News
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Motion of stars near Milky Way's central black hole is only predictable for few hundred years13 September 2023The orbits of 27 stars orbiting closely around the black hole at the center of our Milky Way are very chaotic. As a result, researchers cannot predict...
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Uncovering galaxy evolution and the nature of dark matter10 August 2023Dark matter represents around eighty per cent of the total mass in the Universe. Yet, we still don't really know what it's made of. Astronomer Pavel M...
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Michiel Hogerheijde new Programme Director at Leiden Observatory03 August 2023Michiel Hogerheijde will be the new Programme Director of the bachelor Astronomy starting 1 October. The appointment is for four years. Hogerheijde su...
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Veni grants for 16 Leiden researchers03 August 2023Sixteen researchers at Leiden University are to receive a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). These awards off...
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Space telescope Euclid makes first test images - astronomers are full of anticipation01 August 2023The two instruments of ESA's space telescope Euclid have taken their first test images. The first images indicate that the space telescope will achiev...
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What was there first? Water or planets?28 July 2023Could water be present in planet-forming disks before the formation of rocky planets? The James Webb Space Telescope may have found evidence for that....
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Tracking the origin and evolution of molecules in space28 July 2023How do molecules originate and evolve in space? And how does that ultimately determine the chemical composition of planets and their atmospheres? The ...
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After the launch of the next big space mission: ‘This is a big step towards understanding dark matter and dark energy.’07 July 2023What is it like to work on the fundamental questions about the universe? On July 1, the Euclid satellite launched successfully. This mission from the ...
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Sjoert van Velzen receives Vidi grant to solve 'riddles from the universe'29 June 2023Minuscule elementary particles from space colliding with Earth can give us an insight into the distant objects they come from. But first, you need to ...
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Surprising molecule helps detect protoplanets28 June 2023A team of scientists, including Leiden Astronomer Alice Booth, has discovered silicon monosulfide molecules in the dust disk around a young star. Such...
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Leiden PhD student discovers thin atmosphere on exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c with JWST20 June 2023A group of astronomers led by Leiden PhD student Sebastian Zieba has discovered using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that the rocky exoplanet T...
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What tiny isotopes reveal about planets outside our solar system01 June 2023Planets existing in other solar systems contain invaluable information about the origin of planets and life. PhD candidate Yapeng Zhang has studied th...
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How do you recognise the atmosphere of extraterrestrial lava worlds?23 May 2023In the past 30 years, over 5,000 planets have been discovered outside our solar system. One common exoplanet is the lava world, a hot super-Earth with...
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BlackGEM telescopes begin hunt for gravitational-wave sources16 May 2023Three Dutch-Belgian telescopes have started operating at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile. This so-called BlackGEM array will scan the southern s...
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Astronomers spot benzene in planet-forming disk around star for first time11 May 2023An international team of astronomers including Leiden professor Ewine van Dishoeck has observed the benzene molecule (C6H6) in a planet-forming disk a...