A striking image of an enormous bubble blown into the dusty gas disk of our own Milky Way galaxy has won first place in the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s second annual Radio Astronomy Image Contest.

One of the pioneers of radio astronomy tells her story of the formative years of that science in a memoir published by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is presenting an award to a pioneering team of scientists and engineers who combined an orbiting radio-astronomy satellite with ground-based radio telescopes around the world to produce a “virtual telescope” nearly three times the size of the Earth. The team, which includes two scientists from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), will receive the award in a ceremony Sunday, October 16, in Fukuoka, Japan.

Forget the headphones you saw in the Warner Brothers thriller Contact, as well as the guttural throbs emanating from loudspeakers at the Very Large Array in that 1997 movie.

Dr Christopher Carilli, a National Radio Astronomy Observatory astronomer in Socorro, New Mexico, has been chosen to receive the prestigious Max Planck Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Max Planck Society in Germany.

Riccardo Giacconi, very recently retired President of Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), will be awarded the National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush on March 14, according to the White House.

The American Astronomical Society has awarded its prestigious George Van Biesbroeck Prize to Dr Eric Greisen of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico.

Scientists and dignitaries from North America, Europe, and Chile broke ground today (Thursday, November 6, 2003) on what will be the world’s largest, most sensitive radio telescope operating at millimeter wavelengths.

Dr Rita Colwell, director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, and Dr Catherine Cesarsky, director general of the European Southern Observatory, today signed a historic agreement jointly to construct and operate ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope operating at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths.

Grote Reber, one of the earliest pioneers of radio astronomy, died in Tasmania on December 20, just two days shy of his 91st birthday.