Following a generous grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Central Development Laboratory (CDL) at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has selected their first recipient of the postdoctoral Women in Engineering fellowship, Priyanka Mondal. The Women in Engineering program increases opportunities for women to enter the field of radio astronomy through engineering pathways.

Priyanka Mondal received her Ph. D degree from the department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2009. She has contributed to projects on filters, slotted waveguide antenna arrays, ultra-wideband pulse generation, dielectric waveguides, corrugated horn antennas, GaAs and GaN Schottky diode based frequency multipliers, and subharmonic mixers for organizations in Asia, Europe and North America. She has authored/co-authored sixty-three technical papers at national and international journals and conferences. She was awarded by the Kalpana Chawla Memorial Doctoral Fellowship, Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies Postdoctoral Fellowship in the year of 2007 and 2011, respectively. She does review for the project proposals, technical papers for the conferences and journals.

As part of NRAO’s ongoing commitment to Women in Engineering, the new fellowship program supports outstanding postdoctoral women engineers whose research is related to the NRAO’s mission. These fellows, who are granted two-year appointments, will spend up to 75 percent of their time on self-directed research while also contributing to the Observatory’s development and delivery of radio astronomy techniques, capabilities, or education and public outreach activities. The Women in Engineering program also includes a co-op program that  provides laboratory work experiences for graduate and undergraduate women engineering students, giving them the opportunity to fulfill the practical training component of their co-op programs CDL.

When asked how the Heising-Simons Women in Engineering Fellowship would impact her life and career, Priyanka said the following, “The Engineering Fellowship at NRAO’s Central Development will open up a door for me to work on the most advanced/breakthrough technologies and uncover scientific possibilities. Together with my research ideas, experiences and passion, I believe the fellowship tenure will empower me to contribute significantly toward the performance enhancements of the astronomical instruments at NRAO and to the global scientific community. This engineering fellowship at CDL certainly will enrich me professionally and support me to become an eminent radio scientist/engineer in future.”

The CDL Women in Engineering program builds upon the insights from the landmark 2012 study, “Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering,” by creating stimulating, rewarding, and positive work experiences that both value and encourage contributions from women in engineering fields. This type of early positive engagement has been shown to increase the likelihood that women will both enter and remain in the field, bringing diverse viewpoints to the ever-changing needs of engineering projects. The $725,000 Heising-Simons Foundation grant allows NRAO for the initial development and maintenance of the Women in Engineering Program during its first two years.

NRAO Director Tony Beasley said, “Diverse viewpoints and expertise are what keeps NRAO at the forefront of engineering in radio astronomy. NRAO is excited to work with the Heising-Simons Foundation to expand our commitment to making radio astronomy and engineering a positive and growth-oriented career path for women.”

About the Heising-Simons Foundation

The Heising-Simons Foundation is a family foundation based in Los Altos and San Francisco, California. The Foundation works with its many partners to advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of our youngest learners, and support human rights for all people.

About NRAO

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

The post First Recipient of Women in Engineering Fellowship Joins Staff of Central Development Laboratory appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has released new images of supermassive black hole M87*. A recent paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics presents new images from data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and several other instruments within the EHT. These new images show a bright ring surrounding a deep central depression, “the shadow of the black hole,” as predicted by general relativity.  Excitingly, the brightness peak of the ring has shifted by about 30º compared to the first images, which is consistent with scientists’ theoretical understanding of variability from turbulent material around black holes.

“A fundamental requirement of science is to be able to reproduce results,” says Dr. Keiichi Asada, an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan.  “Confirmation of the ring in a completely new data set is a huge milestone for our collaboration and a strong indication that we are looking at a black hole shadow and the material orbiting around it.”

The image of M87* taken in 2018 is remarkably similar to what was seen in 2017—a bright ring of the same size, with a dark central region and one side of the ring brighter than the other. The mass and distance of M87* will not appreciably increase throughout a human lifetime, so general relativity predicts that the ring diameter should stay the same from year to year.

