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. The Bu ...

. It enabled the acquisition of information on the physical parameters and chemical abundances of stars, by the spectral analysis of their light. Foerster recognized these possibilities and initiated the building of a solar observatory in 1871 as a memorial to the crown prince, in which he emphasized the importance and profit of solar research. This idea was soon extended to the whole of astrophysics. The site of the observatory was chosen on a hill south of

, the Telegrafenberg, on which had been, from 1832 to 1848, a relay station of the military telegraph from Berlin to Koblenz. On 1 July 1874 the AOP was founded. Even before the construction of the observatory had started in the autumn of 1876, solar observations were being made from the tower of the former military orphanage in Linden Street in Potsdam by

Gustav Spörer Friederich Wilhelm Gustav Spörer (23 October 1822 – 7 July 1895) was a German astronomer. He is noted for his studies of sunspots and sunspot cycles. In this regard he is often mentioned together with Edward Maunder. Spörer was the first to ...

. The construction work started in 1876; the main observatory building and its equipment were finished in the autumn of 1879. The AOP was managed by a board of directors comprising Wilhelm Julius Foerster,

and Arthur Auwers. In 1882 Carl Hermann Vogel was appointed as sole director of the observatory. The main focus of his work was now on stellar astrophysics. He was the first successfully to determine radial velocities of stars photographically and as a result he discovered the

spectroscopic binaries A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in w ...

. In 1899 one of the biggest

refractor A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and a ...

in the world,

Great Refractor Great refractor refers to a large telescope with a lens, usually the largest refractor at an observatory with an equatorial mount. The preeminence and success of this style in observational astronomy defines an era in modern telescopy in the 19t ...

of Potsdam, with lenses of 80 and 50 cm, was manufactured by the firms of Steinheil and Repsold, and mounted in a 24 m dome. It was inaugurated in a great celebration by the German emperor,

Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

. Although it did not realize all the hopes astronomers had for it, nevertheless two important discoveries should be mentioned: the interstellar calcium lines in the spectrum of the spectroscopic binary Delta Orionis by Johannes Hartmann in 1904 and the presence of stellar calcium emission lines — a hint of stellar surface activity — by Gustav Eberhard and

Hans Ludendorff Friedrich Wilhelm Hans Ludendorff ( Dunowo, 26 May 1873 – Potsdam, 26 June 1941) was a German astronomer and astrophysicist. He was the younger brother of General Erich Ludendorff. After studying physics, mathematics and astronomy in Berlin, h ...

about 1900. Ten years later one of the most famous astrophysicists of this century,

Karl Schwarzschild Karl Schwarzschild (; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer. Schwarzschild provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-r ...

, became director of the observatory. In only a few years of work (by 1916 he had died from a chronic illness) he had made fundamental contributions in astrophysics and to

General Relativity Theory General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics. G ...

. Only a few weeks after the theory's publication by Einstein, Schwarzschild found the first solution of the

Einstein equations In the general theory of relativity, the Einstein field equations (EFE; also known as Einstein's equations) relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it. The equations were published by Einstein in 1915 in the form ...

, which is now named after him as the "

Schwarzschild solution In Einstein's theory of general relativity, the Schwarzschild metric (also known as the Schwarzschild solution) is an exact solution to the Einstein field equations that describes the gravitational field outside a spherical mass, on the assump ...

" and which is of fundamental importance for the theory of black holes. There exist further close links between the AOP and Einstein's Relativity Theory. In 1881

Albert A. Michelson Albert Abraham Michelson FFRS HFRSE (surname pronunciation anglicized as "Michael-son", December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was a German-born American physicist of Polish/Jewish origin, known for his work on measuring the speed of light and esp ...

first performed his interferometer experiments in the cellar of the main building of the AOP, that were to disprove the movement of the Earth through a hypothetical aether. His negative results were fundamentally reconciled only through Einstein's

Special Relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws ...

theory of 1905. To prove the

gravitational redshift In physics and general relativity, gravitational redshift (known as Einstein shift in older literature) is the phenomenon that electromagnetic waves or photons travelling out of a gravitational well (seem to) lose energy. This loss of energy ...

