Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
The Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, MPIA) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society. It is located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany near the top of the Koenigstuhl, adjacent to the historic Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl astronomical observatory.
The institute was founded in 1967. Its founding directors were H. Elsässer, and G. Munch, who was followed by S. V. W. Beckwith. The current directors are Hans-Walter Rix and Thomas Henning. G. H. Herbig, Karl-Heinz Böhm, Immo Appenzeller, Willy Benz, and Rafael Rebolo have been external scientific members.
Research interests
Current research interests include formation of planets, stars in the group of Thomas Henning and galaxies and cosmology in the group of Hans-Walter Rix.
The MPIA also builds instruments or parts of them for ground-based telescopes and satellites, including the following:
Calar Alto Observatory, jointly run by the MPIA and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
