An international team of astronomers have found ring and spiral structures in very young planetary disks, demonstrating that planet formation may begin much earlier than once thought. The results were presented today at the 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Using data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) the team captured images of Class 0 and Class I planetary disks, which are much younger than the Class II disks observed by earlier disk surveys. Class II disks are known to have gaps and ring structures, indicating that planetary formation is well underway. “ALMA’s early observations of young protoplanetary disks have revealed many beautiful rings and gaps, possible formation sites of planets,” said Cheng-Han Hsieh, PhD Candidate at Yale University, “I wondered when these rings and gaps started to appear in the disks”

This new study shows that structure begins to form when the disks are about 300,000 years old, which is incredibly fast. Young disks can have multiple rings, and spiral structures, or evolve into a ring with a central cavity. These observations challenge our understanding of how planets form, particularly large Jupiter-like planets. “It is difficult to form giant planets within a million years from the core accretion model,” said Cheng-Han Hsieh. Future studies will pinpoint the exact time when the disk substructure appears and how that connects to early planet formation.

Watch the press conference here.  

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

The post Early Evolution of Planetary Disk Structures Seen for the First Time appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

An international team of astronomers has revealed mysterious star formation at the far edge of the galaxy M83. This research was presented today in a press conference at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The research used several instruments operated by the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), along with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s (NAOJ) Subaru Telescope and the NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).

Normally, new stars form as a result of diffuse atomic gas shrinking into concentrations of molecular gas, called molecular clouds, whose high density cores at their center trigger star formation. This process is common in the inner part of galaxies, but becomes increasingly rare toward galaxy outskirts.

A surprising number of very young stars are known to exist at the far edges of many galaxies, but scientists could not understand how and why these stars were made, because they could not pinpoint their formation sites. This research discovered 23 molecular clouds that showed a different type of star formation. The large bodies of these clouds were not visible like “normal” molecular clouds—only their star-forming dense cores, the “hearts” of the clouds, were observed. This discovery provides an important clue to understanding the physical processes that lead to star formation in general.

“The star formation at galaxy edges has been a nagging mystery since their discovery by the NASA GALEX satellite 18 years ago” said astronomer Jin Koda, of Stony Brook University, who led this research,  “Previous searches for molecular clouds in this environment turned out unsuccessful.” David Thilker, of Johns Hopkins University, who originally discovered the star formation activity occurring in the outskirts of M83 and other galaxies, commented, “It has been gratifying to see the search for dense clouds associated with the outer disk finally come to fruition, revealing a characteristically different observational fingerprint for the molecular clouds.”  

The revelation of these molecular clouds uncovered a link to a large reservoir of diffuse atomic gas, another discovery by this research. Normally, atomic gas condenses into dense molecular clouds, within which even denser cores develop and form stars. This process is in operation even at galaxy edges, but the conversion of this atomic gas to molecular clouds was not evident, for reasons that are yet unresolved.

Amanda Lee, who was an undergraduate student on Koda’s research team, processed GBT & VLA data for these findings. Through this, she discovered the atomic gas reservoir at the galaxy edge. “We still do not understand why this atomic gas does not efficiently become dense molecular clouds and form stars.” As often is the case in astronomy, pursuing answers to one mystery can often lead to another. “That’s why research in astronomy is exciting,” adds Lee, who is now pursuing her Ph.D. in astronomy at UMass Amherst.

Thilker added, “I am excited to see this new opportunity leveraged more broadly in the outer disk environment in order to gain a deeper insight for physical processes central to the inside-out growth of galaxies still happening in the current cosmic epoch.’

“When I started, I didn’t know what role my work would play. It was very exciting to see it contribute to the big picture of star formation,” said Lee.

Watch the press conference here. 

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About Green Bank Observatory

The Green Bank Observatory is a major facility of the National Science Foundation and is operated by Associated Universities, Inc. The first national radio astronomy observatory in the US, it’s home to the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope, the largest fully-steerable radio telescope in the world.

