Forecast for Blustery Winds, Smoggy Hazes

On March 13th, 2023, astronomers around the world will mark the 10th anniversary of the inauguration of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world’s largest radio telescope. Over the past decade, the international ALMA collaboration— led by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)— has revolutionized our understanding of the Universe and unveiled its secrets, from the formation of planets, stars, and galaxies to deciphering the chemistry of the cosmos, and even taking part in capturing the first images of black holes. 

ALMA’s decade of success was preceded by Early Science Observations in 2011, nearly a full two years before the telescope was inaugurated. This test period for ALMA yielded complex and beautiful images which revealed star formation and violent galaxy mergers in the Antennae Galaxies at a level of detail no other telescopes on Earth had ever attained. These pre-inaugural observations allowed ALMA to grow into what it is today. 

“Since its first light, ALMA has not only changed our understanding of the Universe, but also the way in which we look at it,” said Tony Beasley, Director of NRAO and AUI Vice President for radio astronomy. “In order to look deeper into the Universe and to see things that no other telescopes can see with such clarity, like water hiding out in the disks of young stars, and the supermassive black hole in the heart of the Milky Way, we have continuously developed cutting-edge technology, including some of the fastest supercomputing processors in the world.” 

ALMA consists of 66 antennas, spread over up to 16 kilometers— nearly 10 miles— on the Chajnantor Plateau of the Chilean Andes at 5,000 meters— or 16,404 feet— above sea level. The technology that makes the telescope special is borne of an international collaboration of 21 countries from across North America, Europe, and East Asia. NRAO’s Central Development Laboratory (CDL) is responsible for the development of the Band 6 receiver, ALMA’s most scientifically productive receiver, which was approved for upgrades in 2021. ALMA was also approved earlier this year for the development of a new central correlator and digital transmission system, upgrades that will eventually increase the system bandwidth by a factor of four, and that will be carried out by NRAO and several other partners. This technology, and other innovations like it, have supported ALMA-user scientists to produce more than 3,000 scientific publications to date. That’s nearly one publication per day for a decade.

“ALMA has captured the world’s imagination since it unveiled its first images more than a decade ago, and it has opened new windows on the Universe that could not have been opened otherwise,” said Karen Marrongelle, U.S. National Science Foundation Chief Operating Officer. “Our commitment to ALMA now and for the future is the same as it was then: to develop the technology that unlocks and expands our knowledge of the Milky Way and every other galaxy in our Universe.”

Among ALMA’s most notable contributions are the first clear pictures of planet formation, observed around the young star HL Tau by scientists from ALMA’s partner regions and led by NRAO in 2014, and supermassive black holes M87* and SgrA*, observed by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration in 2019 and 2022, respectively. 

“ALMA has transformed our understanding of the Universe and opened new research frontiers,” said Sean Dougherty, Director of ALMA. “We are very proud of the accomplishments of the past decade and excited about the discoveries over the next ten years.”

About NRAO

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

About ALMA

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.

Media Contacts:

Amy C. Oliver
Public Information Officer, ALMA
Public Information & News Manager, NRAO
+1 434 242 9584
[email protected]

Nicolás Lira
Education and Public Outreach Coordinator
Joint ALMA Observatory, Santiago – Chile
+56 2 2467 6519
[email protected]

The post A Decade of Unveiling the Hidden Universe: ALMA at 10 appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Scientists studying a nearby protostar have detected the presence of water in its circumstellar disk. The new observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) mark the first detection of water being inherited into a protoplanetary disk without significant changes to its composition. These results further suggest that the water in our Solar System formed billions of years before the Sun. The new observations are published today in Nature.

V883 Orionis is a protostar located roughly 1,305 light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion. The new observations of this protostar have helped scientists to find a probable link between the water in the interstellar medium and the water in our Solar System by confirming they have similar composition.

“We can think of the path of water through the Universe as a trail. We know what the endpoints look like, which are water on planets and in comets, but we wanted to trace that trail back to the origins of water,” said John Tobin, an astronomer at the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the lead author on the new paper. “Before now, we could link the Earth to comets, and protostars to the interstellar medium, but we couldn’t link protostars to comets. V883 Ori has changed that, and proven the water molecules in that system and in our Solar System have a similar ratio of deuterium and hydrogen.” 

