As a part of its central mission to nurture and inspire the next generation of radio astronomers, the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has selected four outstanding early career professionals for its 2023 Jansky Fellowship. 

Artificial lasers on Earth are used for everything from scanning grocery items to delicate surgery. But there are also naturally occurring lasers known as astrophysical masers. Join our host Summer Ash of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory as she talks about what these “space lasers” tell astronomers about the Universe.

Radio astronomers have observed galaxies billions of light years away. But how do they know just how far away those galaxies are?

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. 

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.

Jesse Alexander leads the Ham Radio Project, making the electromagnetic spectrum and radio astronomy accessible to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students.