Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics

The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) is a research institute located in Garching, just north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is one of many scientific research institutes belonging to the Max Planck Society.

The MPA is widely considered to be one of the leading institutions in the world for theoretical astrophysics research. According to Thomson Reuters, from 1999-2009 the Max Planck Society as a whole published more papers and accumulated more citations in the fields of physics and space science than any other research organization in the world.

The Max Planck Society was founded on 26 February 1948. It effectively replaced the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science, which was dissolved after World War II. The society is named after Max Planck, one of the founders of the quantum theory.

The MPA was founded as Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in 1958 and split into the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Physics in 1991. In 1995, the numerical relativity group moved to the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.

The MPA is one of several Max Planck Institutes that specialize in astronomy and astrophysics. Others are the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching (located next-door to the MPA), the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (a.k.a. Albert Einstein Institute) in Golm.

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