Twenty galaxies in the nearby universe shown as ALMA and Hubble Space Telescope composites. They are shown in orange and red to highlight their different structures, including spirals, rings, S shapes, and more.

Cosmic Cartographers Map Nearby Universe Revealing the Diversity of Star-Forming Galaxies

A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has completed the first census of molecular clouds in the nearby Universe. The study produced the first images of nearby galaxies with the same sharpness and quality as optical imaging and revealed that stellar nurseries do not all look and act the same. In fact, they’re as diverse as the people, homes, neighborhoods, and regions that make up our own world.