24 students from schools of the national Excellence School Network MINT-EC conducted research on astrophysics at the TU Dresden from October 23 to 26. For four days, they worked together with scientists from the Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics of the TU Dresden and from the DeltaX student laboratory of the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf on the physics of stars and experienced how new scientific insights into the origin and development of the fascinating celestial bodies made of gas and plasma are gained in the laboratory or at the telescope.

In groups, the students dealt with topics such as nuclear reactions and their connection with the evolution of stars and the formation of chemical elements. They visited the underground laboratory "Felsenkeller" and learned how accelerators are used to investigate what happens inside stars. They also visited the Dresden-Gönnsdorf observatory. The students especially enjoyed the various experiments.

In the DeltaX student laboratory, the young people were able to experiment and learn how researchers gain new knowledge about stars by analyzing spectra. Britta, one of the participants, describes it like this: "We burned different salts. This produced different colors, and the physical processes could be explained from this. Through the practical work, I was able to better understand the theory behind it."

The students were accompanied by scientists and students who also showed them around the city and told them about studying at the TU Dresden. 

The participants of the camp were selected from 120 applications from all over the world. They traveled from far away for the camp and took many hours of train ride. Two young people from the German School Istanbul came to Dresden accompanied by their teacher to participate in the astrophysics camp. There was also a student from the German International School Washington, who is very interested in astrophysics and therefore chose this camp out of the many exciting camps all over Germany. "I've also never been to Dresden before and was eager to see the city."

At the end, the students gave an impressive presentation of their own initial research results obtained during the camp. 

At the MINT-EC Camp in Dresden, the young people researched at the cutting edge of technology. With the scientific participation of the TU Dresden, the German Center for Astrophysics is currently being built in Lusatia, near Dresden. Astrophysics is a high-tech science with great innovative power and its research will enable even more precise investigations of the universe.

The MINT-EC Camp was made possible by the EU project ChETEC-INFRA, which is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 101008324.

Contact persons:
School Contact Point of TU Dresden

0351 463 37862

Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics

0351 463 32956