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The distribution of compute capacity used for these results. Data and jobs from NRAO DSOC were placed at the access point (AP) provided by the PATh project in Madison, Wisconsin.

Astronomers & Engineers Use a Grid of Computers at a National Scale to Study the Universe 300 Times Faster

March 5, 2024 at 11:48 am | News Release

Looking for a more efficient way to process a particularly large VLA data set, to produce one of the deepest radio images of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), made famous by the Hubble Telescope, NRAO staff decided to try a different approach.

(a) ngVLA NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) mapping of large areas is needed to study the cloud-core connection and understand the formation and evolution of dense cores and star formation (e.g. Choudhury+2020, 2021) as well as the detailed physical/chemical structure of dense cores (e.g. Pineda+2022).
(c) ngVLA mapping of carbon chain molecules and other low-frequency molecular lines will allow us to study streamers of material from cloud scales to protoplanetary disks (e.g. Pineda+2020, Valdivia Mena+2022) and directly witness its effects on disk evolution and planet formation. Complex organics
emission and formation routes near protostars will also be studied in detail with ngVLA (e.g. De Simone+2020)
(d) ngVLA will provide detailed mapping of the chemical structure of protoplanetary disks, including complex organic molecules. It will also unveil the disk “terrestrial zone” and its connection to the outer disk, as viewed with ALMA (e.g. Di Francesco+2019, SeguraCox+2020, Zamponi+2021).

German Astronomers Share Proposed Science for the ngVLA

February 21, 2024 at 2:07 pm | News Release

Over the course of two scientific meetings, held in 2022 and 2023, German astronomers have collected 41 highly compelling science cases involving 57 unique authors from 19 German institutions, all aspiring to use the ngVLA.

NAC Student Researchers Receive Prestigious Chambliss Medals at AAS 243

February 19, 2024 at 10:00 am | Announcement

Two student researchers from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s National Astronomy Consortium (NAC) program were each awarded the prestigious…

Can Astronomers Use Radar to Spot a Cataclysmic Asteroid?

February 16, 2024 at 10:00 am | News Release

How can humans protect the Earth from “devastating asteroid and comet impacts?” According to the National Academies and their…

Astronomers Discover Jupiter-sized Objects Drawn into Each Other’s Orbit

February 12, 2024 at 3:11 pm | News Release

What happens to planet-sized objects that don’t have a star? A team of astronomers studying Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs) in the Orion Nebula are gaining a new understanding of these unusual systems.

This artist’s illustration depicts the findings of a new study about the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy called Sagittarius A (abbreviated as Sgr A). This result found that Sgr A* is spinning so quickly that it is warping spacetime – that is, time and the three dimensions of space – so that it can look more like a football.

The new study suggests that Sgr A is, in fact, spinning very rapidly, which causes the spacetime around it to be squashed down. The illustration shows a cross-section of Sgr A and material swirling around it in a disk. The black sphere in the center represents the so-called event horizon of the black hole, the point of no return from which nothing, not even light, can escape.

Looking at the spinning black hole from the side, as depicted in this illustration, the surrounding spacetime is shaped like a football. The faster the spin the flatter the football.

The yellow-orange material to either side represents gas swirling around Sgr A*. This material inevitably plunges towards the black hole and crosses the event horizon once it falls inside the football shape. The area inside the football shape but outside the event horizon is therefore depicted as a cavity. The blue blobs show jets firing away from the poles of the spinning black hole. Looking down on the black hole from the top, along the barrel of the jet, spacetime is a circular shape.

Telescopes Show the Milky Way’s Black Hole is Ready for a Kick

February 8, 2024 at 11:55 am | News Release

A new study may help settle the question of how rapidly the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole is spinning.

Showing news items 291 - 300 of 980

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