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Corrina Jaramillo Feldman, Public Information Officer – NRAO/VLA/ngVLA

[email protected]

505-366-7267

Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

The post Mystery of Star Formation Revealed by Hearts of Molecular Clouds appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute’s Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This cutting-edge technology is not a distinct telescope; it’s a detector. COSMIC searches for extraterrestrial signals and paves the way for future science using a copy of the raw data from the telescope’s observations. At the heart of COSMIC’s mission is pursuing the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe? Project scientist Dr. Chenoa Tremblay and the team detailed the project in a paper published this week in The Astronomical Journal.

What sets COSMIC apart is its adaptability to the future. The system is designed for future upgrades, ensuring it remains at the forefront of cosmic exploration. With the potential to expand its capabilities, COSMIC could soon cover more stars, explore new frequencies, and enhance our understanding of the vast cosmic tapestry. It is important to note that COSMIC’s capabilities go beyond searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Future upgrades could unlock new explorations, from finding fast radio bursts with a submillisecond temporal resolution to studying spectral line science and axionic dark matter.

“COSMIC introduces modern Ethernet-based digital architecture on the VLA, allowing for a test bed for future technologies as we move into the next generation era,” said Tremblay. “Currently, the focus is on creating one of the largest surveys for technological signals, with over 500,000 sources observed in the first six months. However, the flexibility of the design allows for a wide range of other scientific opportunities, such as studying fast radio burst pulse structures and searching for axion dark matter candidates. We hope to open opportunities for other scientists to use our high time (nanoseconds) or our high spectral resolution (sub-Hz) to complete their research. It is an exciting time for increasing the capabilities of this historic telescope.”

COSMIC stands on the shoulders of giants like Project Phoenix, with the capacity to search millions of stars and the potential to expand to tens of millions—a leap in scope and sensitivity. Currently operational on the VLA, COSMIC is searching using observations from the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), which will map 80% of the sky in three phases over two years and catalog approximately 10 million radio sources.

COSMIC’s Ethernet-based system adds a new collaborative element to the cosmos. The multicasting technology allows other commensal systems to access COSMIC’s processing power, enabling a collaborative scientific ecosystem to develop. Imagine multiple telescopes working together to unlock the universe’s most profound mysteries.

“The COSMIC system greatly enhances the VLA’s scientific capabilities. Its main goal of detecting extraterrestrial technosignatures addresses one of the most profound scientific questions ever. This topic was previously not possible with the VLA,” said Dr. Paul Demorest, National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “By operating in parallel with projects such as the VLA Sky Survey, COSMIC will accomplish one of the largest SETI surveys ever while still allowing the VLA to carry out its usual program of other astronomical research.”

Read this original press release on the SETI website.

The post COSMIC: SETI Institute Unlocks Mysteries of the Universe with Breakthrough Technology at the Very Large Array appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Within the framework of the scientific conference “ALMA 10 years: Past, Present, Future,” which is bringing together 180 astronomers and astronomers from around the world in Puerto Varas, southern Chile, between December 4 and 8, 2023, astronomers Sergio Martín and Juan Cortés gave a press conference to show the achievements and discoveries of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the last decade, which have marked a milestone in our understanding of the Universe.

Over three decades ago, North America, Europe, and Japan began outlining the idea of building a millimeter observatory as three separate projects. Thanks to the leaders’ vision of that time, a joint project much more ambitious than what was initially projected was possible. A global collaboration from the Atacama plateau in Chile has been in search of our cosmic origins for a decade.

Some exciting discoveries of these first ten years of ALMA have been the first image of a black hole (with the EHT Collaboration) and impressive views of protoplanetary disks. In total, more than 3,500 scientific publications have been published thanks to this unique instrument of its kind.

