Issue 3 | 2025

Centered around the theme “Experiment, Tinker, Do-It-Yourself – Energy for You and Your Environment!”, HITS once again took part in this year’s Explore Science festival, held from 25–29 June in Mannheim. Combining creativity with scientific curiosity, visitors of all ages explored renewable energy and human anatomy in action.

As vibrant as the Explore Science festival, the HITS biennial Alumni Meeting on 4 July 2025 brought together a diverse group of former colleagues. The event featured a high-profile keynote, a lively panel discussion, and plenty of opportunities to reconnect, reflect, and strengthen both professional and personal ties. It marked a true highlight of our 15th anniversary celebrations at HITS.

Two astrophyiscs research groups have successfully published papers in Nature Astronomy.  They provided visual evidence that a white dwarf star exploded in a double detonation — challenging the previous assumption of a single explosion. In another study HITS researchers focused on magnetic fields in binary star systems. They revealed that binary stars behave significantly different from single ones also when it comes to magnetism.

How does an astrophysicist think and work? In this interview, Klaus Tschira Guest Professor Raphael Hirschi (Keele University, UK) offers fascinating insights into his work as a researcher and professor. He explains why no one is born a scientist — and shares which major breakthrough he expects in astronomy in the coming years. As part of the HITS Colloquium, he will give a public talk on 20 October 2025 on the topic “Predicting the Impact of Massive Stars in the Universe and How to Store Renewable Energy from the Sun on Earth.”

Enjoy reading!