A century ago, the Observatory's scientific foundation was the cataloging of stars. Modern challenges of understanding stars revolve around atmospheric dynamics, activity and variability as well as the discovery of exoplanets. A new field of research are neutron stars and black holes as sources of gravitational waves.
The formation and evolution of interstellar gas clouds is another pillar of research. Studying parcels of the interstellar medium or entire galaxies in simulations on supercomputers improves our understanding of star formation and magnetic fields.
Hamburg Observatory participates in the international LOFAR telescopes and many instrumentation projects, operates a robotic telescope in Mexico, and develops new algorithms based on machine learning.
Theoretical work at Hamburg Observatory relies heavily on computer clusters to run detailed, parallelised simulations. Applications range from stellar atmospheres and star formation to the evolution of galaxies and clusters of galaxies.
The foundation of the Observatory was a milestone in the development of scientific institutions in Hamburg. Today it hosts research about the history of science and technology.
