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A multi-panel astronomical image shows the spiral galaxy M33 on the left, with soft blue-white spiral arms and a bright central bulge, overlaid by a faint rectangular outline marking a region near the galaxy’s center. Inset on the right is a zoomed, false-color radio/optical composite of that outlined area, filled with mottled clouds of blue, purple, and red, where the red regions trace clumpy, dense gas and the blue-purple background highlights more diffuse material and a central cavity. White labels identify a “Supernova Remnant” within a dashed circular outline in the lower-left of the inset, a nearby “Wolf-Rayet Star” just above and to the right, a faint “Cavity” region outlined by a dotted circle above them, and “Dense Gas” along the bright red structures to the right, illustrating how the massive star and past supernova have carved out a bubble in the surrounding gas within the galaxy.

Stars That Die Off the Beaten Path

January 6, 2026 at 4:15 pm | News Release

Astronomers have created a detailed forecast of where they expect to observe future stellar explosions in a nearby galaxy,…

A rectangular collage of fifteen small, purple-and-gold astronomical images arranged in three rows on a black background, each showing a hazy, glowing central source with irregular contours and scattered fainter specks resembling distant galaxies or stars.

Young Galaxies Grow Up Fast

January 6, 2026 at 12:15 pm | News Release

Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active…

The U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array on the plains of San Agustin, New Mexico

Hidden Giants of the Early Universe: NSF NRAO Telescopes Help Reveal Divergent Fates of the Most Massive Galaxies

January 5, 2026 at 11:56 am | News Release

Astronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) instruments Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and, the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA), and the W. M. Keck Observatory have uncovered the hidden lives of some of the most massive galaxies in the early Universe, revealing that while some shut down star formation quickly, others continue forming stars behind thick veils of cosmic dust.

Illustration of a young star system seen edge-on in space, with a dark, dusty disk cutting horizontally across the center and glowing orange clumps along the disk that suggest sites of active star formation. Bright white and gray gas flows extend above and below the disk like broad cones or jets, fading into the deep blue background of space. Soft, scattered stars of varying brightness surround the scene.

ALMA Devours Cosmic “Hamburger,” Reveals Potential for Giant Planet Formation

January 5, 2026 at 4:27 am | News Release

Have you ever found something unexpected in your hamburger? Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) were surprised…

A nighttime view of a high-altitude radio observatory shows several large parabolic antennas silhouetted against a dark plateau, while the bright, star-filled band of the Milky Way arches dramatically across the sky overhead.

Super Massive Black Holes May Be Picky Eaters

December 19, 2025 at 7:38 am | News Release

Black holes are notorious for gobbling up everything that comes their way, but astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter…

A “tomographic” ALMA view revealing how the supersonic protostellar jet from SVS 13 interacts with the surrounding ambient medium. In the background, a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image shows the cavity carved out by the outflow, along with the striking Herbig–Haro knots visible at optical wavelengths.

NSF VLA and ALMA Reveal Time-Stamps of Star Birth in Dazzling Cosmic Jet

December 16, 2025 at 2:58 pm | News Release

An international group of astronomers has uncovered the clearest evidence yet that the powerful jets launched by newborn stars dependably record a star’s most violent growing pains, confirming a long‑standing model of how these jets plow through their surroundings.

James Webb Space Telescope deep field image with highlighted distant red galaxy

Astronomers Discover a Superheated Star Factory in the Early Universe

November 12, 2025 at 5:27 pm | News Release

Astronomers have uncovered a previously unknown, extreme kind of star factory by taking the temperature of a distant galaxy…

Illustration of new ALMA observations revealing spiral-shaped gas streamer guided by magnetic fields in a star-forming nursery

Astronomers Spot Magnetically-Guided Streamer Funneling Star-Building Material into Newborn System in Perseus

October 20, 2025 at 12:00 pm | News Release

A team of astronomers led by Paulo Cortes, a scientist with the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy…

Artist’s interpretation of two massive black holes (MBHs) within a galaxy. A tidal disruption event unfolds around the MBH that resides away from the galactic center and matter from a disrupted star swirls into a bright accretion disk, launching an energetic outflow and resulting in two bright radio flares.

Astronomers Discover Fastest-Evolving Radio Signals Ever Observed from Black Hole Tearing Apart Star

October 15, 2025 at 12:00 pm | News Release

An international team of astronomers has discovered the first radio-bright tidal disruption event (TDE) occurring outside a galaxy’s center using the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) Very Large Array (NSF VLA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), along with several partner telescopes,. The event, designated AT 2024tvd, revealed the fastest-evolving radio signals ever observed from this type of cosmic catastrophe.

A scene in space, rings of dust circle a bright star, comets and planets float nearby. Tiny molecules representing heavy water appear throughout the image, connecting the star, comets, and planets.

First-ever Detection of “Heavy Water” in a Planet-forming Disk

October 15, 2025 at 5:00 am | News Release

The discovery of ancient water in a planet-forming disk reveals that some of the water found in comets—and maybe…

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