of spectral lines of the Sun — an effect proposed by Einstein's theory of General Relativity — was the aim of a solar tower telescope, which was built from 1921 to 1924 at the instigation of Erwin Finlay-Freundlich. Though at that time it was not yet technically possible to measure the gravitational redshift, important developments in solar and plasma physics were started here and the architect, Erich Mendelsohn, created with this peculiarly expressionistic tower a unique scientific building. Besides the work of Schwarzschild, in the following decades important observational programmes such as the ''Potsdamer Photometrische Durchmusterung'' and the outstanding investigations of

Walter Grotrian Walter Robert Wilhelm Grotrian (21 April 1890 in Aachen; † 3 March 1954 in Potsdam) was a German astronomer and astrophysicist. Grotrian studied the emission line from the solar corona in the green region of the spectrum; this emission line co ...

on the

solar corona A corona ( coronas or coronae) is the outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It consists of plasma. The Sun's corona lies above the chromosphere and extends millions of kilometres into outer space. It is most easily seen during a total solar ...

found recognition all over the world.

Relocation of the Berlin Observatory to Babelsberg

At the end of the 19th century the

, originally built outside the border of the town, was enclosed by blocks of flats, so scientific observations were almost impossible. Therefore, Foerster proposed the removal of the observatory to a place outside Berlin with better observational conditions. In 1904 he appointed Karl Hermann Struve, former director of the observatory of Königsberg, as his successor to realize this project. After test observations by

Paul Guthnick Paul Guthnick (January 12, 1879 – September 6, 1947) was a German astronomer. Born in Hitdorf am Rhein, he studied at the University of Bonn receiving his doctorate in 1901 under Friedrich Küstner. He worked from 1901 at the Royal Observat ...

in the summer of 1906 a new site was found on a hill in the eastern part of the Royal Park of

. The ground was placed at the observatory's disposal by the crown free of charge. The costs of the new buildings and the new instruments amounted to 1.5 million Goldmark and could be covered by selling the landed property of the Berlin Observatory. The old observatory built by Schinkel was pulled down later. In June 1911 the construction of a new observatory began in Babelsberg and on 2 August 1913 the removal from Berlin to Babelsberg was complete. The first new instruments were delivered in the spring of 1914. The 65 cm

Zeiss refractor telescope
at AIP — the first big astronomical instrument manufactured by the famous enterprise of Carl Zeiss Jena — was mounted in 1915, whereas the completion of the 122 cm reflector telescope was delayed until 1924 by the First World War. Struve died in 1920 from an accident, and his successor was

, who introduced in 1913 photoelectric photometry into astronomy as the first objective method of measuring the brightness of stars. When the 122 cm telescope (at this time the second largest in the world) was finished, the Babelsberg Observatory was the best-equipped observatory of Europe. The development of the photoelectric method for investigating weakly variable stars and spectroscopic investigations with the 122 cm telescope made the Babelsberg observatory well-known beyond Europe, too. At the beginning of 1931 the

Sonneberg Observatory Sonneberg Observatory (german: Sternwarte Sonneberg) is an astronomical observatory and was formerly an institute of the Academy of Science in the German Democratic Republic. It was founded in 1925 by Cuno Hoffmeister and is located in Sonneberg, ...

founded by

Cuno Hoffmeister Cuno Hoffmeister (2 February 1892 – 2 January 1968) was a German astronomer, observer and discoverer of variable stars, comets and minor planets, and founder of Sonneberg Observatory. Born in Sonneberg in 1892 to Carl and Marie Hoffmeister, C ...

was attached to the Babelsberg Observatory. For more than 60 years a photographic sky survey was carried out, which represents the second largest archive of astronomical photographic plates. This archive and the discovery and investigation of

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...

s popularized the name Sonneberg all over the astronomical world. With the beginning of the fascist regime, the fortunes of astronomy in Potsdam as well as in Babelsberg started to decline. The banishment of Jewish co-workers played an essential role in this process. The beginning of the Second World War practically marked the cessation of astronomical research.

