From The MPG Institute for Astronomy [MPG Institut für Astronomie](DE): “Planet-forming disks evolve in surprisingly similar ways”

Max Planck Institut für Astronomie (DE)

From The MPG Institute for Astronomy [MPG Institut für Astronomie](DE)

May 06, 2022

Markus Nielbock
Press and public relations officer
+49 6221 528-134
pr@mpia.de
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg

Sierk van Terwisga
+49 6221 528-227
terwisga@mpia.de
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg

The demographics of hundreds of planet-forming disks within a thousand light-years reveal how their masses vary with age.

This artistic impression illustrates what planet-forming disks around young stars often look like. They initially consist of dust and gas configured into rings of dense material. In time, the solid components grow into pebbles which eventually can evolve into planets. Since the ALMA observations used in this study are only sensitive to millimetre-sized dust grains, evolved disks with larger objects or even planets produce a relatively faint signal from the remnant material. The new results indicate that without external irradiation, such disks evolve similarly. After about a million years, most of them do not have enough mass to produce large planets like Jupiter. However, such planets may already have formed there. Image: MPIA graphics department.

A group of astronomers, led by Sierk van Terwisga from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, have analysed the mass distribution of over 870 planet-forming disks in the Orion A cloud.

In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. This extensive study took 105 Hubble orbits to complete. All imaging instruments aboard the telescope.

By exploiting the statistical properties of this unprecedented large sample of disks and developing an innovative data processing scheme, they found that far away from harsh environments like hot stars, the decline in disk mass only depends on their age. The results indicate that, at least within 1000 light-years of the Earth, planet-forming disks and planetary systems evolve in similar ways.

Some of the most exciting questions in present-day astronomical research are: What do other planetary systems look like? How comparable is the Solar System to other planetary systems? A team of astronomers have now contributed crucial clues to solving this puzzle. “Up to now, we didn’t know for sure which properties dominate the evolution of planet-forming disks around young stars”, says Sierk van Terwisga, who is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. He is the lead author of the underlying research article published in Astronomy & Astrophysics today. “Our new results now indicate that in environments without any relevant external influence, the observed disk mass available for forming new planets only depends on the age of the star-disk system”, van Terwisga adds.

The disk mass is the key property when studying the evolution of planet-forming disks. This quantity determines how much material is available to be transformed into planets. Depending on the disk age, it may also provide clues about the planets already present there. External effects like irradiation and winds from nearby massive stars obviously impact the disk survival. However, such environments are rare, and those processes do not reveal much about the disks themselves. Instead, astronomers are more interested in internal disk properties such as age, chemical composition, or the parental cloud dynamics from which the young stars with their disks emerged.

To disentangle the various contributions, the team of astronomers selected a large and well-known region of young stars with disks, the Orion A cloud. It is approximately 1350 light-years away from Earth. “Orion A provided us with an unprecedented large sample size of more than 870 disks around young stars. It was crucial to be able to look for small variations in the disk mass depending on age and even on the local environments inside the cloud,” Álvaro Hacar, a co-author and scientist at The University of Vienna [Universität Wien](AT), explains. The sample stems from earlier observations with the Herschel Space Telescope, which permitted identifying the disks

The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU).
Herschel spacecraft active from 2009 to 2013.

Combining several wavelengths provided a criterion to estimate their ages. Since they all belong to the same cloud, the astronomers expected little influence from chemistry and cloud history variations. They also avoided any impact from massive stars in the nearby Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) by rejecting disks closer than 13 light-years.

To measure the disk mass, the team employed the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) located on the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral] [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Observatory (CL).

ALMA consists of 66 parabolic antennas, functioning as a single telescope with a tunable angular resolution. The scientists applied an observing mode that allowed them to target each disk efficiently at a wavelength of about 1.2 millimetres. The cold disks are bright in this spectral range. On the other hand, the central stars’ contribution is negligible. With this approach, the astronomers determined the disks’ dust masses. However, the observations are insensitive to objects much larger than a few millimetres, e.g. rocks and planets. Therefore, the team effectively measured the mass of the disk material capable of forming planets.

