This section highlights recent team activities, including publications, conference presentations, media coverage, collaborative projects, and group events that strengthen team cohesion and support a healthy work–life balance.
A Guide to the Andromeda Galaxy
Our Giant Galactic Neighbor, Shaped by Repeated Collisions
About 2.5 million light-years from Earth lies the Andromeda Galaxy, the largest galactic “neighbor”
of our own
Milky Way. Over the course of its history, Andromeda has experienced repeated collisions with other
galaxies,
gradually evolving into the form we see today. In the distant future, it may even collide with the
Milky Way
itself. By exploring the many celestial objects found throughout Andromeda, we can trace both the
past history
and the future destiny of galaxies.
A Composite Portrait of the Andromeda Galaxy in Five Wavelengths
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is a giant galaxy located near the Milky Way. It lies in the direction of
the
constellation Andromeda, about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. Under good observing conditions,
it can even
be seen with the naked eye. Andromeda is a spiral galaxy (see p. 110) with a disk roughly 220,000
light-years
across and a population of more than one trillion stars. Although its diameter and number of stars
are greater
than those of the Milky Way, some estimates suggest that its total mass is comparable to that of our
Galaxy.
The image shown here was created by combining observations at five different wavelengths—radio, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, and X-rays—taken by a variety of telescopes around the world. It was released in 2025 in honor of the achievements of Dr. Vera Rubin (1928–2016). Through studies of the rotation of galaxies such as Andromeda, Dr. Rubin provided key evidence for the existence of the unseen substance now known as dark matter.
The two photos on the left show the conference venue, Hotel Ermitage. The third photo features Paolo Salucci (SISSA: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati), and the fourth photo features Peter Berczik (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).
The two photos on the left show Kloster Seeon, the conference venue. Founded in 994 in Bavaria, Germany, the monastery sits on a small island in Lake Seeon. In the third photo, on the left is Prof. Andreas Burkert (LMU Munich) and in the center is Prof. Reinhard Genzel (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics). During my time as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), Prof. Burkert was a generous mentor and we have remained close personally. Prof. Genzel received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for observational research on the Galactic Center black hole. In the fourth photo, the person standing on the left is my longtime friend, Prof. Gerhard Hensler (Professor Emeritus, University of Vienna).
The visit to Zhejiang University—surrounded by natural beauty and an expansive campus—was a highly valuable and stimulating experience. Dr. Go Ogiya, our first doctoral graduate, is currently serving as a tenure-track professor at the university. A highlight of the visit was the engaging research presentations and discussions with his graduate students, Junnan Shen and Zhihao Yin (2nd-yr, Master's student).
