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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
How do stellar explosions or the evolution of galaxies influence our universe today? The investigation of physical processes that take place on completely different time scales, in order to piece together the evolution of our entire Universe, is at the heart of the newly-funded Cluster of Excellence "Our Dynamic Universe" (Dynaverse). To achieve this goal, the cluster combines expertise in astrophysics, informatics and mathematics from across the Universities of Cologne and Bonn and other major partners including the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. Dynaverse was confirmed as a new, funded Cluster of Excellence on 22 May 2025 as part of the German Excellence Strategy.
What connects the Big Bang with a supernova and the formation of a galaxy? They refer to events and processes that have shaped our universe. What distinguishes them from each other, however, is the time frame in which they occurred, ranging from fractions of a second to billions of years. Researchers from the fields of astrophysics and astroinformatics want to find out how the coupling of extremely different time scales influences today's universe.
The Dynaverse team, led by Stefanie Walch-Gassner (Cologne University) and Cristiano Porciani (Bonn University), brings together scientists from the Universities of Cologne and Bonn, as well as from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn (MPIfR). The consortium has now been successful with its application in the Cluster of Excellence funding line as part of the “Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments”: After being reviewed by international commissions, the cluster “Our Dynamic Universe” (Dynaverse) was selected for funding.
“The approval enables us to establish sustainable, fundamental structures at the universities of Bonn and Cologne and to create a lively, interdisciplinary environment,” says Stefanie Walch-Gassner from the University of Cologne, the spokesperson for the “Dynaverse” project. “We are particularly pleased to link machine learning and AI with the scientific challenges of the gigantic amounts of data generated by radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and to involve our students during their studies.”
"It is a great success that our funding application, "Dynaverse", has been successfully approved. This is an important milestone for our research at the Argelander Institute and will provide us with crucial support in advancing our scientific goals in the coming years," says Cristiano Porciani, second spokesperson and project leader of the new Cluster of Excellence at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy of Bonn University.
“Dynaverse”: Astronomy between time-lapse and slow motion
The researchers are tackling three central tasks: Firstly, there is the question of how epoch-spanning processes such as galaxy evolution can be pieced together from individual observations in a “time-lapse astronomy” to create an explanatory “movie of the universe”. However, “slow-motion astronomy” also plays an important role: rapid, temporary key events such as supernova explosions can influence these long-term processes. The third challenge is to uncover decisive turning points, the so-called “cosmic twists”, which have given structure and light to the young, expanding universe. Only by connecting the physical processes on the different time scales can a complete picture of the dynamic universe be developed". “Dynaverse” will pioneer new technologies to explore and quantify these processes.
Michael Kramer (MPIfR) is Director at the MPIfR and heads the Research Department for Radio Astronomical Fundamental Physics. His work focuses on research into the dynamic universe, particularly for tests of gravity. Using data-intensive radio astronomy, he explores the vast, undiscovered parameter space of radio luminosity as a function of observational frequency and time scale, with a focus on fundamental physics and transient phenomena in the cosmos.
“Our institute is looking forward to partner with our University colleagues to provide key input to all cluster themes thanks to the wide-ranging expertise existing at the MPIfR,” says Michael Kramer.
Jonathan Pritchard (MPIfR/Imperial College London) is Professor of Astrostatistics and a leading theorist of reionization and cosmology. He has played an important role in developing the scientific background for 21-cm cosmology with the SKA and has held leading positions in the SKA Epoch of Reionization and Cosmology working groups. He is co-PI of the global 21-cm radio experiment REACH (Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen) and develops statistical tools and numerical simulations for the analysis of SKA data.
"I’m really delighted by this result. Dynaverse comes at an exciting moment as SKA and its precursor radio telescopes begin to provide huge new data sets about the universe. This is a tremendous opportunity to bring together expertise across astrophysics, astrostatistics, and radio astronomy to piece together all the major milestones of the cosmic history and tell the story of our Universe," says Jonathan Pritchard.
Amélie Saintonge (MPIfR) is Director at MPIfR and head of the Star Formation and Galaxy Evolution department. Her work focuses on connecting the multi-layered processes that govern the growth and evolution of galaxies through successive episodes of star formation with the enormous range of spatial and temporal dimensions involved. She is an expert in multi-wavelength observations, with expertise across the spectrum, but with a particular focus on large surveys with (sub)mm and cm radio telescopes.