As a host country, Chile has gained numerous benefits, including developing high-tech skills and promoting astronomy. Chilean scientists are guaranteed access to 10% of ALMA’s observing time, promoting significant growth in the number of local astronomers, from 50 in the early 2000s to more than 300 today.To commemorate this first decade of operations, ALMA called 180 members of its scientific community around the world to meet at a conference in which, starting today, it is sharing its latest results and in which they will be able to look at the technical challenges of the future to stay in the world’s technological vanguard.The conference that takes place in Puerto Varas between December 4 and 8 includes talks and posters from experts from around the world on cosmology and galaxies in the distant Universe, star formation, astrochemistry, exoplanets, and the Sun, to name just a few.

Read more at ALMA’s website.

The post ALMA Conference Celebrates 10 Years of Astronomical Discoveries appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Zach Gallegos: The Man Behind HVAC at the Very Large Array

Zach Gallegos, a native of Socorro, New Mexico, is the HVAC and Plumbing lead at the Very Large Array (VLA). He is a dedicated professional who has carved a niche for himself in the field of HVAC and plumbing.

Zach’s journey into the HVAC field was not a planned one. After graduating from Doña Ana Community College, he was searching for a job when HVAC came across his path. His love for tinkering with things since childhood made him a natural fit for the job. He started his career at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) as a security guard, where his dedication and hard work saw him quickly rise through the ranks, first as a track operator, then as the HVAC team lead.

A typical day for Zach involves a variety of tasks, from instrument readings to checking emails and ensuring the functionality of antennas. His role is crucial to the VLA, as he is responsible for all HVAC, plumbing, and compressors, essentially anything that has a motor. HVAC also controls the chiller for the supercomputer, a critical component of the VLA. HVAC takes care of 28 vertex air conditioners and 28 ped room air conditioners. These are highly modified, and thus are made and designed in house. Zach takes care of air conditioning for all the buildings at the VLA site. HVAC also takes care of all the plumbing, from fixing a faucet to repairing both sewer and fresh water lines. They also manage the water treatment system and all sewage. Additionally, HVAC is responsible for the air compressors in each building – there are seven total. They maintain and monitor the fuel system on site, as well as the gas station. They manage all the ventilation systems, and they repair and maintain all the air conditioners on the over 100 vehicles at the VLA. Zach’s responsibilities extend beyond the VLA site. He also manages and maintains all of the Pie Town Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) site’s air conditioners and hot water heaters. 

Despite the demanding nature of his job, Zach loves his work, especially the people he works with and the opportunity to work four days a week, enjoying a three-day weekend. However, like any job, Zach’s role comes with its challenges. He has been the only person in HVAC for the past two years, making it difficult to manage all the responsibilities single-handedly. He wishes to recruit and train more skilled tradespeople in the field to ease the workload and ensure the smooth functioning of the VLA.

Zach Gallegos is a shining example of dedication and hard work. His journey from a security guard to the HVAC and Plumbing lead at the VLA is inspiring. Despite the challenges, he continues to serve with grit and determination, ensuring the smooth operation of the VLA. His story serves as a reminder that with passion and dedication, one can achieve great heights in any field.

About the People Behind the Very Large Array: 

Highly-skilled individuals work behind the scenes day in and day out to make our magnificent Array the very best it can be. The People Behind the VLA project aims to highlight the stories of these workers and share their stories, so that everyone may get a glimpse of the wonderful people that make the Very Large Array work.

The post The People Behind the Very Large Array appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

One of the primary goals of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to study the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Young stars are often surrounded by a disk of gas and dust, out of which planets can form. One of the first high resolution images that ALMA captured was of HL Tauri, a young star just 480 light-years away surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. The disk has visible gaps which could be where young protoplanets are forming. Planetary formation is a complex process that we still don’t fully understand. During this process, dust grains in the disk are growing in size as they collide and stick to each other, causing them to slowly grow to potentially become objects similar to those within our solar system.

