News
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In memoriam Harold V.J. Linnartz 1965 – 2023: Unlocking the Chemistry of the Heavens03 January 2024With 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 honours21 December 2023Not 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 space06 December 2023For 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 disk06 December 2023An 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 star01 December 2023The 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-107b16 November 2023A 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 cosmos07 November 2023The 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 Africa06 November 2023Leiden 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 ever24 October 2023Not 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 star11 October 2023For 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 precision10 October 2023The 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...
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Elena Maria Rossi continues her search for the origins of the largest black holes, but now as a professor09 October 2023Elena Maria Rossi is fascinated by black holes. Her appointment as a professor was a long-held wish, partly because there are so few female professors...
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Nienke van der Marel receives New Horizons Prize15 September 2023Nienke van der Marel has been awarded the New Horizons Prize in physics for her pioneering research on planet formation. This prize is given to young,...