To help accomplish new and exciting science, the EHT is under continuous development. The Greenland Telescope joined the EHT for the first time in 2018, just five months after its construction was completed far above the Arctic Circle. This new telescope significantly improved the image fidelity of the EHT array, improving the coverage, particularly in the North-South direction. The Large Millimeter Telescope also participated for the first time with its full 50 m surface, greatly improving its sensitivity. With the use of the phased-up ALMA array of twenty 12-m diameter antennas, also observed in the 2017 experiments, the 2018 EHT array had significantly improved sensitivity and u-v coverage to produce a high quality image. The EHT array was also upgraded to observe in four frequency bands around 230 GHz, compared to only two bands in 2017.

Repeated observations with an improved array are essential to demonstrate the robustness of findings and strengthen confidence in results. In addition to the groundbreaking science, the EHT also serves as a technology testbed for cutting-edge developments in high-frequency radio interferometry.

The image of M87* taken in 2018 is remarkably similar to what was observed in 2017. Astronomers saw a bright ring of the same size, with a dark central region and one side of the ring brighter than the other. The mass and distance of M87* will not appreciably increase throughout a human lifetime, so general relativity predicts that the ring diameter should stay the same from year to year. The stability of the measured diameter in the images from 2017 to 2018 robustly supports the conclusion that M87* is well described by general relativity.

“One of the remarkable properties of a black hole is that its radius is strongly dependent on only one quantity: its mass,” said Dr. Nitika Yadlapalli Yurk, a former graduate student at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), now a postdoctoral fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “Since M87* is not accreting material (which would increase its mass) at a rapid rate, general relativity tells us that its radius will remain fairly unchanged over human history. It’s pretty exciting to see that our data confirm this prediction.”

This work used data from ALMA and seven other instruments across the EHT array, including the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX), the IRAM 30-meter telescope (PV), the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), the Submillimeter Array (SMA), the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), and the Greenland Telescope (GLT).

Portions of this release were taken from news shared by the Event Horizon Telescope and the Joint ALMA Observatory. 

Read EHT’s complete press release here. 

Read JAO’s complete press release here. 

About the EHT

The EHT collaboration involves more than 300 researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The international collaboration is working to capture the most detailed black hole images ever obtained by creating a virtual Earth-sized telescope. Supported by considerable international investment, the EHT links existing telescopes using novel systems, creating a fundamentally new instrument with the highest angular resolving power that has yet been achieved.

The individual telescopes involved are ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-meter Telescope, the IRAM NOEMA Observatory, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), the Submillimeter Array (SMA), the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), the South Pole Telescope (SPT), the Kitt Peak Telescope, and the Greenland Telescope (GLT).  Data were correlated at the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) and MIT Haystack Observatory.  The postprocessing was done within the collaboration by an international team at different institutions.

The EHT consortium consists of 13 stakeholder institutes: the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the University of Arizona, the University of Chicago, the East Asian Observatory, Goethe-Universitaet Frankfurt, Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique, Large Millimeter Telescope, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, MIT Haystack Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Radboud University, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

The post New Details of Supermassive Black Hole’s Shadow Revealed appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

New scientific results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Very Large Array (VLA), and Green Bank Observatory (GBO) will be revealed at multiple press conferences during the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) from January 8-11, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The AAS meeting includes a series of press conferences based on a range of themes. Presentations will highlight new research, including new types of planet and star formation, and the accidental discovery of a primordial galaxy.

Press conferences will be held in person during the conference, and streamed live on the AAS Press Office Page.

Note: Each press conference consists of a panel of scientists presenting 4-5 unique scientific results. The number listed in parentheses indicates the order of presentation for the listed result.

All press conferences are listed and will occur in Central Time.