Developments after the Second World War

The new start after the war was very difficult. In Potsdam the

had suffered heavy damage by bombs, in

valuable instruments, among them the 122 cm telescope (whose former building now houses the AIP library), were dismounted and removed to the Soviet Union as war reparations. Now the 122 cm telescope works in the

Crimean Astrophysical Observatory The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO, obs. code: 095) is located at Nauchnij research campus, near the Central Crimean city of Bakhchysarai, on the Crimean peninsula. CrAO is often called simply by its location and campus name, ...

. In January 1947 the German Academy of Sciences took the AOP and the Babelsberg Observatory under its administration, but it was not until the beginning of the 1950s before astronomical research started anew. AOP director Hans Kienle took over the editorial duties of the professional journal Astronomical Notes (German: Astronomische Nachrichten), which is to this day edited at the AIP and moreover the oldest professional journal for astronomy. In June 1954 the Observatory for Solar Radio AstronomyObservatory for Solar Radio Astronomy
– OSRA (OSRA) in Tremsdorf (17 km southeast of Potsdam) began its work as a part of the AOP. Its history started in 1896: after the discovery of the radio waves by

Heinrich Hertz Heinrich Rudolf Hertz ( ; ; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism. The unit ...

in 1888,

Johannes Wilsing Johannes Wilsing (8 September 1856 – 23 December 1943) was a German astronomer. He was born in Berlin, where he was educated in addition to Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central ...

and

Julius Scheiner Julius Scheiner (25 November 1858 – 20 December 1913) was a German astronomer, born in Cologne and educated at Bonn. He became assistant at the astrophysical observatory in Potsdam in 1887 and its observer in chief in 1898, three years after h ...

, fellows of the AOP, tried to detect radio emission from the Sun. They did not succeed, because of the low sensitivity of their equipment. After the Second World War Herbert Daene started once again to attempt radio observations of the Sun in Babelsberg which were continued in Tremsdorf. In October 1960 the 2 m telescope built by Carl Zeiss Jena was inaugurated in the

Tautenburg Tautenburg is a municipality in the district Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany. It is home to the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory The Karl Schwarzschild Observatory (german: Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium) is a German astronomical observato ...

Forest near Jena and the new

Karl Schwarzschild Observatory The Karl Schwarzschild Observatory (german: Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium) is a German astronomical observatory in Tautenburg near Jena, Thuringia. It was founded in 1960 as an affiliated institute of the former German Academy of Sciences at ...

was founded. The Schmidt variant of this telescope is to this day the largest astronomical wide-field camera in the world and it was the main observational instrument of the astronomers of the GDR. In 1969 the four East-German astronomical institutes, Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam, Babelsberg Observatory, the Thuringian

, and

, were joined in the course of academy reform to the Central Institute of Astrophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR. The solar observatory

and Observatory for Solar Radio Astronomy were affiliated later. One part of the scientific activities concerned cosmic magnetic fields and cosmic dynamos, phenomena of

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

, magnetic and eruptive processes on the Sun, explosive energy dissipation processes in plasmas,

variable stars A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...

and stellar activity. Another part was directed to the early phases of cosmic evolution and the origin of structures in the Universe, large-scale structures up to those of superclusters and to

active galaxies An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not pr ...

. In this connection special methods of image processing have been developed. In addition, investigations in astrometry have also been performed. The scientific work of the Central Institute for Astrophysics suffered strongly from the isolation of the GDR from the western world. It was very difficult to come into contact with western colleagues. After the autumn 1989

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...

, new possibilities at once arose.

Reunification and the founding of the AIP

On the basis of the prescriptions of the Unification Agreement for the

Academy of Sciences An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...

of the GDR, the Central Institute of Astrophysics was dissolved on 31 December 1991. On the recommendation of the Science Council on 1 January 1992 the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, with a greatly reduced staff, was founded. It occupies the former Babelsberg Observatory site in

Potsdam-Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter (''Stadtteil'') of Potsdam, the capital city of the German state of Brandenburg. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palac ...

