The prospects for life in the Universe just got sweeter, with the first discovery of a simple sugar molecule in space.


Astronomers Win Protection for Key Part of Radio Spectrum
Astronomers using the millimeter-wave region of the radio spectrum have won crucial protection for their science.

Expanded VLA is a Radio Telescope for the 21st Century
The world’s most productive and widely-used radio telescope, the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array, can be improved tenfold with an expansion project proposed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

VLA Reveals Hot Bubbles in MIlky Way’s Heart
Sophisticated computer analysis of 20 years of data from the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array radio telescope has revealed evidence of hot bubbles in the dense, rapidly-spinning disk of material being sucked into a massive black hole 26,000 light-years distant at the heart of our own Milky Way Galaxy, astronomers announced.

Dancing of Orbiting Water Molecules
A disk of water molecules orbiting a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy 60 million light-years away is reverberating in response to variations in the energy output from the galaxy’s powerful central engine close to the black hole.

Dramatic Outburst Reveals Nearest Black Hole
Scientists have discovered the closest black hole yet, a mere 1,600 light years from Earth.