10/09/2025 Today, we are celebrating the birthday of an ORIGINS scientist whose impact spans generations, continents - and the (local) universe itself. Rolf Kudritzki is a world leading expert in the field of extragalactic stellar spectroscopy and the founding director of the Munich Institute for Astro-, Particle and BioPhysics (MIAPbP), a centre for scientific exchange.

10/02/2025 Astronomers, among them ORIGINS researchers, have identified an enormous ‘growth spurt’ in a so-called rogue planet. The new observations, made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tonnes a second. This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded for a rogue planet, or a planet of any kind, providing valuable insights into how they form and grow.

09/13/2025 On Saturday, September 13, the ESO Supernova will participate in the nationwide Long Night of Astronomy and will be offering various special programs from 6:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Researchers from the ORIGINS cluster will also be present, answering questions in the exhibition and, weather permitting, conducting live observations with the telescopes on the roof terrace.

09/04/2025 The European Research Council has awarded ORIGINS scientist Prof. Lukas Heinrich an ERC Starting Grant. Lukas Heinrich holds the professorship for Data Science in Physics at Technical University of Munich (TUM) and is coordinator of the ORIGINS Data Science Lab (ODSL). His research focuses on the development of machine learning and statistical methods, as well as computational analysis techniques in high-energy physics.

08/18/2025 The German Astronomical Society has awarded ORIGINS scientist Paola Caselli, director of the Center for Astrochemical Studies at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, the Karl Schwarzschild Medal 2025. Germany's most prestigious award recognises her groundbreaking work in the fields of astrochemistry and star formation.

08/14/2025 ORIGINS scientist Dr. Julia Stadler is founding a new research group at LMU’s University Observatory Munich. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has awarded her undertaking around 1.6 million euros in funding through its Emmy Noether Programme.

07/31/2025 We mourn the loss of our member Dr. Stella Seitz. Stella passed away on 13 July 2025, leaving a huge gap in many areas. As a Senior Staff Astronomer at the LMU University Observatory, where she worked for over three decades, Stella was a valuable and very active member of our cluster initiatives from the very beginning. With great enthusiasm and energy, she was involved in the C2PAP Governing Committee, the Scientific Advisory Board of MIAPbP, and the Selection Committee for SEED projects, thereby contributing significantly to the success of the Universe and ORIGINS…

07/10/2025 The Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) announced the large-scale research projects that have made it onto the shortlist of the National Prioritization Procedure for Research Infrastructures (FIS). Among them are two internationally outstanding projects from the TUM School of Natural Sciences: the LEGEND-1000 experiment, co-initiated by Prof. Stefan Schönert, who also serves as the European spokesperson for the collaboration, and the IceCube-Gen2 project, whose TUM team is led by Prof. Elisa Resconi.

06/26/2025 How does a cell membrane form without metabolism? Or conversely, how does metabolism arise without a cell membrane? This classic chicken-and-egg problem is addressed in a recent study published in Nature Physics by researchers from LMU professor Dieter Braun’s team. They have demonstrated a possible mechanism for metabolic processes without cell membranes in water-filled pores.

06/20/2025 By now a beloved tradition, the 2025 edition of the annual PhD Days of the ORIGINS excellence cluster took place in Kufstein, Austria. Over three days, 19 young physicists came together to present their research, dive into interdisciplinary discussions about their respective fields, and explore the stunning Austrian countryside.