Before calculating the disk masses, the astronomers combined and calibrated the data from several dozens of ALMA telescopes. This task becomes quite a challenge when dealing with large data sets. Using standard methods, it would have taken months to process the collected data. Instead, the team developed a new method using parallel computers. “Our new approach improved the processing speed by a factor of 900,” co-author Raymond Oonk from the collaborating IT service provider SURF points out. The 3000 CPU hours required to finish the task and prepare the data for subsequent analysis elapsed in less than a day.

Altogether, Orion A contains planet-forming disks, each with dust amounting to up to a few hundred Earth-masses. However, from the 870 disks, only 20 hold dust equivalent to 100 earths or more. In general, the number of disks declines rapidly with mass, with a majority containing less than 2.2 Earth-masses of dust. “In order to look for variations, we have dissected the Orion A cloud and analysed these regions separately. Thanks to the hundreds of disks, the sub-samples were still sufficiently large to yield statistically meaningful results”, van Terwisga explains.

Indeed, the scientists found minor variations in the disk mass distributions on scales of tens of light-years within Orion A. However, all of them can be explained as an age effect, meaning within a few million years, disk masses tend to decline towards older populations. Within the error margins, clusters of planet-forming disks of the same age exhibit the same mass distribution. It is not at all surprising to find the dust mass in planet-forming disks to decrease in time. After all, dust is one of the raw materials for planets. Hence, planet formation certainly reduces the amount of free dust. Other well-known processes are dust migration towards the disk centre and dust evaporation by irradiation from the host star. Still, it is surprising to see such a strong correlation between disk mass and age.

All those disks emerged from the same environment that now constitutes the Orion A cloud. How does this compare to other young star-disk populations? The astronomers addressed this question by comparing their results to several nearby star-forming regions with planet-forming disks. Except for two, all of them nicely fit the mass-age relation found in Orion A. “Altogether, we think our study proves that at least within the next 1000 light-years or so, all populations of planet-forming disks show the same mass distribution at a given age. And they seem to be evolving in more or less the same way”, van Terwisga concludes. The result may even hint at the formation of stunningly similar planetary systems.

As a next step, the scientists will look at possible impacts from nearby stars on smaller scales of a few light-years. While they avoided the strong radiation field caused by the massive stars in the ONC, there are potentially fainter field stars that may affect the dust in neighbouring disks and alter the disk mass statistics. Such contributions may explain some of the deviations found in the disk mass to age relation. The results can help strengthen the overall picture of a planet-forming disk evolution dominated by age.

Additional information

The team consists of S. E. van Terwisga (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany), A. Hacar (Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, Austria), E. F. van Dishoeck (Leiden Observatory [Sterrewacht Leiden](NL), Leiden University [Universiteit Leiden](NL); The MPG Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics [MPG Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik]( DE) , R. Oonk (SURF, Leiden, The Netherlands; LObs; Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), Dwingeloo, The Netherlands), and S. Portegies Zwart (LObs).

The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a partnership between the European Southern Observatory (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 National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy campus, Heidelberg (DE)
The MPG Institute for Astronomy [MPG Institut für Astronomie] (DE) is a research institute of the MPG Society for the Advancement of Science [MPG Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.] (DE). It is located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany near the top of the Königstuhl, adjacent to the historic Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl astronomical observatory. The institute primarily conducts basic research in the natural sciences in the field of astronomy.

In addition to its own astronomical observations and astronomical research, the Institute is also actively involved in the development of observation instruments. The instruments or parts of them are manufactured in the institute’s own workshops.

The founding of the institute in 1967 resulted from the insight that a supra-regional institute equipped with powerful telescopes was necessary in order to conduct internationally competitive astronomical research. Hans Elsässer, an astronomer, became the founding director in 1968. In February 1969, a first group of 5 employees started work in the buildings of the neighbouring Königstuhl State Observatory. The institute, which was completed in 1975, was initially dedicated to the preparation and evaluation of astronomical observations and the development of new measurement methods.