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Monday, 8 January 2024, 10:15 am CT – Dust, Clouds & Darkness

A Polarized Dust Ring in the Milky Way’s Center
Natalie Butterfield (NRAO) (1)

Mystery of Star Formation Revealed by Hearts of Molecular Clouds
Jin Koda (Stony Brook University) & Amanda Lee (U.Mass. Amherst) (3)

The Dark Galaxy J0613+52
Karen O’Neil (Green Bank Observatory) (4)

Monday, 9 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT – High-Energy Phenomena and Their Origins

Evolution of Planetary Disk Structures Seen for the First Time
Cheng-Han Hsieh (Yale University) (3)

Tuesday, 9 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT – High-Energy Phenomena and Their Origins

Spatially-resolved spectroscopy of dual quasars at cosmic noon with JWST and ALMA
Yuzo Ishikawa (Johns Hopkins University) (1)

(To be confirmed) Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 10:15 am CT

A New Census of Neutral Clouds in the Milky Way’s Nuclear Wind
Jay Lockman (Green Bank Observatory)

Wednesday, 10 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT – Stars, Disks & Exoplanets

JWST’s New View of Beta Pictoris Suggests Recent Episodic Dust Production from an Eccentric, Inclined Secondary Debris Disk

Christopher Stark (NASA Goddard) (3)

Thursday, 11 January 2024, 2:15 pm CT – Oddities in the Sky

The Smith Cloud: A Dust Bowl Barreling Through Our Galactic Halo
Johanna Vazquez (Texas Christian University) (3)

For embargo access for members of the press, please contact Jill Malusky at [email protected] or Corrina Jaramillo Feldman at [email protected].

NRAO Media Contacts

Corrina C. Jaramillo Feldman
Public Information Officer – New Mexico
VLA, VLBA, ngVLA
Tel: +1 505-366-7267
[email protected]

Jill Malusky
NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager
Tel: +1 304-460-5608
[email protected]

In addition to the press conferences, dozens of papers with new and ongoing science results from NRAO and GBO facilities will be presented during AAS 243 conference sessions. Highlights will be posted to the NRAO website, the GBO website, and social media. 

About NRAO

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under a cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About Green Bank Observatory

The Green Bank Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation and is operated by Associated Universities, Inc. 

The post AAS 243 NRAO Press Announcement appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

An international team of astronomers have found ring and spiral structures in very young planetary disks, demonstrating that planet formation may begin much earlier than once thought. The results were presented today at the 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Using data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) the team captured images of Class 0 and Class I planetary disks, which are much younger than the Class II disks observed by earlier disk surveys. Class II disks are known to have gaps and ring structures, indicating that planetary formation is well underway. “ALMA’s early observations of young protoplanetary disks have revealed many beautiful rings and gaps, possible formation sites of planets,” said Cheng-Han Hsieh, PhD Candidate at Yale University, “I wondered when these rings and gaps started to appear in the disks”

This new study shows that structure begins to form when the disks are about 300,000 years old, which is incredibly fast. Young disks can have multiple rings, and spiral structures, or evolve into a ring with a central cavity. These observations challenge our understanding of how planets form, particularly large Jupiter-like planets. “It is difficult to form giant planets within a million years from the core accretion model,” said Cheng-Han Hsieh. Future studies will pinpoint the exact time when the disk substructure appears and how that connects to early planet formation.

Watch the press conference here.  

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

The post Early Evolution of Planetary Disk Structures Seen for the First Time appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

An international team of astronomers has revealed mysterious star formation at the far edge of the galaxy M83. This research was presented today in a press conference at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The research used several instruments operated by the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), along with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s (NAOJ) Subaru Telescope and the NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).

Normally, new stars form as a result of diffuse atomic gas shrinking into concentrations of molecular gas, called molecular clouds, whose high density cores at their center trigger star formation. This process is common in the inner part of galaxies, but becomes increasingly rare toward galaxy outskirts.

