Promotores: F.H. van Lunteren, F.P. Israel

This thesis focuses on the study of transient and variable radio sources in the universe.

The thesis deals with the study of giant radio galaxies (GRGs), which are radio galaxies of megaparsec sizes.

The success of Dutch radio astronomy in the last century was largely due to Leiden astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. He made astute use of circumstances in the post-war period. Historian Astrid Elbers' research focuses on this golden period.

This thesis explores the theoretical and observational properties of distant massive galaxies that harbour active black holes in their centres and shine brightly at radio wavelengths.

The LOFAR radio telescope produces petabytes of data every year. Radio Astronomers use complex multi-step pipelines to process this data and produce scientific images.

One of the key quests in astronomy is to study the growth and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. Radio observations provide a powerful means of studying the formation of stars and subsequent buildup of distant galaxies, in a way that is unbiased by the presence of dust.

After almost twenty years the record for the most distant radio galaxy has been broken. A team of astronomers led by Leiden PhD candidate Aayush Saxena has discovered a radio galaxy from the time when the universe was just one billion years old. The galaxy is at a distance of 12 billion light years…

It has now been well established that shocks and turbulent motions in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) generated through cluster mergers can produce large-scale synchrotron emission.

No more lectures and exams for the Radio Astronomy course taught by Michiel Brentjens. The corona crisis is a moment of reflection that has changed his whole way of teaching. Instead of being in front of the class, he lets his students build a radio telescope with paint cans.

PhD candidates carry out a programme of independent research and additional (limited) course work, culminating in production of a PhD thesis in typically 4 years.

During the bachelor’s programme Astronomy you will immerse yourself in questions about our universe. Questions such as: ‘what happens in a black hole?’ and ‘what is dark matter?’ In doing so you will learn to apply mathematics and physics to astronomical problems and you will work with computer simulations…

Students in our Astronomy programme are trained by leading experts in cutting-edge astronomical research. We incorporate in our educational programme observations and data from the world’s foremost ground- and space-based telescopes as well as theoretical, computational and astrochemical modelling,…

Promotor: H.J.A. Röttgering, Co-promotor: M. Haverkorn

The master’s specialisation Astronomy and Science Communication and Society at Leiden University bridges the gap between experts and the public by combining high quality research in biology with extensive training in science communication.

This page contains all relevant information for lecturers teaching in the Astronomy bachelor's and/or master's curriculum at Leiden University.

Promotor: H.J.A. Röttgering, Co-promotor: G.K. Miley

The master's specialisation Astronomy Research at Leiden University students focus on astronomical data analysis using models and large-scale simulation, combining the fields of Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science.

The master's specialisation Astronomy and Instrumentation at Leiden University focuses on fully understanding the physical principles and performance of astronomical instruments and to contribute to the development of new instrumentation technologies.

The master’s specialisation Astronomy and Education at Leiden University prepares you to teach the subject of biology to secondary school students. The programme comprises a one-year Astronomy component, followed by an education component in the second year.

Explore our amazing universe from your local bar!

The master's specialisation Astronomy and Cosmology at Leiden University covers all aspects of modern astrophysics, including observation, interpretation, simulation and theory. This programme is essentially based on combined research in astronomy and physics and is therefore open for students with…

The Low Frequency Array enables studies of low-frequency carbon radio recombination lines with unprecedented sensitivity, spectral and spatial resolution.

The Education Office Astronomy supports all aspects of the Astronomy bachelor and master education programmes. Its main focus is on education quality assurance, student monitoring, education-related PR, student recruitment, job market orientation and alumni policy.

The master’s specialisation Astronomy and Science Based Business at Leiden University bridges science and business development by focusing on areas such as technology management, innovation, entrepeneurship, operations, and decision making.

The Astronomy and Data Science master’s specialisation at Leiden University combines advanced Astronomy courses with relevant courses from the Computer Science programme at Leiden University.

Promotores: Prof.dr. G. Miley & Prof.dr. J.M. van den Broek

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

On behalf of the Dutch astronomical community, we unequivocally condemn the brutal killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor and countless others and instances of racism.

An international team of scientists including Leiden's Joe Callingham has discovered nineteen red dwarf stars that unexpectedly emit radio waves. The outbursts possibly originate from interaction with exoplanets. The results of the research appear in two scientific publications.

Pulsars were first discovered in 1967 and since then the population has grown and expanded over several wavelengths.

For centuries astronomers studied the Universe by collecting light. Nowadays, we are living in times of great technological advancements, which allow us to explore our Universe in a new way - though gravitational wave radiation.

Lecture, This Week's Discoveries

Promotor: Prof.dr. H. J. A. Röttgering, Co-Promotor: Dr. M. Haverkorn

They are often referred to as ‘The Oscars of the Natural Sciences’: the Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics. This year, the prize for physics went to the Event Horizon Telescope team, which took the first-ever picture of a black hole. Four Leiden astronomers were…

Promotor: H.J.A. Rottgering, Co-Promotor: R.J. van Weeren

We organise various activities for high school students and their physics teachers to learn about Astronomy at Leiden University.

Science, Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS)

An international team of astronomers has published a map of the sky showing over 25,000 supermassive black holes. The map, to be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, is the most detailed celestial map in the field of so-called low radio frequencies. The astronomers, including Leiden astronomers,…

The LOFAR e-infrastructure group is responsible for deploying and maintaining LOFAR processing on distributed e-infrastructure. A co-operation between SURFsara, Leiden University and ASTRON, the group develops software to integrate the LOFAR stack with processing pipelines. Our software can schedule…

Astronomy departments at Dutch universities is among the top of the world rankings for astronomical institutions. This is the conclusion drawn from a recent evaluation of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) and the astronomy institutions of the University of Amsterdam, the University…

The Old Obervatory Leiden is one of the partners of the local learning ecosystem ‘Verwonder om de Hoek’, an educational platform from Leiden that lets school children and families wonder about the world of Nature, Science, Technology and Sustainability. On this page you will find the educational programmes…

PhD Defence

This work represents the final results of several years of research within the Maya region. It deals with the relations between architecture and urbanism with landscape and astronomy.

A galaxy is already incredibly large, but it can get even bigger. Astronomer Reinout van Weeren investigates clusters of galaxies, one of the largest structures in the universe. For his research into the origins and evolution of these clusters, he obtained an ERC Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros.…

Within the two-year Astronomy master’s programme, you can choose from seven specialisations, ranging from fundamental or applied astronomy research in cosmology, instrumentation or data science, to combinations of astronomy research with education, management or science communication.

The European Commission sees increased labour migration as a solution to the growing personnel shortages, but the Dutch Labour Inspectorate argues that this is not a tenable business model. Professor of Economics Olaf van Vliet discusses the advantages and disadvantages of labour migration for the economy…

Ineke van der Ham gives a radio interview at Radio 1.

You can make some astounding images using just a box with a hole. Inspired by the celebration of Leiden as the European City of Science, Professor Matthew Kenworthy left several pinhole cameras across the Observatory over the course of 2021. This is how the simplest devices may uncover the greatest…