Radio astronomers usually learn about the universe by passively observing the sky. But sometimes radio astronomy can be a bit more active. Join our host Summer Ash of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory as she talks about how astronomers can use radar to understand our astronomical neighbors in new and interesting ways.
Six outstanding high school seniors were awarded the 2021 AUI Scholarship. Among the recipients were five children of NRAO staff members.
Six NAC alums have accepted offers from outstanding graduate programs around the country. Each will receive a $5,000 AUI Board of Trustees NAC Bridge Scholarship Award, with AUI and NRAO’s congratulations and best wishes for a smooth start to an exciting new chapter of their lives.
Astronomers using data from the VLA Sky Survey have discovered one of the youngest known neutron stars — possibly as young as only 14 years. The dense remnant of a supernova explosion was revealed when bright radio emission powered by the pulsar’s powerful magnetic field emerged from behind a thick shell of debris from the explosion.
While using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe large star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), scientists discovered a turbulent push-and-pull dynamic in the star-forming region, 30 Doradus. Observations revealed that despite intense stellar feedback, gravity is shaping the molecular cloud, and against scientific odds, is driving the ongoing formation of young, massive stars.
Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)— an international observatory co-operated by the US National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)—have observed a significant amount of cold, neutral gas in the outer regions of the young galaxy A1689-zD1, as well as outflows of hot gas coming from the galaxy’s center. These results may shed light on a critical stage of galactic evolution for early galaxies, where young galaxies begin the transformation to be increasingly like their later, more structured cousins.