“Dynaverse is an outstanding opportunity for MPIfR to cement and expand collaborations with our university colleagues across a very broad range of science areas. It also confirms and establishes even further the Bonn/Cologne area as the forefront hub for radio astronomy in Germany, as well as our leadership role on the world stage,“ says Amélie Saintonge.
Laura Spitler (MPIfR) is an independent Lise-Meitner research group leader at the MPIfR. She is an expert in the discovery and characterization of fast radio transients, such as the famous “Fast Radio Bursts” (FRBs), and will contribute to the development of algorithms that explore new areas of parameter space and search for new classes of radio transients. She also has extensive experience with radio post-observations of repeating FRBs and links these observations to proposed models of the origin of FRBs.
"One major strength of the Dynaverse Excellence Cluster is the inclusion of PIs from astronomy and informatics. In order to realize the best possible science from the next generation telescopes, we need to work together, and Dynaverse will make the Bonn-Cologne region a world-wide hub of expertise in astroinformatics," says Laura Spitler.
“I am particularly glad about the timely establishment of this cluster. Combined with the recent rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence, big data management, and high performance computing, Dynaverse is well poised to extract the maximum science out of the vast amounts of data generated by current and future radio facilities,“ says Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan from MPIfR, a Co-Investigator of the project..
From radio telescopes to astroinformatics: five pillars of excellence expertise
In order to meet the challenges, the Cluster of Excellence relies on the following pillars of expertise which are a key strength of the Bonn/Cologne area: firstly, the development of state-of-the-art detectors and instruments for international telescopes; secondly, the management of numerous large observation programs; thirdly, first-class laboratory astrophysics and fourthly, the simulation of the dynamics of planets, stars and galaxies on high-performance computers. With Dynaverse, a fifth and new pillar of expertise in Astroinformatics will now be established, to capitalise on opportunities in this new era of data-intensive radio astronomy.
“The decisive factor for success will be the utilization of the huge and heterogeneous amounts of data using innovative methods,” says “Dynaverse” spokesperson Stefanie Walch-Gassner. This is why the experts from astrophysics, computer science and mathematics want to establish customized AI methods as part of a fifth pillar, astroinformatics. All data and findings will be brought together in the Shared Universe Engine (SUE), an intelligent open-source platform. SUE will thus become a virtual, collaborative workspace.
An essential part of “Dynaverse” is also to train the next generation of researchers and students in the new technologies and methods. In addition, the promotion of pupils and teachers is a fundamental concern, whereby SUE is designed as a versatile application that naturally integrates and thinks along with the areas of education and public relations.
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Additional Information
ARC1: Time-lapse astronomy – reconstructing 13.8 billion years from snapshots.
The complex dynamical transport of gas, dust, and solids is determined by flows of both mass and energy. These flows typically happen over long timescales. For example, galaxy evolution spans more than 13.5 billion years, as evidenced by the recently discovered “cosmic dawn galaxies” seen by the JWST as it was just 300 million years after the Big Bang. The long duration implies that changes in individual galaxies cannot be followed in real-time. Therefore, the time evolution and kinematics need to be puzzled together statistically by observing a large number of galaxies, many different environments within galaxies, multiple sites of star formation, and planet-forming circumstellar discs. Using our physics knowledge, we will bring them into a logical temporal sequence of evolution, i.e., into a “time-lapse movie” of our dynamic Universe. The “plot” of the movie emerges from the activities of the “key players” (observable phenomena), influenced by a series of rapid events (ARC2), set against a scenery shaped by cosmology (ARC3). In order to reconstruct this movie, we combine individual snapshots from astronomical observations probing different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with the explanatory power of numerical simulations and theory, assisted by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
ARC2: Slow-motion astronomy – following rapid events in the real-time dynamic Universe.
The dynamical evolution of our Universe is critically influenced by rapid, often highly energetic, events. Frequently, these events are associated with the birth and death stages of stellar life. These phenomena can sometimes be observed in real-time and in great detail. However, the statistical samples of such events are often too limited to be fully understood within a broader astrophysical context (ARC1 and ARC3). More observations are needed to characterise the diversity of these events, as large unexplored regions of the parameter space may harbour entirely new rapid phenomena. Slow-motion astronomy in the era of Big-Data-Astrophysics holds great potential for discovering these phenomena. Sensitive, wide-field, high-time-resolution surveys are making previously inaccessible regions of parameter space available. This involves designing search strategies for high-volume data without knowing the exact signatures of the target events. To fully grasp the impact of rapid events, which can be bifurcation points for the further development of astrophysical objects, we must systematically study and understand the relevant physical processes and their connections across different timescales.