Observing water in the circumstellar disks around protostars is difficult because in most systems water is present in the form of ice. When scientists observe protostars they’re looking for the water snow line or ice line, which is the place where water transitions from predominantly ice to gas, which radio astronomy can observe in detail. “If the snow line is located too close to the star, there isn’t enough gaseous water to be easily detectable and the dusty disk may block out a lot of the water emission. But if the snow line is located further from the star, there is sufficient gaseous water to be detectable, and that’s the case with V883 Ori,” said Tobin, who added that the unique state of the protostar is what made this project possible.

V883 Ori’s disk is quite massive and is just hot enough that the water in it has turned from ice to gas. That makes this protostar an ideal target for studying the growth and evolution of solar systems at radio wavelengths.

“This observation highlights the superb capabilities of the ALMA instrument in helping astronomers study something vitally important for life on Earth: water,” said Joe Pesce, NSF Program Officer for ALMA.  “An understanding of the underlying processes important for us on Earth, seen in more distant regions of the galaxy, also benefits our knowledge of how nature works in general, and the processes that had to occur for our Solar System to develop into what we know today.”

To connect the water in V883 Ori’s protoplanetary disk to that in our own Solar System, the team measured its composition using ALMA’s highly sensitive Band 5 (1.6mm) and Band 6 (1.3mm) receivers and found that it remains relatively unchanged between each stage of solar system formation: protostar, protoplanetary disk, and comets. “This means that the water in our Solar System was formed long before the Sun, planets, and comets formed. We already knew that there is plenty of water ice in the interstellar medium. Our results show that this water got directly incorporated into the Solar System during its formation,” said Merel van ‘t ’Hoff, an astronomer at the University of Michigan and a co-author of the paper. “This is exciting as it suggests that other planetary systems should have received large amounts of water too.”

Clarifying the role of water in the development of comets and planetesimals is critical to building an understanding of how our own Solar System developed. Although the Sun is believed to have formed in a dense cluster of stars and V883 Ori is relatively isolated with no nearby stars, the two share one critical thing in common: they were both formed in giant molecular clouds. 

“It is known that the bulk of the water in the interstellar medium forms as ice on the surfaces of tiny dust grains in the clouds. When these clouds collapse under their own gravity and form young stars, the water ends up in the disks around them. Eventually, the disks evolve and the icy dust grains coagulate to form a new solar system with planets and comets,” said Margot Leemker, an astronomer at Leiden University and a co-author of the paper. “We have shown that water that is produced in the clouds follows this trail virtually unchanged. So, by looking at the water in the V883 Ori disk, we essentially look back in time and see how our own Solar System looked when it was much younger.”

Tobin added, “Until now, the chain of water in the development of our Solar System was broken. V883 Ori is the missing link in this case, and we now have an unbroken chain in the lineage of water from comets and protostars to the interstellar medium.”

Resource

“Deuterium-enriched water ties planet-forming disks to comets and protostars,” J. Tobin et al, 8 March 2023, Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05676-z

About NRAO

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

About ALMA

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.

Media Contact:

Amy C. Oliver
Public Information Officer, ALMA
Public Information & News Manager, NRAO
+1 434 242 9584
[email protected]

The post ALMA Traces History of Water in Planet Formation Back to the Interstellar Medium appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Jesse Alexander is the Ham Radio Project Lead on Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS), a two-year project to engage BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students in learning about the electromagnetic spectrum and the excitement of amateur— also called ham— radio. Following a generous grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) launched its first student-facing training for EMS in January 2023.

When asked how amateur radio relates to radio astronomy, Alexander says there’s overlap between the field and the hobby. “Ham radio is a gateway to radio astronomy. Quite a few people within NRAO are hams and they’ve been helping with this project. Usually, anything involving antennas is going to also attract hams.”

Alexander has been an amateur radio operator for more than 40 years. He has a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering from Howard University, specializing in microwave systems, and is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Alexander worked for Bell Labs for 17 years, a highlight of which he says was developing Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS)— the predecessor to our modern cell phone service.

“I have been fascinated by electronics, science, and engineering since I was 8 and I was first licensed as a ham in 1975,” says Alexander, who discovered amateur radio by “being a library geek.” He found a copy of QST magazine— the longest-running amateur radio magazine, produced by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL)—at his local public library in Montclair, NJ, and fell in love. “At first, I started listening to radio signals, then after getting my novice ham license (at 15) I used Morse code (CW) to communicate on the air. We didn’t have cell phones yet so it was really exciting to communicate wirelessly with people far away.”

Alexander’s enthusiasm is contagious. It’s impossible to leave a conversation with him not knowing more about ham radio than when you started. The radio spectrum is a vital natural resource—and Alexander wants to introduce young people, especially underserved young people, to all that it can do.

