Kicking off this week, and running throughout the month of October, the annual conference of the National Astronomy Consortium (NAC)—NACtober—will highlight the hard work, research, and accomplishments of the 2021 NAC cohort.

Early massive galaxies—those that formed in the three billion years following the Big Bang—should have contained large amounts of cold hydrogen gas, the fuel required to make stars. But scientists observing the early Universe with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted something strange: half a dozen early massive galaxies that ran out of fuel.

The National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory and National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and Raytheon Intelligence & Space have released new high-resolution images of the Moon, the highest-ever taken from the ground, using new radar technology on the Green Bank Telescope (GBT).

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.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory congratulates four astronomers who earned Breakthrough Prize Foundation awards for their outstanding research on a collision between two neutron stars. Their work made extensive use of the VLA and VLBA.

A new set of receivers installed on antennas at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have achieved first light. With it, they set a new record for the longest wavelengths visible with the radio array. The achievement has opened a window on the Universe previously inaccessible at the telescope, thanks to an international team of engineers, including engineers from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

The Very Large Array Sky Survey gave astronomers the first clue that ultimately revealed a dramatic story — the remnant of a star that exploded long ago had plunged into the core of its companion star causing it, too, to explode as a supernova.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory has named Dr. Patricia (Trish) Henning as its next Assistant Director for New Mexico Operations. In that role, she will lead the operations of the Very Large Array, the Very Long Baseline Array, and the Domenici Science Operations Center in Socorro, NM.

Radio light is invisible to our eyes, so it’s easy to think of all radio light as the same. But radio is filled with colors, just as the colors of visible light we can see, and radio astronomy is at its most powerful when we use all the colors of its rainbow.

The National Science Foundation has awarded NRAO $23 Million for design and development work on the Next Generation Very Large Array, a project proposed as one of the world’s next generation of cutting-edge astronomical research facilities. The award includes funding for producing a prototype antenna for this new radio telescope system.