844 search results for “astronomy” in the Public website
-
Scientists discover the largest stellar black hole in the Milky Way
A European team of astronomers has discovered the largest stellar black hole in the Milky Way. It is more than thirty times as massive as our sun and is located in the constellation of Aquila, about two thousand light-years from Earth. The astronomers stumbled upon the black hole by chance while preparing…
-
Chris Smiet wins Christiaan Huygens prize
Christopher Berg Smiet, who defended his thesis at LION with Dirk Bouwmeester, won the Christiaan Huygens prize for his thesis '‘Knots in Plasma’. On 7 October, he received a certificate, a bronze statuette and ten thousand euros.
-
Data science can reduce likelihood of virus outbreaks
Data science is of vital importance in preventing future outbreaks of viruses, Professor of Data Science Aske Plaat argues. Inaugural lecture entitled ‘Data Science and Ebola’ on 13 April.
-
Mysterious ripples racing through planet-forming disk
An international team of astronomers, including Leiden’s Christian Ginski, has discovered previously unobserved structures in a debris disk around a nearby star. Article published in Nature on 8 October.
-
Looking for the gap in the market: student entrepreneurs present promising plans
A highly refined drone camera that inspects the grape harvest or new microtechnology that can make painful biopsies redundant. Enthusiastic entrepreneurs presented their promising plans on 30 June in the HUBspot start-up centre.
-
Looking for happiness and personal development
There are not many classes in which students can talk about their fears, self-critique, or their own happiness. In the Bachelor Honours Class ‘Personal Flourishing and Happiness’, this is exactly the plan.
-
Astronomers see star with dust disk that is still being fed
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…
-
Anthony Brown gives prestigious lecture series in Princeton
Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown had the honour to give the prestigious Spitzer Lectures at Princeton University. In five lectures spread over the beginning of May, he gave an insight into the Gaia Mission. ‘One of the intellectual highlights of the year.’
-
Specialising in quantum? New Leiden-Delft master's degree launched
Quantum technologies are in demand worldwide, but until now Leiden students could not specialise in them. The new master’s program QIST (Quantum Information Science and Technology) is going to change that. Researcher and professor Jordi Tura i Brugués: ‘We need to train the next generation of quantum…
-
Grants to build large-scale research facilities
Five projects with researchers from Leiden University have received a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to build or upgrade existing research facilities.
-
Astronomer Jos de Boer receives Chesneau Prize for best dissertation
Astronomer Jos de Boer has received the Chesneau Prize in Nice for his research into so-called protoplanetary disks. The prize is awarded to the best astronomical dissertation in the field of high angular resolution. 'I consider it a good opportunity to talk about my research.'
-
Three awarded research projects in NWO-XS call
Cryogenic memories, antibiotic treatment for urinary tract infections and recycling plastic sustainably. These are the subjects of the three NWO-XS grants awarded to Leiden Science researchers.
-
Wall formula about Huygens' pendulum painted on Leiden fire brigade tower
The seventh Leiden wall formula has been finished. Over the last few weeks, mural artists Ben Walenkamp and Jan Willem Bruins have painted Christiaan Huygens' pendulum formula on 'De Brandmeester' an old drill and hose tower in de Plaatsteeg, just behind the Breestraat in Leiden.
-
First direct detection of a brown dwarf with a radio telescope
Astronomers at ASTRON and Leiden University have used the LOFAR radio telescope to discover a 'brown dwarf' – a faint object more massive than Jupiter, but significantly less massive than the Sun. The discovery of the object dubbed Elegast, opens up a new path that uses radio telescopes to discover…
-
Leiden University and University of Edinburgh to deepen collaboration
A delegation from the University of Edinburgh recently visited Leiden University to deepen their collaboration. What makes Edinburgh such an attractive partner?
-
5 years Quantum Rules lab: ‘The best part is when you hear the penny drop with a student’
Quantum Rules lab van Leiden Universiteit biedt proefjes en experimenten voor middelbare scholieren om te leren over kwantum natuurkunde. Henk Buisman vertelt over het 5 jarige jubileum.
-
Pim Overgaauw: ‘As Institute Manager, you are the spider in the web’
Pim Overgaauw is at his best when he can support others. His new position as Institute Manager of the Mathematical Institute is therefore a perfect fit. ‘My main goal is to ensure that our mathematicians can focus on the maths.’
-
It takes two (or more) to build a telescope
How do stars and galaxies form? What is dark matter? To answer these and other questions, we need increasingly large telescopes. And to build these, we need international partnerships. A series on the impact of collaboration.
-
Marie Curie grant for dark matter
Leiden Observatory is going to use a new technique to carry out calculations on gravitational lensing measurements. They will do this is the context of research into the formation of elliptical galaxies. Alessandro Sonnenfeld (University of Tokyo) who developed this technique joined the research team…
-
Astronomers see two planets vacuuming around young star
Astronomers led by Leiden astronomer Sebastiaan Haffert have directly imaged two planets that are gravitationally carving out a wide gap within a planet-forming disk surrounding a young star. While over a dozen exoplanets have been directly imaged, this is only the second multi-planet system to be p…
-
Astronomical airplane trails do not fade but lighten up
An unexpected phenomenon in a merger of a cluster of galaxies. An international team of astronomers led by Francesco de Gasperin has witnessed a gas tail of a galaxy, that slowly extinguished, but then lightened up again
-
Sense Jan van der Molen new scientific director LION: ‘We strive for scientific excellence as well as a healthy work-life balance’
Sense Jan van der Molen is vanaf 1 maart de nieuwe wetenschappelijk directeur van het Leiden Instituut voor Onderzoek in de Natuurkunde.