When asked how he feels about being the Ham Radio Project Lead for EMS, he says, “I had help when I was young, so now I want to help young people.” The program targets young adults aged 18-20—especially BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ youth—which is an underrepresented demographic in amateur radio. But Alexander is optimistic. “My hope is that this project creates a feeder population for mechanics, electricians, engineers, and scientists.”

“This is legacy-building stuff,” he says. “This project is for young people who love to build, hack, and play around with STEM projects. It’s to bring a new cohort of ham operators into the hobby. More experienced hams mentored me and I’m happy to support the next generation. I can’t wait to see all the crazy stuff these young people are going to invent.”

For anyone who is interested in amateur radio and doesn’t quite know where to start, Alexander recommends the ARRL’s guide at arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio.

To learn more about NRAO’s project Exploring the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS), visit superknova.org/ham-radio-project.

The post Spotlight: Jesse Alexander and the Ham Radio Project appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Never-Before-Seen Spacecraft Collision Yields Unexpected Surprises

The post Extreme Galaxy Reveals Clues to Early Supermassive Black Hole Formation appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Mysterious Features Were First Seen Decades Ago by Voyager Spacecraft

The Board of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)— an international collaboration in which the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a partner— has approved multi-million dollar upgrades for the development of a second-generation correlator and a digital transmission system (DTS). As part of the ALMA2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade, these projects aim to double and eventually quadruple the correlated bandwidth of the array.

Central to the ALMA2030 upgrades, the Second Generation ALMA Correlator— the “brain” of the array— is a type of supercomputer that combines the individual signals from each antenna to create exquisite images of astronomical objects. The new correlator will improve the current one’s already highly refined ability to process and combine data and increase the sensitivity of astronomical images and the flexibility of making them.

“While ALMA’s current correlators are already some of the fastest supercomputing signal processors in the world, the Second Generation Correlator will be capable of producing 200, and ultimately 400 times more data per second along with an increased sensitivity equivalent to adding more than 1000 hours of observing time per year,” said Crystal Brogan, ALMA-North America Program Scientist and the ALMA Development Program Coordinator at NRAO. “The initial expansion in system bandwidth by a factor of two, and eventually four, will enhance the science throughput for all areas of ALMA science from the most distant galaxies to our Solar System. The Second Generation ALMA Correlator will also enable high spectral resolution at wide bandwidth for the first time – affording an unprecedented view of the kinematics and chemistry of star and planet formation.”

The $36 million project will take approximately six years to complete and combines the hardware and firmware expertise of scientists and engineers at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the software expertise of NRAO’s Data Management and Software Department. Additionally, experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory will be assisting with the implementation and testing of the Phased Array aspects of the new correlator. The project is led by the NRAO’s North American ALMA Department.

“The new correlator provides the foundation for the rest of the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU).  With the project’s approval, the WSU has moved from plans to construction. The international ALMA collaboration will work together to deliver this project, and by the end of this decade, we’ll see the results in amazing new science,” said Phil Jewell, Director for ALMA-North America.

The upgraded Digital Transmission System (DTS)— a collaboration between NRAO’s Central Development Laboratory (CDL) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), also a partner in ALMA— will act as an expanded information highway, increasing the amount of data that can travel from each of ALMA’s upgraded receivers to the upgraded correlator by a factor of eight.

“The DTS is an exciting collaboration with our colleagues at NAOJ and will provide a higher-capacity digital path for data from the upgraded receivers to the ALMA Talon Central Signal Processor. The project leverages our expertise in photonics and digital signal processing and will be built using state-of-the-art hardware, enabling a wide range of improvements,” said Bert Hawkins, Director of CDL.

Alvaro Gonzalez, East Asia ALMA Program Manager at NAOJ added, “The new ALMA2030 DTS will be based on the latest high-speed data-transmission standards and use commercially available technology as much as possible. As a collaboration between NAOJ and NRAO, we will combine the best aspects of technology and know-how from the two partners. The DTS will be designed to support the goal of 4 times increase of instantaneous bandwidth of ALMA receivers and also the eventual increase of the distance between antennas, up to around 75 km, for improved angular resolution.”

Phase 1 of the DTS upgrade— approved for ~US$800,000— aims to produce a prototype of the new end-to-end system by 2026 and will be followed by a Phase 2 production proposal.