A surprising number of very young stars are known to exist at the far edges of many galaxies, but scientists could not understand how and why these stars were made, because they could not pinpoint their formation sites. This research discovered 23 molecular clouds that showed a different type of star formation. The large bodies of these clouds were not visible like “normal” molecular clouds—only their star-forming dense cores, the “hearts” of the clouds, were observed. This discovery provides an important clue to understanding the physical processes that lead to star formation in general.

“The star formation at galaxy edges has been a nagging mystery since their discovery by the NASA GALEX satellite 18 years ago” said astronomer Jin Koda, of Stony Brook University, who led this research,  “Previous searches for molecular clouds in this environment turned out unsuccessful.” David Thilker, of Johns Hopkins University, who originally discovered the star formation activity occurring in the outskirts of M83 and other galaxies, commented, “It has been gratifying to see the search for dense clouds associated with the outer disk finally come to fruition, revealing a characteristically different observational fingerprint for the molecular clouds.”  

The revelation of these molecular clouds uncovered a link to a large reservoir of diffuse atomic gas, another discovery by this research. Normally, atomic gas condenses into dense molecular clouds, within which even denser cores develop and form stars. This process is in operation even at galaxy edges, but the conversion of this atomic gas to molecular clouds was not evident, for reasons that are yet unresolved.

Amanda Lee, who was an undergraduate student on Koda’s research team, processed GBT & VLA data for these findings. Through this, she discovered the atomic gas reservoir at the galaxy edge. “We still do not understand why this atomic gas does not efficiently become dense molecular clouds and form stars.” As often is the case in astronomy, pursuing answers to one mystery can often lead to another. “That’s why research in astronomy is exciting,” adds Lee, who is now pursuing her Ph.D. in astronomy at UMass Amherst.

Thilker added, “I am excited to see this new opportunity leveraged more broadly in the outer disk environment in order to gain a deeper insight for physical processes central to the inside-out growth of galaxies still happening in the current cosmic epoch.’

“When I started, I didn’t know what role my work would play. It was very exciting to see it contribute to the big picture of star formation,” said Lee.

Watch the press conference here. 

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About Green Bank Observatory

The Green Bank Observatory is a major facility of the National Science Foundation and is operated by Associated Universities, Inc. The first national radio astronomy observatory in the US, it’s home to the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope, the largest fully-steerable radio telescope in the world.

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Corrina Jaramillo Feldman, Public Information Officer – NRAO/VLA/ngVLA

[email protected]

505-366-7267

Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

The post Mystery of Star Formation Revealed by Hearts of Molecular Clouds appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

In a groundbreaking cosmic quest, the SETI Institute’s Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster (COSMIC) at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). This cutting-edge technology is not a distinct telescope; it’s a detector. COSMIC searches for extraterrestrial signals and paves the way for future science using a copy of the raw data from the telescope’s observations. At the heart of COSMIC’s mission is pursuing the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe? Project scientist Dr. Chenoa Tremblay and the team detailed the project in a paper published this week in The Astronomical Journal.

What sets COSMIC apart is its adaptability to the future. The system is designed for future upgrades, ensuring it remains at the forefront of cosmic exploration. With the potential to expand its capabilities, COSMIC could soon cover more stars, explore new frequencies, and enhance our understanding of the vast cosmic tapestry. It is important to note that COSMIC’s capabilities go beyond searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Future upgrades could unlock new explorations, from finding fast radio bursts with a submillisecond temporal resolution to studying spectral line science and axionic dark matter.

“COSMIC introduces modern Ethernet-based digital architecture on the VLA, allowing for a test bed for future technologies as we move into the next generation era,” said Tremblay. “Currently, the focus is on creating one of the largest surveys for technological signals, with over 500,000 sources observed in the first six months. However, the flexibility of the design allows for a wide range of other scientific opportunities, such as studying fast radio burst pulse structures and searching for axion dark matter candidates. We hope to open opportunities for other scientists to use our high time (nanoseconds) or our high spectral resolution (sub-Hz) to complete their research. It is an exciting time for increasing the capabilities of this historic telescope.”

