Home | Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

The research focus of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research is our cosmic neighborhood: the solar system with its planets and moons, comets and asteroids as well as the sun. The aim of the scientists is to describe the processes in the solar system in models and to simulate them on the computer. In addition, instruments are being developed and built to study these bodies from space. The Institute is involved in numerous space missions.

Sunrise III launches successfully

The balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise III has embarked on its research flight: at 6.24 AM (CEST) this morning, the observatory lifted off safely from Esrange Space Center near the small town of Kiruna in northern Sweden. Carried by a giant helium balloon, the stratospheric flight of several days now leads westwards along the Arctic Circle across the Atlantic to Canada.

Award-winning young researchers

Scientists Yuto Bekki from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research as well as Ida Marie Astad Jentoft and Panagiotis Poulis from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences as have been awarded the Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding achievements in their dissertations. Jentoft is also honored with the Otto Hahn Award for the exceptional quality of her research. The Max Planck Society awarded the prizes at its annual meeting in Berlin on June 12.

Jupiter: Hurricanes to a depth of 2000 kilometers

The hurricanes racing across Jupiter continue far into the interior of the planet’s atmosphere. Only at a depth of around 2000 kilometers do they abruptly break off, as researchers at the MPS confirm. In the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they present the results of computer simulations that for the first time realistically take into account the extreme properties of Jupiter's atmosphere.

Getting to the true sizes of exoplanets

A star’s magnetic field must be considered in order to correctly determine the characteristics of their exoplanets from observations. This is demonstrated by new model calculations presented in the journal Nature Astronomy by a MPS-led research group. The researchers show that the distribution of the star’s brightness over its disk depends on the star’s level of magnetic activity. This, in turn, affects the signature of an exoplanet in observational data.

Research Departments

Sun and Heliosphere

The focus of this department is the solar interior, the solar atmosphere, the solar magnetic field, the heliosphere, and the interplanetary medium, as well as solar radiation and solar energetic particles. The balloon-mission Sunrise, a balloon-borne solar observatory, is managed by this department. The mission investigates our central star from a height of about 35 km. In addition to several other participations in space missions, the department significantly contributes to the ESA's Solar Orbiter.

Planetary Science Department

This department investigates the interior, the surfaces, atmospheres, ionospheres, and magnetospheres of planets and their moons, as well as comets and asteroids. The department currently contributes or has contributed to important space missions such as the ESA's missions JUICE to the Jovian system, BepiColombo to Mercury and Rosetta to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko as well as NASA's missions InSight to Mars and Dawn to the asteroid belt.

Solar and Stellar Interiors

Helioseismology and asteroseismology are tools that use the oscillations of the Sun and stars to probe their interior structure and dynamics. This allows us to test and refine the theory of stellar structure and evolution, thereby bringing us closer to understanding solar and stellar magnetism. The department hosts the German Data Center for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, and is preparing to host the data center of ESA's exoplanet hunting mission, PLATO.