One of the ways to study dust grains in these complex structures is to look at the orientation of the light waves they emit, which is known as polarization. Earlier studies of HL Tauri have mapped this polarization, but a new study from Stephens, et al. has captured a polarization image of HL Tauri in unprecedented detail. The resulting image is based on 10x more polarization measurements than of any other disk, and 100x more measurements than most disks. It is by far the deepest polarization image of any disk captured thus far, according to research published today in Nature.

The image was captured at a resolution of 5 AU, which is about the distance from the Sun to Jupiter. Previous polarization observations were at a much lower resolution and didn’t reveal the subtle patterns of polarization within the disk. For example, the team found the amount of polarized light to be greater on one side of the disk than the other, which is likely due to asymmetries in the distribution in the dust grains or their properties across the disk. Dust grains aren’t often spherical. They can be oblate like a thick pancake, or prolate like a grain of rice. When light is emitted by or scatters off these dust grains, it can become polarized, meaning that the waves of light are oriented in a particular direction rather than just randomly. These new results suggest that grains behave more like prolate grains, and they put strong constraints on the shape and size of dust grains within the disk.

A surprising result of the study is that there is more polarization within the gaps of the disk than the rings, even though there is more dust in the rings. The polarization within the gaps is more azimuthal, which suggests the polarization comes from aligned dust grains within the gaps. The polarization of the rings is more uniform, suggesting the polarization largely comes from scattering. In general, the polarization comes from a mix of scattering and dust alignment. Based on the data, it is unclear what is causing the dust grains to align, but they are likely not aligned along the magnetic field of the disk, which is the case for most dust outside of protoplanetary disks. Currently, it is thought that the grains are aligned mechanically, perhaps by their own aerodynamics, as they revolve around the central young star.

What will studies of HL Tau reveal next? This new publication makes clear that high resolution is needed for polarization observations to learn the details about the dust grains. As the world’s most powerful millimeter/ submillimeter telescope, ALMA will be a fundamental instrument for continuing this research.

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

The post ALMA Observation of Young Star Reveals Details of Dust Grains appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

An international team of astronomers has collaborated to improve the capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), one of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Scientists from the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Joint ALMA Observatory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and European Southern Observatory have achieved the highest resolution observation since ALMA began operations,  in one of the most challenging array configurations. The results are published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

ALMA has 66 parabolic dish antennas. Combinations of these antennas are used together as an interferometer, where the observations of many instruments are combined as one giant telescope. Each antenna is equipped with receivers that allow it to observe radio waves in different frequency ranges, or bands. The many signals collected by the individual antennas are synthesized together in a correlator.

The array’s highest resolution is achieved when it is configured to its maximum extent, or widest antenna baseline, and observes at its highest frequency. When arranged in different configurations, such as Band 10 (which was used with approximately 50 antennas for this test) there can be up to 10 miles between the location of each dish. The weather, atmosphere, and minute differences between individual antennas must be accounted for and corrected to make observing possible. To help correct for these errors, a bright target is set to calibrate the antennas. However, when observing at higher frequencies, the availability of bright calibrator is scarce and hence severely hampers the calibration process.

To solve this problem, astronomers tried the “Band-to-Band” (B2B) method, which was first developed in the 1990s by the Nobeyama Radio Observatory of NAOJ. When ALMA was constructed, hardware and software infrastructure was put in place to one day try this method, which was first tested in 2020 using Band 9 receivers and an array baseline of just over 8 ½ miles. The B2B observing technique consists of observing a bright calibrator at a lower frequency, and applying the calibration solutions from that data to the higher frequency, in which the science target is observed.

Results from this latest test, using B2B at Band 10 with the longest distance between the antennas, have achieved the highest resolution of 5 milli-arcsec (=1/720000 degrees) ever captured, the equivalent of being able to see a single human hair two and a half miles away. For this test, astronomers observed R Leporis, a star in its final stage of evolution, located approximately 1,535 light-years away from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. The B2B calibration used a nearby bright galactic core, which, while distant, appears nearby R Leporis in the sky.