From 1973 to 1984, it operated the Calar Alto Observatory on Calar Alto near Almería together with Spanish authorities.

Calar Alto Astronomical Observatory 3.5 meter Telescope, located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a 2,168-meter-high (7,113 ft) mountain in Sierra de Los Filabres(ES)

This largest observatory on the European mainland was used equally by astronomers from both countries until 2019. On 23 May 2019, the regional government of Andalusia and the MPG signed a transfer agreement for the 50% share in the observatory. Since then, it has been owned exclusively by Spain.

Since 2005, the MPIA has been operating the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) together with partners from Germany, Italy and the USA and equipping it with measuring instruments.

LBT-U Arizona Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, or LBTI, is a ground-based instrument connecting two 8-meter class telescopes on Mount Graham, Arizona, USA, Altitude 3,221 m (10,568 ft.) to form the largest single-mount telescope in the world. The interferometer is designed to detect and study stars and planets outside our solar system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Two scientific questions are given priority at the MPIA. One is the formation and development of stars and planets in our cosmic neighbourhood. The resonating question is: Is the Sun with its inhabited planet Earth unique, or are there also conditions in the vicinity of other stars, at least the numerous sun-like ones among them, that are conducive to life? On the other hand, the area of galaxies and cosmology is about understanding the development of today’s richly structured Universe with its galaxies and stars and its emergence from the simple initial state after the Big Bang.

The research topics at a glance:
• Star formation and young objects, planet formation, astrobiology, interstellar matter, astrochemistry
• Structure and evolution of the Milky Way, quasars and active galaxies, evolution of galaxies, galaxy clusters, cosmology

Together with the Center for Astronomy at The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg [Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg](DE), the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) and the Department of Astro- and Particle Physics of the MPI for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), the MPIA in Heidelberg is a globally renowned centre of astronomical research.

Since 2015, the MPIA has been running the “Heidelberg Initiative for the Origins of Life” (HIFOL) together with the MPIK, the HITS, the Institute of Geosciences at Heidelberg University and the Department of Chemistry at The Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich [Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München](DE). HIFOL brings together top researchers from astrophysics, geosciences, chemistry and the life sciences to promote, strengthen and combine scientific research towards the prerequisites for the emergence of life.

Structure
• Galaxies and Cosmology Department

• Gaia Galactic Survey Mission
• Supermassive black holes and galaxies in the epoch of reionization
• Stellar spectroscopy and populations
• AGN Jet Physics
• High angular resolution astronomy
• Coevolution of Galaxies and Black Holes
• Euclid Mission Group
• Stellar Physics and the Evolution of Chemical Elements
• Structure of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Galactic Nuclei
• Galaxies and Cosmology Theory
• Black Hole and Accretion Research/Instrumentation
• Galaxy Evolution and Milky Way groups
• Extragalactic Star Formation
• Interstellar Matter and High-z QSOs

• Planet and Star Formation Department

• Star Formation
• Planet Formation in Accretion Discs
• Adaptive Optics
• Unveiling Planet Formation by Simulations and ObservationS
• Center “Frontiers of Interferometry in Germany”
• Disks and Exoplanets
• Laboratory Astrophysics
• Theory of Planet and Star Formation
• Infrared Space
• The Genesis of Planets

• Atmospheric Physics of Exoplanets
• Technical Departments

Instrumentation
The MPIA also builds instruments or parts of them for ground-based telescopes and satellites, including the following:
• Calar Alto Observatory (Spain)[above]
• La Silla Observatory of the European Southern Observatory (The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral] [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL))
European Southern Observatory(EU) La Silla Observatory 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.
• Paranal Observatory and E-ELT (ESO)

Paranal Observatory pictured with Cerro Paranal in the background. The mountain is home to one of the most advanced ground-based telescopes in the world, the VLT. The VLT telescope consists of four unit telescopes with mirrors measuring 8.2 meters in diameter and work together with four smaller auxiliary telescopes to make interferometric observations. Each of the 8.2m diameter Unit Telescopes can also be used individually. With one such telescope, images of celestial objects as faint as magnitude 30 can be obtained in a one-hour exposure. This corresponds to seeing objects that are four billion (four thousand million) times fainter than what can be seen with the unaided eye.