COSMIC stands on the shoulders of giants like Project Phoenix, with the capacity to search millions of stars and the potential to expand to tens of millions—a leap in scope and sensitivity. Currently operational on the VLA, COSMIC is searching using observations from the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), which will map 80% of the sky in three phases over two years and catalog approximately 10 million radio sources.

COSMIC’s Ethernet-based system adds a new collaborative element to the cosmos. The multicasting technology allows other commensal systems to access COSMIC’s processing power, enabling a collaborative scientific ecosystem to develop. Imagine multiple telescopes working together to unlock the universe’s most profound mysteries.

“The COSMIC system greatly enhances the VLA’s scientific capabilities. Its main goal of detecting extraterrestrial technosignatures addresses one of the most profound scientific questions ever. This topic was previously not possible with the VLA,” said Dr. Paul Demorest, National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “By operating in parallel with projects such as the VLA Sky Survey, COSMIC will accomplish one of the largest SETI surveys ever while still allowing the VLA to carry out its usual program of other astronomical research.”

Read this original press release on the SETI website.

The post COSMIC: SETI Institute Unlocks Mysteries of the Universe with Breakthrough Technology at the Very Large Array appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Within the framework of the scientific conference “ALMA 10 years: Past, Present, Future,” which is bringing together 180 astronomers and astronomers from around the world in Puerto Varas, southern Chile, between December 4 and 8, 2023, astronomers Sergio Martín and Juan Cortés gave a press conference to show the achievements and discoveries of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the last decade, which have marked a milestone in our understanding of the Universe.

Over three decades ago, North America, Europe, and Japan began outlining the idea of building a millimeter observatory as three separate projects. Thanks to the leaders’ vision of that time, a joint project much more ambitious than what was initially projected was possible. A global collaboration from the Atacama plateau in Chile has been in search of our cosmic origins for a decade.

Some exciting discoveries of these first ten years of ALMA have been the first image of a black hole (with the EHT Collaboration) and impressive views of protoplanetary disks. In total, more than 3,500 scientific publications have been published thanks to this unique instrument of its kind.

As a host country, Chile has gained numerous benefits, including developing high-tech skills and promoting astronomy. Chilean scientists are guaranteed access to 10% of ALMA’s observing time, promoting significant growth in the number of local astronomers, from 50 in the early 2000s to more than 300 today.To commemorate this first decade of operations, ALMA called 180 members of its scientific community around the world to meet at a conference in which, starting today, it is sharing its latest results and in which they will be able to look at the technical challenges of the future to stay in the world’s technological vanguard.The conference that takes place in Puerto Varas between December 4 and 8 includes talks and posters from experts from around the world on cosmology and galaxies in the distant Universe, star formation, astrochemistry, exoplanets, and the Sun, to name just a few.

Read more at ALMA’s website.

The post ALMA Conference Celebrates 10 Years of Astronomical Discoveries appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Zach Gallegos: The Man Behind HVAC at the Very Large Array

Zach Gallegos, a native of Socorro, New Mexico, is the HVAC and Plumbing lead at the Very Large Array (VLA). He is a dedicated professional who has carved a niche for himself in the field of HVAC and plumbing.

Zach’s journey into the HVAC field was not a planned one. After graduating from Doña Ana Community College, he was searching for a job when HVAC came across his path. His love for tinkering with things since childhood made him a natural fit for the job. He started his career at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) as a security guard, where his dedication and hard work saw him quickly rise through the ranks, first as a track operator, then as the HVAC team lead.

