From The ESO (EU)(CL)/NRAO/NAOJ (JP)/ ALMA [Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array] Observatory (CL)
And
James Webb Infrared Space Telescope annotated, finally launched December 25, 2021, ten years late. Click for more readable view.
6.12.24
Nicolás Lira
Education and Public Outreach Coordinator
Joint ALMA Observatory, Santiago – Chile
Phone: +56 2 2467 6519
Cell phone: +56 9 9445 7726
Email: nicolas.lira@alma.cl
Yuichi Matsuda
ALMA EA-ARC Staff Member
NAOJ
Email: yuichi.matsuda@nao.ac.jp
Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6670
Email: pio@eso.org
Jill Malusky
Public Information Officer
NRAO
Phone: +1 304-456-2236
Email: jmalusky@nrao.edu
All general references:
ALMA Observatory (CL) http://www.almaobservatory.org/
European Southern Observatory (EU) http://www.eso.org/public/
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP) http://www.nao.ac.jp/en/
National Radio Astronomy Observatory https://public.nrao.edu/
Full identification of an astronomical asset will be presented once in the first instance of that asset.
These brightly colored shapes represent astronomical data collected by ALMA and Webb. On the left, a composite image overlaps ALMA and Webb data, revealing the discs and parallel jets emitting from the pair of binary stars in WL20. The breakdown of the separate ALMA data and Webb data representing various chemical compositions is shown on the right. Image credit: U.S. NSF/ NSF/ ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/ NASA/ JPL/ JWST/ B. Saxton.
Astronomers couldn’t believe their luck when observations across multiple radio and infrared wavelengths from ALMA and Webb revealed twin disks and jets erupting from a pair of young binary stars in WL20. Image credit: U.S. NSF/ NSF NRAO/B. Saxton.; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA
Most of the Universe is invisible to the human eye. The building blocks of stars are only revealed in wavelengths outside the visible spectrum. Astronomers recently used two very different and powerful telescopes to discover twin disks and twin parallel jets erupting from young stars in a multiple-star system. This discovery was unexpected and unprecedented, given the stars, disks, and jets’ age, size, and chemical makeup. Their location in a known, well-studied part of the Universe adds to the thrill.
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) [below] were combined for this research.
ALMA and Webb’s MIRI observe very different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Using them together allowed astronomers to discover these twins, hidden in radio and infrared wavelengths in star system WL20, located in the nearby rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex, over 400 light years away from the Earth’s Solar System.
“What we discovered was absolutely wild,” shares astronomer Mary Barsony, “We’ve known about star system WL20 for a long time. But what caught our attention is that one of the stars in the system appeared much younger than the rest. Using MIRI and ALMA together, we actually saw that this ONE star was TWO stars right next to each other. A disk surrounded each of these stars, and each disc was emitting jets parallel to the other.”
ALMA spotted the discs, while MIRI found the jets. Co-author Valentin J.M. Le Gouellec of NASA-ARC retrieved and reduced ALMA archival data to reveal the discs’ composition. At the same time, Lukasz Tychoniec of Leiden Observatory provided high-resolution images showing the discs’ massive size, approximately 100 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Another co-author, Martijn L. van Gelder, provided resources to process the data collected by MIRI, revealing the chemical makeup of the jets.
Adds Barsony, “So if it weren’t for MIRI, we wouldn’t even know that these jets existed, which is amazing.” ALMA’s high-resolution observations of the disks surrounding the two newly observed stars revealed the disks’ structure, as Barsony explains, “Someone looking at this ALMA data not knowing there were twin jets would think, oh, it’s a large edge on disk with a central hole, instead of two edges on disks and two jets. That’s pretty remarkable.”
Another remarkable thing about this discovery is that it may never have had the opportunity to happen. NASA-JPL/Caltech scientist Michael Ressler explains, “Much of the research about binary protostars focuses on a few nearby star-forming regions. I had been awarded some observing time with Webb and chose to split it into a few small projects. For one project, I decided to study binaries in the Perseus star-forming region. However, I had been studying WL20, which is in the rho Ophiuchus region in nearly the opposite part of the sky, for nearly 30 years, and I thought, ‘why not sneak it in? I’ll never get another chance, even if it doesn’t quite fit with the others.’ We had a very fortunate accident with what we found; the results are stunning.”
By combining multi-wavelength data from ALMA and JWST, these new findings shed light on the complex processes involved in forming multiple star systems. Astronomers plan to utilize ALMA’s future upgraded capabilities, like the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade, to continue unraveling the mysteries surrounding the birth of stars and planetary systems.
This research was presented in the 244th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
See the full article here .
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Webb is a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror. Webb was finally launched December 25, 2021, ten years late. Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.
