A new and uniquely powerful tool for cutting-edge science is emerging on the crisp, high desert of western New Mexico.
New Technique for Studying Dark Energy
Pioneering observations with the National Science Foundation’s giant Green Bank Telescope have given astronomers a new tool for mapping large cosmic structures. The new tool promises to provide valuable clues about the nature of the mysterious “dark energy” believed to constitute nearly three-fourths of the mass and energy of the Universe.
Astronomers Get New Tools for Gravitational-Wave Detection
Teamwork between gamma-ray and radio astronomers has produced a breakthrough in finding natural cosmic tools needed to make the first direct detections of the long-elusive gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago.
ALMA Test Sharpens the Vision of New Observatory
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array has passed a key milestone crucial to producing the high-quality images that will be the trademark of this revolutionary new tool for astronomy.
Record-Breaking Precision Radio Astronomy
Astronomers will tie together the largest collection of the world’s radio telescopes ever assembled to work as a single observing tool in a project aimed at improving the precision of the reference frame scientists use to measure positions in the sky.
ALMA Telescope Reaches New Heights
The ALMA astronomical observatory took another step forward and upward, as one of its state-of-the-art antennas was carried for the first time to Chile’s 16,500-foot-high plateau of Chajnantor on the back of a giant, custom-built transporter.