News
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Michiel Hogerheijde temporary programme director MSc Astronomy 24 January 2024
Michiel Hogerheijde has been appointed temporary programme director of the Astronomy master's programme from 1 January to 1 September 2024. He takes o...
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Black hole one year later: proof of a persistent shadow 18 January 2024
The brightness peak of the ring around M87's supermassive black hole has shifted 30 degrees counterclockwise in a year. This is shown by new images re...
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In memoriam Harold V.J. Linnartz 1965 – 2023: Unlocking the Chemistry of the Heavens 03 January 2024
With great sadness we share the news that Prof. Harold Linnartz passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday 31 December 2023. We are all in shock,...
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Black holes are sometimes gigantic volcanoes. Martijn Oei earned his PhD on the subject, with honours 21 December 2023
Not everything that comes close to a black hole is swallowed by it. Black holes can also hurl material away, and that chance turns out to be considera...
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‘The questions and ideas from students also make me a better researcher’ 07 December 2023
‘Yamila Miguel brings along immense enthusiasm that sparks over to the students in the lectures,’ her students say about her. ‘She inspires us as scie...
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Galaxies have bipolar gas outflows far into intergalactic space 06 December 2023
For the first time, astronomers have observed in three dimensions that gas from spiral galaxies is blown upwards and downwards at high speed, far out ...
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First detailed picture of ice in planet-forming disk 06 December 2023
An international team of astronomers led by Ardjan Sturm of the Observatory has made the first two-dimensional inventory of ice in a planet-forming di...
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Planet found too big for its parent star 01 December 2023
The discovery of a planet far too large for its sun defies models about the formation of solar systems and planets. In a paper in Science, researchers...
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James Webb Space Telescope sees sand clouds on 'cotton candy planet' WASP-107b 16 November 2023
A team of European astronomers has found a silicate-based weather system on a cloudy gas planet around the star WASP-107. It is the first time astrono...
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ESA presents first crystal-clear Euclid photos of the cosmos 07 November 2023
The first full-colour images of the cosmos from ESA's space telescope Euclid were presented today. Never before has a telescope been able to take such...
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New research programme for urgent challenges in Africa 06 November 2023
Leiden University and four other Dutch universities will appoint 51 PhD candidates to conduct solution-oriented research for and with the African cont...
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‘When a student sees the light, that’s what fulfills me’ 26 October 2023
'Education has always been something I am very interested in,' says the passionate Michiel Hogerheijde. He was already chairman of the astronomy progr...
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FLAMINGO: dark matter, ordinary matter, and neutrinos in the biggest cosmological simulation ever 24 October 2023
Not only dark matter, but also ordinary matter and dark energy are tracked in the largest ever cosmological computer simulation ever. In the FLAMINGO ...
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Dust cloud from two colliding ice planets dims light of parent star 11 October 2023
For the first time, an international group of astronomers have seen the heat glow of two ice giant planets colliding. They could also observe the resu...
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Gaia data maps globular cluster, gravitational lensing and asteroids with great precision 10 October 2023
The European Space Agency (ESA) has published an interim data release from Gaia, the space telescope mapping out the Milky Way in 3D. The first scient...