Heidelberg Astronomy on the Universitätsplatz
In the 2023 Year of Science "Our Universe", the roadshow "Universe on Tour - Lights out! Stars on!" is touring Germany with a mobile planetarium and an exhibition tent. From Wednesday, July 19 to Sunday, July 23, the roadshow toured Heidelberg's Universitätsplatz. Scientists from the MPIK and 9 other Heidelberg institutions presented their astronomical and astrophysical research to over 5600 visitors. One focus of the accompanying exhibition is the role of light as an important information carrier from space, e.g. in gamma astronomy. But also laboratory astrophysics with traps and storage rings for ions provides fundamental data for understanding the processes in the cosmos under often extreme conditions.
Dark matter brought to light
The roadshow's guest appearance in Heidelberg was complemented by a series of entertaining and generally understandable lectures by Heidelberg scientists. Under the title "Und sie leuchtet doch! Dunkle Materie ans Licht gebracht (And yet it shines! Dark Matter Brought to Light)", Dr. Hardy Simgen guided the interested audience on a journey to the dark side of the universe: into underground laboratories where highly sensitive detectors are designed to enable the direct detection of new particles that form dark matter.
"Universe on Tour" in the 2023 Year of Science (German)
