Seminars and Colloquia at ESO Garching and on the campus

September 2025

15/09/25 (Monday)
15:30, MPA Large Seminar Room E.0.11 (MPA, Garching) | ESO Garching
MPA Seminar
Talk — Reaching the Full Potential of Stage-4 Large-Scale Structure Surveys With Simulations-Based Inference
Tomasz Kacprzak (LMU)
16/09/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — Baryon Feedback in a Cosmological Context
Sebastian Grandis (University of Innsbruck)

Abstract

Recent and ongoing advances in extragalactic astronomy have enabled us to map the matter distribution of the

Cosmos with increasing accuracy and precision. Chief among them is our ability to map the total matter distribution via

the weak gravitational lensing effect. Recent observational advances have made it clear that predictions of the matter

distribution based only on the gravitational process are not accurate enough for present and future data.  Advancement

in cosmology thus requires a better understanding of Baryonic processes and how they alter the cosmic matter distribution.

We present how multi-wavelength cluster and group observation can be used to overcome the obstacle that Baryon feedback

poses to cosmology.

17/09/25 (Wednesday)
11:00, MPE HEG meeting room 1.3.27 | ESO Garching
MPE High-Energy Clusters & Cosmology Group Seminar
Talk — Updating the Mass Calibration of the Planck Cluster Sample
Gaspard Aymerich (Université Paris-Saclay)
14:00, MPA Old Lecture Hall 401 | ESO Garching
MPA Seminar
Talk — Thor: Massively Parallel GPU-Accelerated MCRT
Chris Byrohl (Heidelberg)
14:30, MPA Old Lecture Hall 401 | ESO Garching
MPA Seminar
Talk — How Tidal Forces and Cloud Geometry Influence Star Formation
Rafael Zavala (Heidelberg)
15:00, Webinar | ESO Garching
AI Forum
Talk — Simulation-based inference with AI for characterizing planet signatures in disks
Alessandro Ruzza (University of Milan)
18/09/25 (Thursday)
11:00, MPA Old Lecture Hall 401 | ESO Garching
Garching Supernova Meeting
Talk — Hot Subdwarf-White Dwarf Binaries as Progenitors of Hypervelocity Runaway Stars
Abinaya Swaruba Rajamuthukumar (MPA)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — Mining the transient sky in the new era of Time Domain Multi-Messenger investigations
Raffaella Margutti (Berkeley)

Abstract

Astronomical transients are signposts of catastrophic events in space, including the most extreme stellar deaths, stellar tidal disruptions

by supermassive black holes, and mergers of compact objects. Thanks to new and improved observational facilities we can now sample

the night sky with unprecedented temporal cadence and sensitivity across the electromagnetic spectrum and beyond. This effort has led

to the discovery of new types of astronomical transients, revolutionized our understanding of phenomena that we thought we already knew,

and enabled the first insights into the physics of neutron star mergers with gravitational waves and light. In this talk I will review some very

recent developments that resulted from our capability to acquire a truly panchromatic view of transient astrophysical phenomena. I will

focus on two key areas of ignorance in the field: (i) What are the progenitors of stellar explosions and what happens in the last centuries

before death? (ii) What is the nature of the compact objects produced by these explosions and what happens when compact objects merge?

The unique combination of Discovery Power (guaranteed by planned transient surveys like LSST, combined with efforts in the realm of artificial

intelligence) and Understanding (enabled by multi-messenger observations) is what positions time-domain astrophysics for major advances in

the near future.

23/09/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Filippo Mannucci (INAF Arcetri)
24/09/25 (Wednesday)
10:00, Library (ESO HQ, Garching) | ESO Garching
Informal Discussion
Talk — CO isotopologues in exoplanet atmospheres as tracers of their formation and evolution scenarios.
Emma Esparza-Borges [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC))
25/09/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — MUSE-Faint: the binaries, dark matter and stars in the faintest galaxies
Jarle Brinchmann (ESO)

Abstract

Ultra-faint dwarfs are the lowest mass and most dark-matter dominated systems known. The shallow potential wells make them susceptible to feedback from star formation and their low baryonic content allows us to use their stars as test-particles in the dark matter potential. The main challenge is that most stars in such dwarfs are typically very faint. Here I will give an overview of the MUSE-Faint survey, a MUSE GTO survey of 10 ultra-faint dwarfs. After introducing the survey, I will outline how the high density of stellar spectra obtainable with MUSE can be used to constrain the dark matter content and density profiles of the galaxies, while the repeated observations can be used to place constraints on the binary star content in these reionization relics. I will also discuss briefly the stellar content and the luminosity-metallicity relation at the edge of galaxy formation.

30/09/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Mara Claudia Ramrez-Tannus (MPIA)

October 2025

01/10/25 (Wednesday)
10:00, Library (ESO HQ, Garching) | ESO Garching
Informal Discussion
Talk — to be announced
Avinash Chaturvedi
02/10/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Chris Martin (Caltech)
07/10/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Seona Lee (ICRAR/Perth)
09/10/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Izaskun Jimenez-Serra (CENTRO DE ASTROBIOLOGÍA CAB)
14/10/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Zdenek Prudil (ESO, Garching)
15/10/25 (Wednesday)
10:00, Library (ESO HQ, Garching) | ESO Garching
Informal Discussion
Talk — to be announced
Abinaya Swaruba Rajamuthukumar (MPA)
21/10/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Giovanna Liberato (Observatory of Valongo)
23/10/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Andrew Fox (Space Telescope Science Institute)
28/10/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Gemma Gonzalez Tora (Heidelberg Universityiversity)
30/10/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Brandon Hensley (Jet Propulsion Laboratory: NASA)

November 2025

04/11/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
David Vizgan (University of Illinois)
06/11/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Melissa McClure (Leiden University)
11/11/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Laura Scholz Diaz (INAF – Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, Florence)
13/11/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Zhaohuan Zhu (University of Nevada)
18/11/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Pradosh Barun Das (Macquarie University, Australia)
20/11/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Linda Podio (INAF)
25/11/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Timothy Davis (Cardiff University)
27/11/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — Cosmic Fireworks: Building Discovery Engines for Time-Domain Astronomy
Mansi Kasliwal (Caltech)

December 2025

02/12/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Eleonora Caruso (University of Amsterdam)
04/12/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Brett A. McGuire (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
09/12/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Roxana Popescu (University of Massachusetts)
11/12/25 (Thursday)
15:15, Auditorium Eridanus (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Munich Joint Astronomy Colloquium
Talk — to be announced
Salvatore Orlando (INAF)
16/12/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Izzy Garland (HEA Brno)
23/12/25 (Tuesday)
12:00, Auditorium Telescopium (ESO HQE, Garching) | ESO Garching
Lunch Talk
Talk — to be announced
Kalliopi Dasyra (University of Athens)