A typical day for Zach involves a variety of tasks, from instrument readings to checking emails and ensuring the functionality of antennas. His role is crucial to the VLA, as he is responsible for all HVAC, plumbing, and compressors, essentially anything that has a motor. HVAC also controls the chiller for the supercomputer, a critical component of the VLA. HVAC takes care of 28 vertex air conditioners and 28 ped room air conditioners. These are highly modified, and thus are made and designed in house. Zach takes care of air conditioning for all the buildings at the VLA site. HVAC also takes care of all the plumbing, from fixing a faucet to repairing both sewer and fresh water lines. They also manage the water treatment system and all sewage. Additionally, HVAC is responsible for the air compressors in each building – there are seven total. They maintain and monitor the fuel system on site, as well as the gas station. They manage all the ventilation systems, and they repair and maintain all the air conditioners on the over 100 vehicles at the VLA. Zach’s responsibilities extend beyond the VLA site. He also manages and maintains all of the Pie Town Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) site’s air conditioners and hot water heaters. 

Despite the demanding nature of his job, Zach loves his work, especially the people he works with and the opportunity to work four days a week, enjoying a three-day weekend. However, like any job, Zach’s role comes with its challenges. He has been the only person in HVAC for the past two years, making it difficult to manage all the responsibilities single-handedly. He wishes to recruit and train more skilled tradespeople in the field to ease the workload and ensure the smooth functioning of the VLA.

Zach Gallegos is a shining example of dedication and hard work. His journey from a security guard to the HVAC and Plumbing lead at the VLA is inspiring. Despite the challenges, he continues to serve with grit and determination, ensuring the smooth operation of the VLA. His story serves as a reminder that with passion and dedication, one can achieve great heights in any field.

About the People Behind the Very Large Array: 

Highly-skilled individuals work behind the scenes day in and day out to make our magnificent Array the very best it can be. The People Behind the VLA project aims to highlight the stories of these workers and share their stories, so that everyone may get a glimpse of the wonderful people that make the Very Large Array work.

The post The People Behind the Very Large Array appeared first on National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

One of the primary goals of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is to study the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Young stars are often surrounded by a disk of gas and dust, out of which planets can form. One of the first high resolution images that ALMA captured was of HL Tauri, a young star just 480 light-years away surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. The disk has visible gaps which could be where young protoplanets are forming. Planetary formation is a complex process that we still don’t fully understand. During this process, dust grains in the disk are growing in size as they collide and stick to each other, causing them to slowly grow to potentially become objects similar to those within our solar system.

One of the ways to study dust grains in these complex structures is to look at the orientation of the light waves they emit, which is known as polarization. Earlier studies of HL Tauri have mapped this polarization, but a new study from Stephens, et al. has captured a polarization image of HL Tauri in unprecedented detail. The resulting image is based on 10x more polarization measurements than of any other disk, and 100x more measurements than most disks. It is by far the deepest polarization image of any disk captured thus far, according to research published today in Nature.

The image was captured at a resolution of 5 AU, which is about the distance from the Sun to Jupiter. Previous polarization observations were at a much lower resolution and didn’t reveal the subtle patterns of polarization within the disk. For example, the team found the amount of polarized light to be greater on one side of the disk than the other, which is likely due to asymmetries in the distribution in the dust grains or their properties across the disk. Dust grains aren’t often spherical. They can be oblate like a thick pancake, or prolate like a grain of rice. When light is emitted by or scatters off these dust grains, it can become polarized, meaning that the waves of light are oriented in a particular direction rather than just randomly. These new results suggest that grains behave more like prolate grains, and they put strong constraints on the shape and size of dust grains within the disk.

A surprising result of the study is that there is more polarization within the gaps of the disk than the rings, even though there is more dust in the rings. The polarization within the gaps is more azimuthal, which suggests the polarization comes from aligned dust grains within the gaps. The polarization of the rings is more uniform, suggesting the polarization largely comes from scattering. In general, the polarization comes from a mix of scattering and dust alignment. Based on the data, it is unclear what is causing the dust grains to align, but they are likely not aligned along the magnetic field of the disk, which is the case for most dust outside of protoplanetary disks. Currently, it is thought that the grains are aligned mechanically, perhaps by their own aerodynamics, as they revolve around the central young star.