. The

and the

are no longer affiliated with the AIP, but the AIP still operates the Observatory for Solar Rado Astronomy (OSRA) in Tremsdorf and maintains the Great Refractor and

at Telegrafenberg. Since then, the AIP has broadened its research areas, initiated several new technical projects, and participates in several large international research projects (see below). On April 15, 2011, the name of the AIP was changed to "Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam", to emphasize the affiliation of the institute with the Leibniz Association. The institute retains the abbreviation "AIP", as well as the "aip.de" Internet domain.

Main research areas

Magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is the study of the magnetic properties and behaviour of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas, liquid metals, ...

(MHD): Magnetic fields and turbulence in stars, accretion disks and galaxies; computer simulations ao dynamos, magnetic instabilities and magnetic convection *

Solar physics Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It deals with detailed measurements that are possible only for our closest star. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics, astrophysics, and compu ...

: Observation of sunspots and of solar magnetic field with spectro-polarimetry;

Helioseismology Helioseismology, a term coined by Douglas Gough, is the study of the structure and dynamics of the Sun through its oscillations. These are principally caused by sound waves that are continuously driven and damped by convection near the Sun's sur ...

and hydrodynamic numerical models; Study of coronal plasma processes by means of radio astronomy; Operation of the Observatory for Solar Radio Astronomy (OSRA) in Tremsdorf, with four radio antennas in different frequency bands from 40 MHz to 800 MHz * Stellar physics: Numerical simulations of convection in stellar atmospheres, determination of stellar surface parameters and chemical abundances, winds and dust shells of red giants; Doppler tomography of stellar surface structures, development of robotic telescopes, as well as simulation of magnetic flux tubes * Star formation and the interstellar medium: Brown dwarfs and low-mass stars, circumstellar disks, Origin of double and multiple-star systems * Galaxies and quasars: Mother galaxies and surroundings of quasars, development of quasars and active galactic cores, structure and the story of the origin of the Milky Way, numerical computer simulations of the origin and development of galaxies *

Cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

: Numerical simulation of the formation of large-scale structures. Semi-analytic models of galaxy formation and evolution. Predictions for future large observational surveys.

Participation in large international research projects

Large Binocular Telescope

The

(LBT) is a new telescope on Mt. Grahams in Arizona. The LBT consists of 2 huge 8.4 m telescopes on a common mount. With their 110 square meter area, the LBT is the largest telescope in the world on a single mount, only surpassed by the combined VLTs and Kecks.

RAVE

The Radial Velocity Experiment measures until 2010 the radial velocities and elemental abundances of a million stars, predominantly in the southern celestial hemisphere. The 6dF multi-object spectrograph on the 1.2 m UK Schmidt telescope of the Anglo-Australian Observatory will be applied for this purpose.

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will investigate in detail a quarter of the whole sky and determine the position and absolute brightness of more than 100 million sky objects. Besides that, the distances of more than a million galaxies and quasars will be estimated. With the help of this study, astronomers will be able to assess the distribution of large-scale structures in the Universe. This can provide hints about the story of the development of the Universe.

LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray)

LOFAR is a European radio interferometer, that measures radio waves with many individual antennas in different places which it combines to a single signal. One of these international LOFAR stations has been constructed in Bornim by Potsdam and is being operated by the AIP.

Solar Orbiter

Solar Orbiter The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a Sun-observing satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). SolO, designed to obtain detailed measurements of the inner heliosphere and the nascent solar wind, will also perform close observations of th ...

is an international mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with participation from NASA. It was launched on 10 February 2020, and it will observe the Sun for at least seven years. The scientific payload consists of 10 instruments: four in-situ instruments that measure the physical conditions (magnetic field, radio waves, energetic particles...) at the location of the spacecraft, and six remote sensing instruments that observe the Sun and its corona in various wavelength ranges. The AIP is involved in the operations and scientific exploitation of two instruments: the Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX), and the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD).

Technical projects

Virtual observatory

The German Astrophysical Virtual ObservatoryGAVO
– German Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (GAVO) is an

project, that creates a virtual observation platform to support modern astrophysical research in Germany. It is the German contribution to international efforts to establish a general Virtual Observatory. GAVO enables standardized access to German and international data archives.