European Southern Observatory(EU) ELT 39 meter telescope to be on top of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile at an altitude of 3,060 metres (10,040 ft).

• Large Binocular Telescope [above]
• Infrared Space Observatory (The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU))

ESA Infrared Space Observatory.

• Herschel Space Observatory (ESA, The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (US))

European Space Agency Herschel spacecraft active from 2009 to 2013.
• James Webb Space Telescope (NASA, ESA.CSA)

National Aeronautics Space Agency/European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU)/ Canadian Space Agency [Agence Spatiale Canadienne](CA) James Webb Infrared Space Telescope(US) annotated, finally launched December 25, 2021, ten years late.

The MPIA is also participating in the Gaia mission.

European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea][Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) GAIA satellite.

Gaia is a space mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), in which the exact positions, distances and velocities of around one billion Milky Way stars are determined.

: From The MPG Institute for the Advancement of Science [MPG zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V] (DE).

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

MPG Society for the Advancement of Science [MPG Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.] is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and renamed the Max Planck Society in 1948 in honor of its former president, theoretical physicist Max Planck. The society is funded by the federal and state governments of Germany as well as other sources.

According to its primary goal, the MPG Society supports fundamental research in the natural, life and social sciences, the arts and humanities in its 83 (as of January 2014) MPG Institutes. The society has a total staff of approximately 17,000 permanent employees, including 5,470 scientists, plus around 4,600 non-tenured scientists and guests. Society budget for 2015 was about €1.7 billion.

The MPG Institutes focus on excellence in research. The MPG Society has a world-leading reputation as a science and technology research organization, with 33 Nobel Prizes awarded to their scientists, and is generally regarded as the foremost basic research organization in Europe and the world. In 2013, the Nature Publishing Index placed the MPG institutes fifth worldwide in terms of research published in Nature journals (after Harvard University, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and The National Institutes of Health). In terms of total research volume (unweighted by citations or impact), the Max Planck Society is only outranked by The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN), The Russian Academy of Sciences [Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к](RU) and Harvard University. The Thomson Reuters-Science Watch website placed the MPG Society as the second leading research organization worldwide following Harvard University, in terms of the impact of the produced research over science fields.

The MPG Society and its predecessor Kaiser Wilhelm Society hosted several renowned scientists in their fields, including Otto Hahn, Werner Heisenberg, and Albert Einstein.

History

The organization was established in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, or Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (KWG), a non-governmental research organization named for the then German emperor. The KWG was one of the world’s leading research organizations; its board of directors included scientists like Walther Bothe, Peter Debye, Albert Einstein, and Fritz Haber. In 1946, Otto Hahn assumed the position of President of KWG, and in 1948, the society was renamed the Max Planck Society (MPG) after its former President (1930–37) Max Planck, who died in 1947.

The MPG Society has a world-leading reputation as a science and technology research organization. In 2006, the Times Higher Education Supplement rankings of non-university research institutions (based on international peer review by academics) placed the MPG Society as No.1 in the world for science research, and No.3 in technology research (behind AT&T Corporation and The DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

The domain mpg.de attracted at least 1.7 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.

MPG Institutes and research groups

The MPG Society consists of over 80 research institutes. In addition, the society funds a number of Max Planck Research Groups (MPRG) and International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS). The purpose of establishing independent research groups at various universities is to strengthen the required networking between universities and institutes of the Max Planck Society.
The research units are primarily located across Europe with a few in South Korea and the U.S. In 2007, the Society established its first non-European centre, with an institute on the Jupiter campus of Florida Atlantic University (US) focusing on neuroscience.
The MPG Institutes operate independently from, though in close cooperation with, the universities, and focus on innovative research which does not fit into the university structure due to their interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary nature or which require resources that cannot be met by the state universities.

