04/11/2025 The international KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has once again surpassed its own achievements. The latest data, recently published in Science, establish an upper limit of 8 x $10^{-37}$ kg (or in scientific language 0.45 eV/$c^2$) for the neutrino mass. With this result, KATRIN, which measures neutrino mass in the laboratory using a model-independent method, has once again set a world record. The KATRIN team of the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS and the Collaborative Research Center 1258 at the Technical…

04/02/2025 The expansion rate of the universe, expressed by the Hubble constant (H₀), remains one of the most discussed quantities in cosmology. Measurements based on nearby objects yield a higher value than those derived from observations of the early universe - a discrepancy known as the "Hubble tension." ORIGINS researchers at MPA have now presented a new, independent determination of H₀ using Type II supernovae. The resulting value, H₀ = 74.9 ± 1.9 km/s/Mpc, is consistent with other local measurements.

03/25/2025 A main characteristic of all living organisms is that cells can dynamically alter their shape – otherwise, fundamental processes like cell division would not work. An international team led by ORIGINS coordinator Erwin Frey, Chair Professor of Statistical and Biological Physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, and Professor Nikta Fakhri from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), employing a combination of experimental and theoretical methods, has elucidated for the first time the mechanisms by which cells dynamically change their shape in response to environmental…

03/21/2025 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are among the most luminous and powerful sources in the universe. ORIGINS scientists at the MPP have now succeeded in studying cosmic jets – massive eruptions of matter from AGN – in detail and demonstrating how magnetic field structures influence this high-energy radiation. The journal Astronomy & Astrophysics recently published three articles on these findings.

03/19/2025 The first Euclid data published by ESA (Q1) provide impressive insights into the depths of the universe. They include high-resolution images of 26 million galaxies, reveal the finest structures and make it possible for the first time to precisely determine the shape and distance of more than 380,000 galaxies. And ORIGINS researchers at MPE play a central role in all of this.

03/11/2025 Zum siebten Mal vergibt der Exzellenzcluster ORIGINS die „ORIGINS PhD Awards" für zwei herausragende Doktorarbeiten in den Bereichen der Astro-, Kern- und Teilchenphysik sowie Biophysik. Interdisziplinäre Arbeiten, welche die verschiedenen Forschungsbereiche von ORIGINS verbinden, werden bevorzugt. Bewerbungsschluss ist der 15. Juli 2025.

03/03/2025 Most stars form in clusters, deeply embedded in the densest and coldest cores of giant molecular gas clouds. A few million years into the formation of a cluster the remaining gas is finally expelled by supernova explosions. Thereafter the clusters lose stars in the galactic tidal field and eventually disrupt. This entire life-cycle is very difficult to observe. Star clusters begin their lives deeply embedded in their birth clouds and are invisible to most observatories and the disruption of a single cluster can take tens of millions of years or more. An international team…

02/05/2025 Filaments are slender, thread-like structures of dark matter, gas and galaxies, forming a complex network known as the cosmic web. Theoretical models predict that they attract and channel cold gas to fuel star formation in galaxies. An international team led by ORIGINS researchers from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich (LMU), the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has now, for the first time, discovered a dozen massive hydrogen clouds along a filament. The filament is also very unusual: it consists of an…

02/03/2025 ORIGINS PhD student Eva Sextl from the University Observatory of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich wins the first AI-Hub@LMU award for the most innovative AI-based research project for her work “Spectral Genesis: Converting Galaxy Images into Spectroscopic Insights with Generative Artificial Intelligence”.

01/24/2025 Astronomers, including ORIGINS scientists, have discovered extremely powerful winds pummeling the equator of WASP-127b, a giant exoplanet. Reaching speeds up to 33 000 km/h, the winds make up the fastest jet stream of its kind ever measured on a planet. The discovery was made using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile and provides unique insights into the weather patterns of a distant world.