"Our exotic universe" shows astro-research from the Ruhr region
Plasma, particle and astrophysics - that may sound abstract at first. However, the new planetarium show "Our exotic universe" proves that the results of these research disciplines can be quite visually stunning. Researchers from the RAPP Center have developed and produced it together with the team from the Bochum Planetarium to mark the tenth anniversary of the facility. In the show, visitors go on a fascinating journey of discovery to the extreme places of the universe. They find themselves in the midst of the remains of a stellar explosion, see galaxies glowing in radio light and experience how an entire star is torn apart at the edge of a massive black hole.
"We are delighted to be able to present our work in this way and make it accessible to a wide audience," says Prof. Julia Tjus, Head of the RAPP Center and Professor of Physics at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. "Many of the images shown were taken by the researchers themselves, for example with telescopes in Antarctica, on La Palma or at CERN." The production in the Bochum Planetarium was made possible by funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to mark the Center's anniversary: The work shown in the show is part of the Collaborative Research Center 1491 "The interplay of cosmic matter - from source to signal". From 2026, the show will also be shown in other cities and abroad.
Cooperation at the RAPP Center
The three universities in the Ruhr region have been pooling their expertise in particle, astrophysics and plasma physics in the joint research facility of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) since 2015 and cooperate with partners from the University of Wuppertal. From TU Dortmund University, the working groups of Prof. Johannes Albrecht, Prof. Kevin Kröninger and Prof. Wolfgang Rhode from the Department of Physics and Prof. Jens Teubner from the Department of Computer Science are involved in the RAPP Center.
At the Center, the RAPP scientists are researching, for example, the origin of cosmic radiation, how magnetic fields are created in the universe and the nature of dark matter and neutrino particles. In the future, the center wants to establish new research focuses in the field of artificial intelligence. In addition, the focus will be on collision-dominated plasmas, in which collisions of gas particles occur, which are important in astrophysics in some places, such as near the sun and in molecular clouds, and which can also be studied in the laboratory. The universities in Bochum, Dortmund and Duisburg-Essen, which have been cooperating in the UA Ruhr since 2007, want to network even more closely.