Antonio Hales, NRAO Scientist and Deputy Manager of the North American ALMA Regional Center, also part of the team that achieved these results, highlights the importance of these results: “By achieving this unparalleled resolution through the Band-to-Band method, we’ve pushed ALMA’s capabilities to their absolute limit, unveiling a new window to the cosmos. This breakthrough allows astronomers to probe cosmic phenomena with a precision once thought unattainable, marking a significant testament to ALMA’s power and paving the way for future discoveries that will undoubtedly deepen our understanding of the Universe’s most profound secrets.”

See the press release from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

See the press release from European Southern Observatory.

This result was presented in a paper titled “ALMA High-frequency Long Baseline Campaign in 2021: Highest Angular Resolution Submillimeter Wave Images for the Carbon-rich Star R Lep” to appear in the Astrophysical Journal (doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acf619).

The team is composed of Y. Asaki (JAO; NAOJ; SOKENDAI), L. Maud (ESO; Leiden University), H. Francke (JAO), H. Nagai (NAOJ), D. Petry (ESO), E. B. Fomalont (NRAO), E. Humphreys (JAO; ESO), A. M. S. Richards (University of Manchester), K. T. Wong (IRAM; Uppsala University), W. Dent (JAO), A. Hirota (JAO; NAOJ), J. M. Fernandez (Lowell Observatory), S. Takahashi (NAOJ), and A. S. Hales (JAO; NRAO).

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

The post World’s Most Powerful Millimeter/Submillimeter Telescope Captures Highest Resolution Observations—Ever appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) are joining efforts to expand the capabilities of the world’s most powerful millimeter/ submillimeter telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). In a little over two years, this collaboration will deliver high performance receiver components for Band 2, and accelerate the development of the significantly upgraded version of Band 6 receivers, known as Band 6v2, which are part of the ongoing Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade.

“This agreement speeds the development of ALMA’s Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade and establishes the groundwork for a promising longer term collaboration between NRAO and NAOJ,” shares Phil Jewell, NRAO North American ALMA Director. “ALMA is made possible by a major international collaboration, and it’s important to all partners that our telescope array remains a fundamental instrument for international astronomy for decades to come.”

Drawing upon the technical design, fabrication, and testing expertise of both organizations, new receiver components will be developed, fabricated, integrated, and tested. As part of these efforts, NRAO and NAOJ will collaborate in a design for a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer to be fabricated at NAOJ’s in-house facility, their Advanced Technology Center. This technology will greatly enhance the sensitivity of ALMA’s receivers.

NAOJ has already been collaborating with the European Southern Observatory to develop the initial six units of the Band 2 receiver. This agreement with NRAO will strengthen this partnership to deliver the rest. NRAO will use NAOJ’s relationship with specialized manufacturers to produce receiver components, including corrugated feed horns, waveguides and orthomode transducers. This will complete the second phase of the NAOJ/ESO project, to outfit the entire ALMA telescope array with Band 2 receivers.

For Band 6v2, NRAO and NAOJ engineers will investigate the performance of receiver optics, along with the design and fabrication of SIS mixers, with the intention of producing NRAO designs at the NAOJ facility. NAOJ will also design, test and produce prototypes of orthomode transducers for potential use in the Band 6v2 receivers.

“Through this agreement, NAOJ and NRAO will deepen our collaboration to make the most of our expertise for the production of the Band 2 receiver and the development of the Band 6v2 receiver, which are both key pieces of the ALMA2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade,” adds Alvaro Gonzalez, NAOJ ALMA Project Director. “Joint efforts like this are crucial for sustainable long-term development in radio astronomy.”

