A system designed to provide streaming data from the VLA to SETI Institute equipment to search for radio transmissions possibly generated by extraterrestrial civilizations has successfully completed its first test.

The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (Astro2020) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has given high priority to the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) as part of its strategy and vision for the next decade of research at the frontiers of astronomy and astrophysics.

Water has been detected in the most massive galaxy in the early Universe, according to new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Scientists studying SPT0311-58 found H20, along with carbon monoxide in the galaxy, which is located nearly 12.88 billion light years from Earth. Detection of these two molecules in abundance suggests that the molecular Universe was going strong shortly after the elements were forged in early stars. The new research comprises the most detailed study of molecular gas content of a galaxy in the early Universe to date and the most distant detection of H20 in a regular star-forming galaxy.

Astronomers examining the nearby Universe with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have just completed the largest high-resolution survey of star-forming fuel ever conducted in galaxy clusters. But more importantly, they’re tackling a long-standing mystery in astrophysics: what’s killing galaxies?

Young stars often have disks of gas and dust around them, and many of these disks have gaps within them. How do astronomers know that these gaps are caused by young planets and not some other effect?

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.