False-color image of M33

Unprecedented Detail of Neighbor Galaxy

Using radio telescopes in the United States and Europe, astronomers have made the most detailed images ever of Hydrogen gas in a spiral galaxy other than the Milky Way.

Artist's impression of protoplanetary disk

VLA’s Sharpened Vision Sees Still-forming Star

Using a new observing capability of the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array radio telescope, astronomers have discovered a solar-system-sized disk of gas and dust feeding material onto a young star with 8 to 10 times the mass of the Sun.

Radio and optical images of APM 08279+5255

Young Galaxy is Surrounded by Star Fuel

Looking more than 12 billion years into the past, the scientists found that the young galaxy experiencing a burst of star formation was surrounded by enough cold molecular gas to make 100 billion suns.

The jet from 3c120

Cosmic Collision Between Jet and a Gas Cloud Witnessed

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array of radio telescopes have discovered a cloud of gas apparently being struck by a jet of ultrafast particles powered by the energy of a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy 450 million light-years away.

Green Bank Telescope strip chart recording

First Light for the GBT

At a ceremony last Friday, August 25 in which the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope was formally dedicated, U.S. Senator Robert C Byrd announced that the gigantic telescope had successfully opened its two-acre ‘eye’ on the Universe earlier that week.

The VLA 11

20th Anniversary of the VLA

On August 23, scientists will mark the 20th anniversary of the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array, the most powerful, flexible and widely-used radio telescope in the world.