News
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Eruptions of yellow hypergiants: these are the latest revelations21 February 2025They are among the rarest and most extremely luminous stars in our universe: yellow hypergiants. Their spectacular eruptions have intrigued astronomer...
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‘World leader in star-planet interactions’ appointed professor13 February 2025Aline Vidotto has been appointed professor of Stellar and Planetary Astrophysics at the Observatory from 1 February. Vidotto has been with the univers...
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Last starlight for space telescope Gaia17 January 2025ESA’s space telescope Gaia, which maps the Milky Way, completes its active phase of scanning the sky on 15 January. Over the past decade, Gaia has mad...
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Lost sulfur in the universe found in salt on dust and pebbles16 January 2025An international team led by astronomers at Leiden University has shown in laboratory experiments that sulfur can bind with ammonium under icy cosmic ...
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Erik Deul receives royal decoration12 December 2024Erik Deul was awarded a royal decoration on Wednesday afternoon. He has been appointed Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau. Mayor Peter Heijkoop of L...
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Shocks in space: student Adriaan explores the universe around protostars09 December 2024Protostars, data science, and the James Webb Space Telescope—Adriaan Janssen’s curiosity knows no bounds. As a double bachelor’s student in Physics an...
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Dust inhibits shock wave in iconic group of galaxies26 November 2024The shock wave triggered by one of the five galaxies making up the iconic Stephan’s Quintet appears to be less disruptive than previously thought, wit...
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Historical telescope returns to the Old Observatory15 November 2024The Old Observatory in Leiden has reclaimed its most important telescope. Since the 1960s, the Meridian Circle (also known as a transit telescope) had...
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From atoms to the cosmos: ‘Everything in the universe is connected’14 November 2024Exploring the largest structures in the universe by looking at the tiniest particles? Lydia Stofanova, PhD candidate at Leiden Observatory and SRON Ne...
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Astronomers Discover Ancient Solitary Quasars with Mysterious Origins18 October 2024An international team of astronomers, including Leiden PhD student Elia Pizzati, has observed several ancient quasars that, surprisingly, appear to be...
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Dozens of massive stars launched from young star cluster R13609 October 2024Astronomers have used data from the European Gaia Space Telescope to discover 55 high-speed stars launched from the young star cluster R136 in the Lar...
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Space oddity: Most distant rotating disc galaxy found07 October 2024Researchers have discovered the most distant Milky-Way-like galaxy yet observed. Dubbed REBELS-25, this disc galaxy seems as orderly as present-day ga...
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Outer solar system possibly formed by a passing star24 September 2024The many thousands of small celestial bodies beyond Neptune’s orbit may have ended up there due to a star that passed close to the solar system billio...
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Dutch astronomers observe giant jets emanating from black hole19 September 2024An international team of astronomers led by Dutch scientist Martijn Oei has discovered the largest pair of jets from a black hole ever seen. The 'jumb...
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Three new Programme Directors at the Science Faculty22 August 2024Starting 1 September, three new Programme Directors will begin at FWN. Daan van der Es, Reinout van Weeren, and Amineh Ghorbani will each be responsib...