Café & Kosmos

Café & Kosmos - Talk with the scientists: The event series Café & Kosmos is engaged with current research questions "out of the universe," including the Big Bang, string theory, dark energy, dark matter, and many other topics.

These discussion rounds take place once per month, normally on a Tuesday evening at the Muffatwerk.

The organizers of Café & Kosmos are research institutions in Munich and Garching: the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS, the Max Planck Institute for Physics, the MPI for Astrophysics,  the MPI for Extraterrestrial Physics, and the SFB 1258 (Neutrinos, Dark Matter, Messengers) at the Technical University of Munich.

Image: K. Holzapfel, S. Loipolder/TUM

Light in the darkness of the deep sea

Café und Kosmos on 5 March, 2024

Physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are currently developing the new neutrino telescope P-ONE to explore the universe from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in the future. At a depth of 2,500 meters, there are also living creatures…

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Artistic representation of magnetic monopoles (Image: M. Bachmaier/https://deepai.org/)

The early universe: What role do magnetic monopoles play?

Café & Kosmos on 29 February, 2024

The standard model of particle physics consists of particles of matter interacting via three fundamental forces: the strong force that holds atomic nuclei together, the weak force that describes (radioactive) beta decay, and the electromagnetic force…

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 The sun with sunspots (Image: NASA/SDO)

Weather report from space: auroras and power outages

Café & Kosmos on 30 January, 2024

The surface of the sun is like a bubbling cauldron of hot plasma. Sunspots - darker and cooler areas than the rest of the surface - come and go. Huge plasma magnetic field arcs form near them. Occasionally, magnetic short circuits hurl huge streams…

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