What will studies of HL Tau reveal next? This new publication makes clear that high resolution is needed for polarization observations to learn the details about the dust grains. As the world’s most powerful millimeter/ submillimeter telescope, ALMA will be a fundamental instrument for continuing this research.

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

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An international team of astronomers has collaborated to improve the capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), one of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Scientists from the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Joint ALMA Observatory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and European Southern Observatory have achieved the highest resolution observation since ALMA began operations,  in one of the most challenging array configurations. The results are published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

ALMA has 66 parabolic dish antennas. Combinations of these antennas are used together as an interferometer, where the observations of many instruments are combined as one giant telescope. Each antenna is equipped with receivers that allow it to observe radio waves in different frequency ranges, or bands. The many signals collected by the individual antennas are synthesized together in a correlator.

The array’s highest resolution is achieved when it is configured to its maximum extent, or widest antenna baseline, and observes at its highest frequency. When arranged in different configurations, such as Band 10 (which was used with approximately 50 antennas for this test) there can be up to 10 miles between the location of each dish. The weather, atmosphere, and minute differences between individual antennas must be accounted for and corrected to make observing possible. To help correct for these errors, a bright target is set to calibrate the antennas. However, when observing at higher frequencies, the availability of bright calibrator is scarce and hence severely hampers the calibration process.

To solve this problem, astronomers tried the “Band-to-Band” (B2B) method, which was first developed in the 1990s by the Nobeyama Radio Observatory of NAOJ. When ALMA was constructed, hardware and software infrastructure was put in place to one day try this method, which was first tested in 2020 using Band 9 receivers and an array baseline of just over 8 ½ miles. The B2B observing technique consists of observing a bright calibrator at a lower frequency, and applying the calibration solutions from that data to the higher frequency, in which the science target is observed.

Results from this latest test, using B2B at Band 10 with the longest distance between the antennas, have achieved the highest resolution of 5 milli-arcsec (=1/720000 degrees) ever captured, the equivalent of being able to see a single human hair two and a half miles away. For this test, astronomers observed R Leporis, a star in its final stage of evolution, located approximately 1,535 light-years away from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. The B2B calibration used a nearby bright galactic core, which, while distant, appears nearby R Leporis in the sky.

Antonio Hales, NRAO Scientist and Deputy Manager of the North American ALMA Regional Center, also part of the team that achieved these results, highlights the importance of these results: “By achieving this unparalleled resolution through the Band-to-Band method, we’ve pushed ALMA’s capabilities to their absolute limit, unveiling a new window to the cosmos. This breakthrough allows astronomers to probe cosmic phenomena with a precision once thought unattainable, marking a significant testament to ALMA’s power and paving the way for future discoveries that will undoubtedly deepen our understanding of the Universe’s most profound secrets.”

See the press release from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

See the press release from European Southern Observatory.

This result was presented in a paper titled “ALMA High-frequency Long Baseline Campaign in 2021: Highest Angular Resolution Submillimeter Wave Images for the Carbon-rich Star R Lep” to appear in the Astrophysical Journal (doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acf619).

The team is composed of Y. Asaki (JAO; NAOJ; SOKENDAI), L. Maud (ESO; Leiden University), H. Francke (JAO), H. Nagai (NAOJ), D. Petry (ESO), E. B. Fomalont (NRAO), E. Humphreys (JAO; ESO), A. M. S. Richards (University of Manchester), K. T. Wong (IRAM; Uppsala University), W. Dent (JAO), A. Hirota (JAO; NAOJ), J. M. Fernandez (Lowell Observatory), S. Takahashi (NAOJ), and A. S. Hales (JAO; NRAO).

About ALMA & NRAO

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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Jill Malusky, NRAO & GBO News & Public Information Manager

[email protected]

304-460-5608

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