ARC3: Cosmic twists – investigating spectacular changes of the dynamic Universe.
Besides the bifurcation points for individual astrophysical objects, there are a few special turning points that forever change the scenery of the whole Universe. At the very beginning of time, a rapid “stretch” of the infant Universe (cosmic inflation) puts in place the seeds from which all cosmic structures later emerged. A few hundred million years later, the foggy Universe, shrouded in darkness, is illuminated by the onset of star and galaxy formation (cosmic reionisation).
Finally, after billions of years, and around the time when our solar system forms, the gravitational pull of dark and visible matter that decelerates cosmic expansion is usurped by a mysterious force governed by enigmatic dark energy (matter – dark energy transition). A detailed physical understanding of these turning points is still elusive and ARC3 will combine the full suite of astrophysical probes to characterise them beyond their current descriptions. The turning points in ARC3 set the framework for the dynamic evolution studied in ARC1, while new probes will probably arise from the research conducted in ARC2.
The SUE: The Shared Universe Engine (SUE)
The SUE is a physics-guided, smart, and cloud-based platform that combines a Data Laboratory and an Interface Hub with our Machinery of Discovery. We envision the Data Laboratory to provide workflows, software infrastructure, data analytics tools, and access to modern compute hardware. The Interface Hub grants full access to heterogeneous data, (ML/ AI-based) algorithmic developments, and research results for the astrophysical community (expert mode), teachers (education mode), and the public (public outreach mode). It allows combining observations with laboratory astrophysics data and state-of-the-art simulations. Additionally, while linking to existing platforms such as the Virtual Observatory (VO) for observational data, the SUE goes beyond a pure database; the SUE ultimately serves as a machinery of discovery. It can be queried to return the physical conditions in a specific region of interest in the observed Universe, thereby guiding the user through the physical processes that shaped this region.
A total of 25 research group leaders from 12 institutions and four countries are involved in the “Dynaverse” Cluster of Excellence, as well as 19 cooperation partners from five countries. As part of these international partnerships, the Cluster of Excellence team has access to radio telescopes and the first European exascale computer at Jülich.
The Excellence Strategy aims to sustainably strengthen Germany as a science location, further expand its international competitiveness and continue the successful development aimed at training top performers in research and raising the quality of Germany as a university and science location across the board. The Clusters of Excellence funding line aims to promote internationally competitive research fields in universities and university alliances on a project basis, including across scientific disciplines.
Prof. Dr. Michael Kramer
Director and Head of Research Dept. Fundamental Physics in Radio Astronomy
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
Fon: +49 228 525-456
E-mail: sfellenberg@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Prof. Dr. Amélie Saintonge
Director and Head of Research Dept. Star Formation and Galaxy Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
Fon: +49 228 525-380
E-mail: asaintonge@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Prof. Dr. Jonathan Pritchard
Head of Research Group Radio Cosmology
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
E-mail: jpritchard@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Dr. Laura Spitler
Head of Research Group Radio Transients
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
Fon: +49 228 525-147
E-mail: lspitler@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Dr. Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
Fon: +49 228 525-312
E-mail: vkrishnan@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/announcements/2025/3
Examples that illustrate the vastly different timescales of our dynamic Universe from pulsars (10^-1 ...
ALMA, CXC, CSA, Durham, EPFL, ESA, ESO, HST, JPL, NAOJ, NASA, NRAO, SAO, WMAP, Harvey, Lotz, Massey, Bate, Haid, Springel
The SKA-MPIfR telescope (SKAMPI) in the Karoo region in South Africa. SKAMPI’s capabilities give an ...
Gundolf Wieching / MPIfR
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Examples that illustrate the vastly different timescales of our dynamic Universe from pulsars (10^-1 ...
ALMA, CXC, CSA, Durham, EPFL, ESA, ESO, HST, JPL, NAOJ, NASA, NRAO, SAO, WMAP, Harvey, Lotz, Massey, Bate, Haid, Springel
The SKA-MPIfR telescope (SKAMPI) in the Karoo region in South Africa. SKAMPI’s capabilities give an ...
Gundolf Wieching / MPIfR
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