A century ago, it was unclear whether the stars in the sky were clustered in groups, or widely spread in the universe.

Multiple stars, that is two or more stars composing a gravitationally bound system, are common in the universe.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Co-Promotor: M.R. Hogerheijde

In 2018, Leiden astrophysicist Ewine van Dishoeck won the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. At the Faculty's New Year's Reception 2019, she announced that she would start a new award for young science talents, financed by her prize money: the Young Star Award.

OB associations are loose groups of young, massive stars. They constitute the last stage of the massive starformation process, and the context in which new stars are formed.

This thesis develops a method for direction dependent calibration of the ionosphere in radio interferometric data.

Perform cutting-edge research in the area of the STAR mathematics cluster.

In the large gas clouds between the stars, chemical reactions take place under extreme conditions, giving rise to both small molecules, such as water and common salt, as well as large complex molecules that can serve as the building blocks of life. This is known as astrochemistry and it is something…

When observing star-forming galaxies, we are not only seeing stellar light, but we also see how this interacts with galactic gas and dust. This thesis contains studies of the stellar, nebular and dust properties of low mass star-forming galaxies.

The high velocity tail of the total velocity distribution of stars provides essential insight into fundamental properties of the Galaxy.

At Leiden Observatory, researchers investigate the origin of stars and their planetary systems. They detect and characterize planets around other stars, which are called exo-planets. They study how stars and planets form. And they follow molecules from interstellar clouds to nascent planet systems.…

Promotor: F.P. Israel, Co-Promoter: R. Meijerink

Promotor: P. T. de Zeeuw, Co-promotor: N. Neumayer; G. van de Ven

At Leiden Observatory, researchers investigate the origin of stars and their planetary systems. They detect and characterize planets around other stars (exoplanets). They study how stars and planets form. And they follow molecules from interstellar clouds to nascent planet systems. This way they address…

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Co-promotor: S. Bruderer

Why do some children confront social challenges with confidence, whereas others experience difficulties? What is the role of child temperament and child emotional dispositions? What is the role of parenting? This project aims to shed light on the mechanisms explaining shyness and confidence in response…

What is the origin of solar systems?

Rossi

Show People offers a comprehensive history of the film star from Mary Pickford to Andy Serkis, traversing more than one hundred years and drawing on examples from America, Britain, Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Franx, Co-Promotor: Rychard Bouwens

Molecular Science & Technology student Renske Donkers has won the second edition of the Young Star Award. During the ceremony on Wednesday 17 February, no less than three teachers were awarded the title 'Teacher of the Year'. Finally, students had a surprise in store for all teachers: with a video they…

How did galaxies form? How did galaxies evolve?

For only the second time ever, astronomers have linked a neutrino to an object outside our Milky Way. These observations were made using telescopes both on Earth and in space. The researchers, including Leiden astronomer Sjoert van Velzen, were able to trace the neutrino to a black hole that is devouring…

Leiden University has participated in an international study carried out by the CARMENES consortium, which has discovered two small, terrestrial planets around Teegarden’s Star. The planets have masses similar to Earth and their temperatures could be mild enough to sustain liquid water on their surf…

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Prof.dr. F.F.S. van der Tak (RUG)

An international team of astronomers including Leiden scientists publishes the image of a young star with a surrounding dust disk that is still being fed from its surroundings. The phenomenon around the star SU Aur may explain why so many exoplanets are not neatly aligned with their star. The European…

Promotores: Prof.dr. A.G.G.M. Tielens & Prof.dr. L. Kaper (UvA)

Promotores: Prof.dr. M. Franx & Prof.dr. P.G. van Dokkum (Yale University)

When a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, it is torn apart by strong tidal forces in a tidal disruption event (TDE).

The development of literary celebrity by focusing on five famous Dutch authors from the nineteenth century

In which way was literary celebrity constructed in the nineteenth century and what forms of fandom were there?

What is neutron star matter?

An international team led by Leiden astronomers has discovered why the two stars of binary star DI Herculis rotate so strangely around one another, which once even proved problematic for Einstein's theory of relativity. Their findings were published in Nature.

The thesis addresses the long-term dynamical evolution of hierarchical multiple systems.

For the first time, astronomers have detected the presence of complex organic molecules, the building blocks of life, in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. The discovery reaffirms that the conditions that spawned the Earth and Sun are not unique in the Universe. The results are published…

A team of Leiden astronomers used the latest set of data from ESA’s Gaia mission to look for high-velocity stars being kicked out of the Milky Way, but were surprised to find stars instead sprinting inwards – perhaps from another galaxy.

Up above the world so high a giant star twinkles. Could an 83-year-old astronomer unravel the mystery of this megastar? ‘At times I thought: that’s it! I give up! It’s beyond me.’

A team of European astronomers under Leiden leadership has discovered that dust particles around a star already coagulate before the star is fully grown. These agglomerated dust particles are the first step in the formation of planets. The research publish their discovery in the journal of Nature As…

Astronomers from Leiden University have discovered that the star wind from a newborn star in the Orion Nebula prevents more stars from forming in the immediate vicinity. They made the discovery with data from the SOFIA observatory. This was announced by co-author Xander Tielens during a press conference…

Simon Portegies Zwart, professor of Computational Astrophysics, uses computers to simulate the evolution of stars. We speak with him about his field and about the challenges of working with huge amounts of complex data.

Isabel van Vledder and Dieuwertje van der Vlugt, 2 astronomy students from Leiden University, have mapped the entire Milky Way galaxy in dwarf stars for the first time. This result is the most comprehensive model ever for the distribution of these stars. The findings appear in a new paper in Monthly…

NASA’s telescope SOFIA has provided a new glimpse of the chemistry in the inner region surrounding massive young stars where future planets could begin to form. Leiden PhD candidate Andrew Barr writes about it in the Astrophysical Journal. The scientists found massive quantities of water and organic…

New ALMA observations show there is ordinary table salt in a not-so-ordinary location: 1,500 light-years from Earth in the disk surrounding a massive young star. Though salts have been found in the atmospheres of old, dying stars, this is the first time they have been seen around young stars in stellar…

The third Honours Academy Star was awarded to Jan Sleutels during the opening ceremony of the academic year of the Honours Academy on Tuesday 6 October. Sleutels is a lecturer in the Honours College Humanities Lab of the Faculty of Humanities and coordinator of the Pre-University College.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Co-Promotor: G.J. Herczeg

At the beginning of 2020, Maite Boden became the first student ever to receive the Young Star award. She received the award for her contribution to research into the notorious ghost particle: the neutrino. With her master's degree in the pocket as well, she is now looking for a job in data analysis.…

On Wednesday February 7th, Professor Ed Copeland from the University of Nottingham will give the Colloquium Ehrenfestii.

Featuring the world’s first neural synthesizer, artist Guy Ben-Ary and his collaborators will perform at the TodaysArt Festival in The Hague on 21 September. For this performance, he collaborated with the lab of Erik Danen to transform neural stem cells into neural networks on a chip.