Record-breaking Galaxy Cluster Discovered

The U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) and Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) are proud to celebrate the remarkable achievements of two local students, Iris and Camila, as they embark on their journeys into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers.

Astronomers have discovered the secrets of a starburst galaxy producing new stars at a rate much faster than our…

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has observed spirals of light escaping from the edge of the supermassive black…

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has just received a “heart transplant,” high in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. ALMA, the most complex astronomical observatory ever built on Earth, installed a new hydrogen maser. Funded by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), this upgrade marks an essential investment, setting a new standard in reliability for observations.

Water has been detected in the most massive galaxy in the early Universe, according to new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Scientists studying SPT0311-58 found H20, along with carbon monoxide in the galaxy, which is located nearly 12.88 billion light years from Earth. Detection of these two molecules in abundance suggests that the molecular Universe was going strong shortly after the elements were forged in early stars. The new research comprises the most detailed study of molecular gas content of a galaxy in the early Universe to date and the most distant detection of H20 in a regular star-forming galaxy.

An international collaboration of scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has completed the most extensive chemical composition mapping of the protoplanetary disks around five nearby young stars at high resolution, producing images that capture the molecular composition associated with planetary births, and a roadmap for future studies of the makeup of planet- and comet-forming regions. The new study unlocks clues about the role of molecules in planetary system formation, and whether these young planetary systems in the making have what it takes to host life.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Radio astronomers can see hydrogen by the light it emits, reflects, and even absorbs. Because hydrogen is everywhere, it can tell stories about the cosmos from the Big Bang to today.

Join our host Summer Ash of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory as she talks about how hydrogen can tell us so much about the structure and evolution of the universe.

ALMA is the first telescope to measure the gases originating directly from the nucleus of an object that travelled to us from another planetary system.