Astrophysics

These achievements were based not least on the modern scientific infrastructure with increasingly efficient large-scale facilities, such as telescopes and research satellites. For years, their construction and operation has been funded by the BMBF in cooperation with many partners within and outside Europe. Future groundbreaking discoveries are to be expected from the continuously increasing efficiency of telescopes and instrumentation with significant contributions by German scientists.

Based on the ASTRONET report of 2007, "A Science Vision for European Astronomy", and the earlier DFG memorandum on "Status and Prospects of Astronomy in Germany 2003 - 2016" (for the English version see Wiley-VCH) the basic scientific questions of astrophysics which may be answered in the next twenty years can be summarized as follows:

• the universe: origins, evolution, dark matter and dark energy, blackholes
• galaxies: origin and evolution, large-scale structures,
• life-cycle of matter and stellar evolution, as well as
• the origins of stars and planets.

Scientists are studying these research topics with the following ground-based large-scale equipment which is funded by the BMBF:

European Southern Observatory (ESO):

• Paranal Observatory, Very Large Telescope (VLT): 4 telescopes with 8.2 m mirror diameter each, location: Chile,
• La Silla Observatory, location: Chile,
• Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), location: Chile.
• Studies in context with the proposed European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), location: Chile.

Max Planck Society (MPG) and Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP):

• Large Binocular Telescope (LBT): two mirrors with 8.4 m diameter each; location: Mount Graham, Arizona, USA.

Max Planck Society (MPG):

• Calar Alto Observatory, location: Spain,
• Millimetric Radioastronomy Institute (IRAM), location: France

Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP):

• STELLA, location: Tenerife, Spain

Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics (KIS), Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP) and Max Planck Society (MPG):

• Solar telescope GREGOR, location: Tenerife, Spain

Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP):

• Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) location: The Netherlands 5 stations in Germany