GREGOR

GREGORGREGOR
– solar telescope is a 1.5 m telescope for solar research of the

Teide Observatory Teide Observatory ( es, Observatorio del Teide), IAU code 954, is an astronomical observatory on Mount Teide at , located on Tenerife, Spain. It has been operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias since its inauguration in 1964. It bec ...

on Tenerife. It is a new type of solar telescope, which supersedes the previous 45 cm Gregory-Coudé telescope. GREGOR is equipped with

adaptive optics Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of incoming wavefront distortions by deforming a mirror in order to compensate for the distortion. It is used in astronomical tele ...

and will achieve a resolution of 70 km of the Sun's surface. The investigation of these small structures is important for the understanding of the underlying processes of the interaction of magnetic fields with plasma turbulence on the Sun. The development of the Gregor telescope will be led by the Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS)Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS)
/ref> with the participation of several institutes. The telescope is named after James Gregory, the inventor of the Gregorian telescope.

AGWs of the Large Binocular Telescope

The AIP is a partner in the LBT Consortium (LBTC) and contributes financially and materially in the construction of the

. This entails both the development and the fabrication of the optics and the mechanical and electronic components as well as the development of the software for the acquisition, guiding and wavefront sensing unitsAGW-units
for the LBT by the AIP (AGWs). The AGW units are essential components of the telescope and indispensable for the

Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE)

The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is an instrument of the second generation for the VLT of the ESO. MUSE is optimized for the observation of normal galaxies out to very high redshift. It will furthermore deliver detailed studies of nearby normal, interacting, and starburst galaxies.

Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric & Spectroscopic Instrument (PEPSI)

PEPSI is a high-resolution spectrograph for the LBT. It will enable the simultaneous observation of circularly and linearly polarized light with high spectral and temporal resolution. The spectrograph is situated in a temperature- and pressure-stabilized room within the telescope column. The light will be conducted by fiber optics from the telescope to the spectrograph.

STELLA

STELLA is a robotic observatory that consists of two 1.2 m telescopes. It is a long-term project to observe indicators of stellar activity of Sun-like stars. The operation occurs unattended — the telescopes decide the appropriate observation strategy automatically.

Observatory for Solar Radio Astronomy (OSRA)

The radio observatory OSRA has been observing and recording radio emission from the Sun's corona every day from 1990 until 2007. It was composed of four antennas, observing in four different frequency bands: 40–80 MHz, 100–170 MHz, 200–400 MHz and 400–800 MHz. The antennas were robotised to follow the Sun automatically. The observatory was located in Tremsdorf, near Potsdam.

Telescopes and collaborations

solar telescope * Great Refractor at Telegrafenberg * GREGOR solar telescope, collaboration with KIS *

Meridian Circle The meridian circle is an instrument for timing of the passage of stars across the local meridian, an event known as a culmination, while at the same time measuring their angular distance from the nadir. These are special purpose telescopes moun ...

* OSRA Solar Radio Observatory in Tremsdorf * RoboTel robotic telescope * STELLA robotic telescope *

Vacuum Tower Telescope The Vacuum Tower Telescope is an evacuated-optics solar telescope located at the Teide Observatory on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It is operated by the Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS). It was built between 1983 and 1986, wi ...

VTT, collaboration with KIS * Zeiss 70 cm reflector telescope * Zeiss 50 cm reflector telescopeZeiss 50 cm reflector telescope
at AIP * Zeiss refractor telescope

Notes

References

* Wolfgang R. Dick, Klaus Fritze (Hrsg.): ''300 Jahre Astronomie in Berlin und Potsdam: eine Sammlung von Aufsätzen aus Anlaß des Gründungsjubiläums der Berliner Sternwarte''.

Verlag Harri Deutsch The (VHD, HD) with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, as well as in Zürich and Thun, Switzerland, was a German publishing house founded in 1961 and closed in 2013. Overview The ' with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, w ...

, Thun, Frankfurt am Main 2000,

External links

Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

Large Binocular Telescope Observatory

The German Astronomy Community Grid
Astrophysical e-Science in Germany {{Authority control Astronomy organizations Astronomical observatories in Germany Leibniz Association Astrophysics institutes Buildings and structures in Potsdam Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Science and technology in East Germany