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

The post New US & Japan Partnership Will Make the World’s Most Powerful Telescope Even More Sensitive appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has published new results that describe for the first time how light from the edge of the supermassive black hole M87* spirals as it escapes the black hole’s intense gravity, a signature known as circular polarization. The way light’s electric field prefers to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise as it travels carries information about the magnetic field and types of high-energy particles around the black hole. The new paper, published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters, supports earlier findings from the EHT that the magnetic field near the M87* black hole is strong enough to occasionally stop the black hole from swallowing up nearby matter.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the world’s most powerful millimeter/ submillimeter telescope, and a key instrument for the EHT. The spiraling light at the heart of this research is actually made up of low frequency radio waves—light that can’t be seen by the human eye or optical telescopes, but can be observed by the many radio telescopes, including ALMA, working together across the EHT.

“Circular polarization is the final signal we looked for in the EHT’s first observations of the M87 black hole, and it was by far the hardest to analyze,” says  Andrew Chael, an associate research scholar at the Gravity Initiative at Princeton University, who coordinated the project.  “These new results give us confidence that our picture of a strong magnetic field permeating the hot gas surrounding the black hole is the right one. The unprecedented EHT observations are allowing us to answer long-standing questions about how black holes consume matter and launch jets outside their host galaxies.”

In 2019, the EHT released its first image of a ring of hot plasma close to the event horizon of M87*.  In 2021, EHT scientists released an image showing the directions of the oscillating electric fields across the image. Known as linear polarization, this result was the first sign that the magnetic fields close to the black hole were ordered and strong. The new measurements of the circular polarization – which indicate how light’s electric fields spiral around the linear direction from the 2021 analysis – provide yet more conclusive evidence for these strong magnetic fields.

ALMA provided both data and calibration for these results, and served as the array reference antenna for the EHT. Without the much greater sensitivity of ALMA as the reference antenna, circular polarization could not have been detected.

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

The post A Supermassive Black Hole’s Strong Magnetic Fields are Revealed in a New Light appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have awarded the 2023 Karl G. Jansky Lectureship to Dr. Paul A. Vanden Bout, Senior Scientist, Emeritus at NRAO. The Jansky Lectureship is an honor established by the trustees of AUI to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of radio astronomy.

After earning his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Vanden Bout pioneered work in millimeter-wavelength astronomy at McDonald Observatory. He was the Director of NRAO from 1985 to 2002, and oversaw the completion of the Very Long Baseline Array, Green Bank Telescope, Expanded  Very Large Array, now the Jansky Very Large Array, and the start of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).  He was Interim Director of ALMA from 2002 – 2003, and Interim Head of the North American ALMA Science Center from 2004 – 2005. ALMA is one of the largest astronomical projects in the world, a complex array of 66 radio telescopes located high in the Chilean desert. One of the biggest challenges was simply ensuring ALMA was successful. “Every big project has funding difficulties and touch-and-go situations.  ALMA was no exception,” Dr. Vanden Bout said. Beyond his service as NRAO Director, Dr. Vanden Bout has published nearly 100 research articles. He is also the first author of “The ALMA Telescope: The Story of a Science Mega-Project,” published by Cambridge University Press in Fall 2023.

Dr. Vanden Bout will deliver his Jansky Lecture, entitled “Millimeter Astronomy at NRAO – Some Personal Remembrances, “ in Charlottesville, VA on Wednesday November 8; at the Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, WV on Thursday November 9; and in Socorro, NM on Friday November 17. Learn more about these event times and locations.

First awarded in 1966, the Jansky Lectureship is named in honor of the man who, in 1932, first detected radio waves from a cosmic source. Karl Jansky’s discovery of radio waves from the central region of the Milky Way started the science of radio astronomy.

Other recipients of the Jansky award include eight Nobel laureates (Drs. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Edward Purcell, Charles Townes, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, William Fowler, Joseph Taylor, and Reinhard Genzel) as well as Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, discoverer of the first pulsar, and Vera Rubin, discoverer of dark matter in galaxies.

See a list of past recipients.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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