NRAO’s and NA ALMA’s central role in the ALMA2030 upgrades extends beyond the correlator and DTS and includes the conversion of the Operations Support Facility to house and operate the new correlator, additional infrastructure and support systems, and receiver upgrades. CDL has already commenced work to upgrade ALMA’s 1.3mm (Band 6) receivers after receiving approval and Phase 1 funding in late 2021. The Band 6v2 receiver prototype is expected in 2025, allowing for the build-out of an entirely upgraded set of Band 6 receivers for ALMA that will increase the quantity and quality of science measured in wavelengths between 1.4mm and 1.1mm.

Upon completion, ALMA2030 will realize upgrades to most ALMA receivers resulting in increased bandwidth and sensitivity, complete replacement of the ALMA digital signal chain— digitizer, digital transmission system, and correlator— and installation of new fiber cables connecting ALMA’s Operations Site to its Operations Support Facility, and develop associated control, data acquisition, and data processing software.

“An already immensely powerful observatory, ALMA has uncovered the secrets of protoplanetary disks and the unseen gas and dust that drives the formation of stars, planets, and galaxies. These upgrades will help us see further than ever before and process this information faster and more clearly,” said NRAO Director Tony Beasley. “With each upgrade, we are quite literally building the future of radio astronomy.”

ALMA Director Sean Dougherty added, “This is a very exciting moment for ALMA. The approval of these two major components of the Wide-Band Sensitivity Upgrade— a new data transmission system and future-forward correlator— will extend the science capabilities of ALMA enormously across all fields of science.”

“This exciting project ensures ALMA continues to operate and provide fantastic observations,” says Joe Pesce, NSF Program Officer for ALMA.  “Improved capabilities enabled by the upgraded correlator will lead to new discoveries about our universe and advancement of science.”

“This project will significantly improve the sensitivity, flexibility and efficiency of the telescope,” said Brent Carlson, Research Officer at the NRC’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Centre and the NRC’s Principal Investigator for the correlator project. “The Second Generation ALMA Correlator will allow much more spectral information from radio sources to be imaged instantaneously, giving scientists access to a colossal amount of new data. The ability to do spectral scans efficiently at such high resolution is unprecedented and will keep ALMA at the forefront of scientific discovery.”

The North American ALMA Development Program is funded by the NSF and the National Research Council of Canada.

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

About ALMA

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.

Media contact:

Amy C. Oliver, FRAS
Public Information & News Manager, NRAO
Public Information Officer, ALMA-North America
+1-434-242-9584
[email protected]

The post ALMA Soon to Receive a New Brain appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Astronomers Use a Trick of Nature to 'Weigh' a Dead Star

The Universe is a dynamic and exciting place, with stars, planets, and galaxies being born, dying, and undergoing dramatic changes. In 2022, the telescopes of the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) revealed fascinating new details about several of these processes, and we’re giving you a taste of the greatest radio astronomy moments of the year.

Gravity wins tug-of-war with turbulence

In the Tarantula Nebula, where hundreds of thousands of stars are being born, ALMA observations showed that gravity can overcome even serious turbulence and keep pulling in material to form new stars.

Writing and narration provided by Phil Plait @Bad Astronomy

Discover more about star formation in the Tarantula Nebula from the original press release: https://public.nrao.edu/news/alma-star-formation-large-magellanic-cloud-30-doradus/

VLBA gives first 3-D view of system with two stars and a planet

Astronomers using the VLBA produced the first-ever full, 3-D view of a binary star system with a planet orbiting one of the stars. The surprising result provided important new insights into the process of planet formation.

Writing and narration provided by Phil Plait @Bad Astronomy

Discover more about the planet in a binary-star system from the original press release: https://public.nrao.edu/news/binary-star-planet-system/

VLA Sky Survey reveals extremely young pulsar

Data from the VLA Sky Survey revealed one of the youngest known neutron stars — possibly as young as only 14 years. The dense remnant of a supernova explosion was revealed when bright radio emission powered by the pulsar’s powerful magnetic field emerged from behind a thick shell of debris from the explosion.

Writing and narration provided by Phil Plait @Bad Astronomy

Discover more about the young pulsar from the original press release: https://public.nrao.edu/news/powerful-pulsar-in-distant-galaxy/

Binary SMBHs

Supermassive black holes can be voracious eaters, and ALMA has shown two of these monsters unexpectedly dining in close proximity as their host galaxies collide.

Writing and narration provided by Phil Plait @Bad Astronomy

Discover more about the pair of supermassive black holes from the original press release: https://public.nrao.edu/news/black-holes-dining-galaxy-merger-alma/ 

The post Science Highlights 2022: Black Holes, Pulsars and Turbulence appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.