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Top panel: the cluster of galaxies (white/violet) and its hot gaseous atmosphere (blue); bottom right panel: NSF VLBA image of the recently awakened central black hole and its tiny jets; bottom left panel: the first author of the article, Francesco Ubertosi, with one of the NSF VLBA antennas (Owens Valley, CA) used for the observations in the background.
Astronomers Catch Supermassive Black Hole in the Act of “Waking Up”
August 8, 2025 at 11:00 am | News Release

Astronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (NSF VLBA) and U.S. National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array (NSF VLA) have caught a supermassive black hole in the act of awakening from a long slumber, providing an unprecedented glimpse into the earliest stages of black hole activity.

Origins of Earth’s Water. Terrestrial H2O is thought to have been delivered several billion years ago, by a combination of cometary, asteroidal and meteoritic impacts. In contrast to previous findings, new work using the ALMA telescope shows that the isotopic (D/H) ratio in Earth’s water is consistent with delivery by Halley-type comets.
Comet’s Water Holds Clues to Life on Earth
August 8, 2025 at 5:00 am | News Release

New research has uncovered compelling evidence that water from a comet is strikingly similar to that found in Earth’s…

An artist’s impression of the “Cosmic Grapes” galaxy, composed of at least 15 massive star forming clumps—far more than current theoretical models predict could exist within a single rotating disk at this early time. Image credit NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/B.Saxton.
The Universe’s Secret Harvest: ALMA Sheds Light on “the Cosmic Grapes”
August 7, 2025 at 8:27 am | News Release

Astronomers have discovered a remarkably clumpy rotating galaxy that existed just 900 million years after the Big Bang, shedding…

A view of the NSF Green Bank Telescope from the playground of the Green Bank Elementary and Middle School.
NSF Green Bank Observatory Works with Local School to Allow WiFi in the “Quiet Zone”
August 6, 2025 at 8:00 am | News Release

The U.S. National Science Foundation Green Bank Observatory (NSF GBO) is entering a new era for the “Quiet Zone”—…

Schematic of circular polarization being detected in radio waves from a massive protostar surrounded by a disk and driving a bipolar jet. This is an artistic image, not drawn to scale.
Groundbreaking Magnetic Field Discovery Near Massive Protostar Made Possible by NSF NRAO’s Very Large Array
July 18, 2025 at 2:00 pm | News Release

An international team, led by astronomers from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has for the first time detected circular polarization in radio emission originating from a massive protostar, IRAS 18162-2048—unveiling fresh clues about the cosmic forces shaping our universe.

An artist’s impression of the Long Period Transit, CHIME J1634+44, believed to be the brightest and most polarised LPT ever found.
Space’s Spinning Enigma: A ‘Unicorn’ Object Defies Astrophysics
July 17, 2025 at 2:00 am | News Release

Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery using some of the world’s most advanced radio telescopes. Researchers, led by Fengqiu Adam Dong, a Jansky Fellow at the NSF Green Bank Observatory (NSF GBO), have identified an exceptionally unusual cosmic object known as a Long Period Radio Transient (LPT), named CHIME J1634+44. This object stands out as one of the most polarized LPTs ever discovered, and it is the only one observed to be spinning up (meaning its rotation is speeding up) a phenomenon never seen before in this class of astronomical objects.

Showing news items 121 - 130 of 973