Webb is the world’s largest, most powerful, and most complex space science telescope ever built. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.
Webb was formerly known as the “Next Generation Space Telescope” (NGST); it was renamed in Sept. 2002 after a former NASA administrator, James Webb.
Webb is an international collaboration between National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center managed the development effort. The main industrial partner is Northrop Grumman; the Space Telescope Science Institute operates Webb.
Several innovative technologies have been developed for Webb. These include a folding, segmented primary mirror, adjusted to shape after launch; ultra-lightweight beryllium optics; detectors able to record extremely weak signals, microshutters that enable programmable object selection for the spectrograph; and a cryocooler for cooling the mid-IR detectors to 7K.
There are four science instruments on Webb: The Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), The Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRspec), The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), and The Fine Guidance Sensor/ Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS-NIRISS).
Webb’s instruments are designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range. It will be sensitive to light from 0.6 to 28 micrometers in wavelength.
Webb has four main science themes: The End of the Dark Ages: First Light and Reionization, The Assembly of Galaxies, The Birth of Stars and Protoplanetary Systems, and Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life.
Launch was December 25, 2021, ten years late, on an Ariane 5 rocket. The launch was from Arianespace’s ELA-3 launch complex at European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana. Webb is located at the second Lagrange point, about a million miles from the Earth.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) (CL) , an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (EU), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (CA) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (TW) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (TW).
ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by European Southern Observatory (EU), on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP). The Joint ALMA Observatory provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
The antennas can be moved across the desert plateau over distances from 150 m to 16 km, which will give ALMA a powerful variable “zoom”, similar in its concept to that employed at the centimetre-wavelength Very Large Array (VLA) site in New Mexico, United States.
The high sensitivity is mainly achieved through the large numbers of antenna dishes that will make up the array.
The telescopes were provided by the European, North American and East Asian partners of ALMA. The American and European partners each provided twenty-five 12-meter diameter antennas, that compose the main array. The participating East Asian countries are contributing 16 antennas (four 12-meter diameter and twelve 7-meter diameter antennas) in the form of the Atacama Compact Array, which is part of the enhanced ALMA.
By using smaller antennas than the main ALMA array, larger fields of view can be imaged at a given frequency using ACA. Placing the antennas closer together enables the imaging of sources of larger angular extent. The ACA works together with the main array in order to enhance the latter’s wide-field imaging capability.
ALMA has its conceptual roots in three astronomical projects — the Millimeter Array (MMA) of the United States, the Large Southern Array (LSA) of Europe, and the Large Millimeter Array (LMA) of Japan.
The first step toward the creation of what would become ALMA came in 1997, when the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the European Southern Observatory agreed to pursue a common project that merged the MMA and LSA. The merged array combined the sensitivity of the LSA with the frequency coverage and superior site of the MMA. ESO and NRAO worked together in technical, science, and management groups to define and organize a joint project between the two observatories with participation by Canada and Spain (the latter became a member of ESO later).
A series of resolutions and agreements led to the choice of “Atacama Large Millimeter Array”, or ALMA, as the name of the new array in March 1999 and the signing of the ALMA Agreement on 25 February 2003, between the North American and European parties. (“Alma” means “soul” in Spanish and “learned” or “knowledgeable” in Arabic.) Following mutual discussions over several years, the ALMA Project received a proposal from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan whereby Japan would provide the Atacama Compact Array and three additional receiver bands for the large array, to form Enhanced ALMA. Further discussions between ALMA and NAOJ led to the signing of a high-level agreement on 14 September 2004 that makes Japan an official participant in Enhanced ALMA, to be known as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 6, 2003 and the ALMA logo was unveiled.
During an early stage of the planning of ALMA, it was decided to employ ALMA antennas designed and constructed by known companies in North America, Europe, and Japan, rather than using one single design. This was mainly for political reasons. Although very different approaches have been chosen by the providers, each of the antenna designs appears to be able to meet ALMA’s stringent requirements. The components designed and manufactured across Europe were transported by specialist aerospace and astrospace logistics company Route To Space Alliance, 26 in total which were delivered to Antwerp for onward shipment to Chile.
Partners
European Southern Observatory (EU) and the European Regional Support Centre
National Science Foundation via the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the North American ALMA Science Center
National Research Council Canada [Conseil national de recherches Canada] (CA)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP) under the National Institute of Natural Sciences (自然科学研究機構) (JP)
ALMA-Taiwan at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics [中央研究院天文及天文物理研究所](TW)
Republic of Chile
ALMA is a time machine!
ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins
ALMA – The Rebirth of a Giant
ALMA and its Partners Celebrate 10 Years of Groundbreaking Science
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