The Astronomical Calculation Institute (; ARI) is a research institute in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, Germany, with origins dating back from the 1700s. Beginning in 2005, the ARI became part of the Center for Astronomy at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

(', ). Previously, the institute directly belonged to the state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

Description

The ARI has a rich history. It was founded in 1700 in Berlin-Dahlem by

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, director ...

. It had its origin in a patent application by

Frederick I of Prussia Frederick I (; 11 July 1657 – 25 February 1713), of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was (as Frederick III) List of margraves and electors of Brandenburg, Elector of Brandenburg (1688–1713) and Duke of Prussia in personal union (Brandenburg–Pr ...

, who introduced a monopoly on publishing star catalogs in Prussia. In 1945 the Institute was moved by the Americans nearer to the

United States Army Garrison Heidelberg The U.S. Army Garrison Heidelberg was made up of a number of United States Military base, military installations in and around Heidelberg, Germany in the state of Baden-Württemberg, along with Germersheim Depot in the neighboring German state of Rh ...

. On January 1, 2005 the combined Center for Astronomy institute formed by combining ARI, with the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (', ITA) and the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl ("Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory", LSW). The ARI has been responsible among other things for the Gliese catalog of nearby stars, the fundamental catalogs FK5 and FK6, and the annually-published "Apparent Places of Fundamental Stars" (APFS),Apparent Places of Fundamental Stars
/ref> stellar ephemerides that provide high-precision mean and apparent positions of over three thousand stars for each day. During 1938–1945, whilst based in Berlin, ARI published the academic journal '' Astronomical Notes'' (). , ARI was not limited to only publishing star catalogs, but has a wider research scope, including

gravitational lensing A gravitational lens is matter, such as a galaxy cluster, cluster of galaxies or a point particle, that bends light from a distant source as it travels toward an observer. The amount of gravitational lensing is described by Albert Einstein's Ge ...

, galaxy evolution,

stellar dynamics Stellar dynamics is the branch of astrophysics which describes in a statistical way the collective motions of stars subject to their mutual gravity. The essential difference from celestial mechanics is that the number of body N \gg 10. Typic ...

, and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

. ARI is also involved in space astronomy missions including the

Gaia mission ''Gaia'' was a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) that was launched in 2013 and operated until March 2025. The spacecraft was designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented ...

. In 2007 professors Eva K. Grebel and Joachim Wambsganß ( de) became co-directors of the institute. Other researchers involved with the institute include Hartmut Jahreiß author of the updated ''

Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars The ''Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars'' (, English ) is a star catalogue listing stars located within 25 parsecs (82 ly) of the Sun. First edition and supplements In 1957, German astronomer Wilhelm Gliese published his first star ca ...

''; Eugene Rabe; Lutz D. Schmadel, author of the ''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names'';

Hans Scholl Hans Fritz Scholl (; 22 September 1918 – 22 February 1943) was, along with Alexander Schmorell, one of the two founding members of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. The principal author of the resistance movement's ...

; and Rainer Spurzem working with N-body simulations.

Directors

Between 1700 and 2007 there was a single director of the institute at a time. From 2007 onwards there were joint co-directors of the institute:

Notes

External links

Homepage of the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut

MODEST
dynamics of star clusters, galaxies and galactic nuclei

project led by Rainer Spurzem to use reconfigurable hardware for astrophysical particle simulations {{Authority control 1700 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Heidelberg University Heidelberg Astronomy institutes and departments Research institutes in Germany Astrophysics research institutes Scientific organizations established in 1700

Description

Directors

Notes

See also

External links