-
‘Technology shouldn’t shape our future; we should’
Technology holds so much promise – from self-driving cars to enhanced physical performance from smart implants under the skin. But we should not let ourselves be caught off guard. That is the message of Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science in his inaugural lecture on 21 May. ‘We don’t talk…
-
Children learn early on that scientists are men
When children were asked to draw a scientist, a bald, middle-aged man in a white coat was most often depicted. Why is that? A group of Leiden University science communication researchers discovered that children already get this impression in primary school. Published in PLOS ONE on 16 November.
-
Open Day: 'What's the right degree programme for me?'
Leiden's city centre, bathed in autumn sunshine and teeming with visitors. On 14 October, several thousands of students and their parents came to visit the University's Open Day. We spoke to a number of students at the information fair in the Pieterskerk; each of them had their own questions, doubts…
-
Erasmus+ grant for 13 exchange projects
Thirteen Leiden University exchange projects have been awarded an Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility grant. The total award of around 450,000 euros will enable 103 students and staff to go on an exchange.
-
Hyperlinks to antiquity
Until the 18th century, Latin annotations of well-known classical texts were an important source of scientific knowledge, but over the course of time the texts lost their authority. Classical scholar Maarten Jansen re-examines the annotations of Virgil's Aeneid. PhD defence 20 September.
-
Artificial brain helps Gaia satellite catch speeding stars
With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our Galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.
-
Galaxy without dark matter discovered
Astronomers led by Pieter van Dokkum have discovered a galaxy that barely contains any dark matter, which actually proves that dark matter does indeed exist. The research results will be published this week in Nature.
-
More insight with light
The new programme Synoptic Optics, funded by the NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences, will develop new optical techniques. Researcher Frans Snik and Professor of Experimental Astrophysics Christoph Keller from Leiden Observatory will test novel approaches to monitor air pollution and discover…
-
Halo of gas shows how exoplanets are slowly losing their atmosphere
Twee teams of astronomers, including from the universities of Amsterdam and Leiden, have discovered how hot gas giants are surrounded by large halos of thin helium gas, an indication that they are slowly losing their atmosphere. The helium, that was recently seen for the first time by the Hubble space…
-
Physics student Hidde Stoffels investigates dark matter in outstanding undergraduate thesis
He makes music, goes to the athletics track twice a week and, according to his supervisor, has done his research so well that it would not be out of place in a PhD research. Physics and astronomy student Hidde Stoffels' undergraduate research on the properties of dark matter is of such high quality…
-
Leiden technology research receives funding from NWO and businesses
A CT scanner to treat eye cancer, energy-efficient software for the future and a test to identify male chick eggs. Three projects by researchers from Leiden University are to receive funding from research funder NWO’s Open Technology programme, to which the business sector also contributes.
-
Do we have a standard model of cosmology?
Lecture, Oort lecture
-
The Gaia telescope: mapping 1 billion stars with 1 billion pixels
Lecture, Kaiser Lente Lezing
- Open Day 2018
- Pale Blue Dot Symposium: 30 Years of Pale Blue Dot
-
Zooming in on Black Holes with a telescope the size of planet Earth
Lecture, Kaiser Spring Lecture
- Night of the Night
-
Seeking balance in a changing world and university
The world around us is changing. What does that mean for the future of Europe, on this turbulent world stage? And what does it mean for our teaching, and for the expectations that Leiden University has of its students? These were the key questions during the opening of the 2018-2019 academic year on…
- Leiden Observatory Festival - Dive into the Universe
- Museum Night
-
The road to the beginning
Exhibition
-
Supermassive Black Holes and Where to Find Them
Lecture, Oort lecture
- LWSK presents: The laserinterferometer Space Antenna
-
Research
The research of the Mathematical Institute is driven by the curiosity of its members and has many internal and external connections. It can be characterised as fundamental but with an open attitude towards applications.
-
Study and the labour market
If you are going to study, it is not only important that you like the study programme. It’s also good to already have an idea of which professions you might enjoy.
-
First images from the James Webb telescope
Lecture
-
‘SRON and South-Holland can reinforce each other well’
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research is moving. In 2021, the Utrecht branch will settle in South-Holland. Pieter Dieleman is group leader at SRON. He tells why the upcoming move is such a good idea: ‘SRON is a connecting factor between Delft and Leiden.’
-
Spinoza Prize for Leiden statistician Aad van der Vaart
Aad van der Vaart, professor of stochastics at Leiden University, has been awarded the NWO Spinoza Prize for his groundbreaking research in statistics. Van der Vaart conducts fundamental research on models that can help, for instance, to identify genes that play a role in cancer.