Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics

The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics is a Max Planck Institute, located in Garching, near Munich, Germany. In 1991 the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics split up into the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, the Max Planck Institute for Physics and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. The Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics was founded as sub-institute in 1963. The scientific activities of the institute are mostly devoted to astrophysics with telescopes orbiting in space. A large amount of the resources are spent for studying black holes in the galaxy and in the remote universe.

The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 member states for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs over 750 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €162 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile. ESO has built and operated some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescopes. These include the 3.6 m New Technology Telescope, an early pioneer in the use of active optics, and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which consists of four individual 8.2 m telescopes and four smaller auxiliary telescopes which can all work together or separately. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array observes the universe in the millimetre and submillimetre wavelength ranges, and is the world's largest ground-based astronomy project to date. It was completed in March 2013 in an international collaboration by Europe (represented by ESO), North America, East Asia and Chile.Currently under construction is the Extremely Large Telescope. It will use a 39.3-metre-diameter segmented mirror, and become the world's largest optical reflecting telescope when operational towards the end of this decade. Its light-gathering power will allow detailed studies of planets around other stars, the first objects in the universe, supermassive black holes, and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which dominate the universe. ESO's observing facilities have made astronomical discoveries and produced several astronomical catalogues. Its findings include the discovery of the most distant gamma-ray burst and evidence for a black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. In 2004, the VLT allowed astronomers to obtain the first picture of an extrasolar planet (2M1207b) orbiting a brown dwarf 173 light-years away. The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument installed on the older ESO 3.6 m telescope led to the discovery of extrasolar planets, including Gliese 581c—one of the smallest planets seen outside the Solar System.

The Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) is a research institute located in Garching, near Munich, Germany. It specializes in high energy physics and astroparticle physics. The MPP is part of the Max Planck Society and is also known as the Werner Heisenberg Institute, after its first director in its current location. The founding of the institute traces back to 1914, as an idea from Fritz Haber, Walther Nernst, Max Planck, Emil Warburg, Heinrich Rubens. On October 1, 1917, the institute was officially founded in Berlin as Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik (KWIP, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics) with Albert Einstein as the first head director. In October 1922, Max von Laue succeeded Einstein as managing director. Einstein gave up his position as a director of the institute in April 1933. The Institute took part in the German nuclear weapon project from 1939 to 1942.In June 1942, Werner Heisenberg took over as managing director. A year after the end of fighting in Europe in World War II, the institute was moved to Göttingen and renamed the Max Planck Institute for Physics, with Heisenberg continuing as managing director. In 1946, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Karl Wirtz joined the faculty as the directors for theoretical and experimental physics, respectively.In 1955 the institute made the decision to move to Munich, and soon after began construction of its current building, designed by Sep Ruf. The institute moved into its current location on September 1, 1958, and took on the new name the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics, still with Heisenberg as the managing director. In 1991, the institute was split into the Max Planck Institute for Physics, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, IPP) is a physics institute investigating the physical foundations of a fusion power plant. The IPP is an institute of the Max Planck Society, part of the European Atomic Energy Community, and an associated member of the Helmholtz Association. The IPP has two sites: Garching near Munich (founded 1960) and Greifswald (founded 1994), both in Germany. It owns several large devices, namely the experimental tokamak ASDEX Upgrade (in operation since 1991), the experimental stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (in operation since 2016), a tandem accelerator and a high heat flux test facility (GLADIS) Furthermore it cooperates closely with the ITER, DEMO and JET projects. The International Helmholtz Graduate School for Plasma Physics partners with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Greifswald. Associated partners are the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP) in Greifswald and the Leibniz Computational Center (LRZ) in Garching.

The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is an astronomy centre located at the site of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Headquarters in Garching bei München. It offers exhibitions, guided tours and planetarium shows that feature observations made by the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory. The ESO Supernova is a non-profit educational facility which receives no state funding other than through ESO’s normal operating budget. Entrance to the centre and all activities are free of charge throughout 2018. From 2019, tickets will be sold for activities like planetarium shows, tours and events. The entrance to the exhibition and all educational activities will remain free.

The Campus Garching (German: Hochschul- und Forschungszentrum Garching) is a campus of the Technical University of Munich and a number of other research institutes, located around 10 km north of Munich in Garching. At the same time, it constitutes a district of the city. With more than 7,500 employees and around 17,000 students, it is one of the largest centers for science, research and teaching in Germany.

Garching-Forschungszentrum is a Munich U-Bahn station in Garching. It serves as the northern terminus of the U6 line of the Munich U-Bahn system. Opened in 2006, it serves the Campus Garching with its 7,500 employees and around 17,000 students.

SuperMUC was a supercomputer of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. It was housed in the LRZ's data centre in Garching near Munich. It was decommissioned in January 2020, having been superseded by the more powerful SuperMUC-NG.

The Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) (German: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum) is a supercomputing centre on the Campus Garching near Munich, operated by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Among other IT services, it provides supercomputer resources for research and access to the Munich Scientific Network (MWN); it is connected to the Deutsches Forschungsnetz with a 24 Gbit/s link. The centre is named after Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. It was founded in 1962 by Hans Piloty and Robert Sauer as part of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the host for several world leading supercomputers (HLRB, HLRB-II, SuperMUC).

The Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (abbreviation: MPQ; German: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik) is a part of the Max Planck Society which operates 87 research facilities in Germany. The institute is located in Garching, Germany, which in turn is located 10 km north-east of Munich. Five research groups work in the fields of attosecond physics, laser physics, quantum information theory, laser spectroscopy, quantum dynamics and quantum many body systems.

The TUM Institute for Advanced Study (TUM-IAS) is a scientific institution of the Technische Universität München, conducting research in science, engineering and humanities. Its building is located on its Garching campus.

The Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (Forschungsreaktor München II or FRM II) (German: Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz) is a leading German research reactor and neutron source, named in honor of the physicist Heinz Maier-Leibnitz who had conducted a highly successful research program at its predecessor, the FRM I. Operated by the Technical University of Munich, it is located on its campus in Garching.