Internally, MPG Institutes are organized into research departments headed by directors such that each MPI has several directors, a position roughly comparable to anything from full professor to department head at a university. Other core members include Junior and Senior Research Fellows.

In addition, there are several associated institutes:

International Max Planck Research Schools

International Max Planck Research Schools

Together with the Association of Universities and other Education Institutions in Germany, the Max Planck Society established numerous International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS) to promote junior scientists:

• Cologne Graduate School of Ageing Research, Cologne
• International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems, at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems located in Tübingen and Stuttgart
• International Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World (Uncertainty School), at the Max Planck Institutes for Economics, for Human Development, and/or Research on Collective Goods
• International Max Planck Research School for Analysis, Design and Optimization in Chemical and Biochemical Process Engineering, Magdeburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Cosmic Physics, Heidelberg at the MPI for Astronomy
• International Max Planck Research School for Astrophysics, Garching at the MPI for Astrophysics
• International Max Planck Research School for Complex Surfaces in Material Sciences, Berlin
• International Max Planck Research School for Computer Science, Saarbrücken
• International Max Planck Research School for Earth System Modeling, Hamburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Elementary Particle Physics, Munich, at the MPI for Physics
• International Max Planck Research School for Environmental, Cellular and Molecular Microbiology, Marburg at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
• International Max Planck Research School for Evolutionary Biology, Plön at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology
• International Max Planck Research School “From Molecules to Organisms”, Tübingen at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
• International Max Planck Research School for Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Jena at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
• International Max Planck Research School on Gravitational Wave Astronomy, Hannover and Potsdam MPI for Gravitational Physics
• International Max Planck Research School for Heart and Lung Research, Bad Nauheim at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
• International Max Planck Research School for Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Berlin at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
• International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences, Nijmegen
• International Max Planck Research School for Neurosciences, Göttingen
• International Max Planck Research School for Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Tübingen
• International Max Planck Research School for Marine Microbiology (MarMic), joint program of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, the University of Bremen, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, and the Jacobs University Bremen
• International Max Planck Research School for Maritime Affairs, Hamburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Freiburg
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences, Munich
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology, Göttingen
• International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Cell Biology and Bioengineering, Dresden
• International Max Planck Research School Molecular Biomedicine, program combined with the ‘Graduate Programm Cell Dynamics And Disease’ at the University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine
• International Max Planck Research School on Multiscale Bio-Systems, Potsdam
• International Max Planck Research School for Organismal Biology, at the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
• International Max Planck Research School on Reactive Structure Analysis for Chemical Reactions (IMPRS RECHARGE), Mülheim an der Ruhr, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion
• International Max Planck Research School for Science and Technology of Nano-Systems, Halle at Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
• International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science at the University of Göttingen hosted by MPI for Solar System Research
• International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Bonn, at the MPI for Radio Astronomy (formerly the International Max Planck Research School for Radio and Infrared Astronomy)
• International Max Planck Research School for the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy, Cologne
• International Max Planck Research School for Surface and Interface Engineering in Advanced Materials, Düsseldorf at Max Planck Institute for Iron Research GmbH
• International Max Planck Research School for Ultrafast Imaging and Structural Dynamics, Hamburg

Max Planck Schools

• Max Planck School of Cognition
• Max Planck School Matter to Life
• Max Planck School of Photonics

Max Planck Center

• The Max Planck Centre for Attosecond Science (MPC-AS), POSTECH Pohang
• The Max Planck POSTECH Center for Complex Phase Materials, POSTECH Pohang

Max Planck Institutes

Among others:
• Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior – caesar, Bonn
• Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in 2004;
• Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen was closed in 2005;
• Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology in Ladenburg b. Heidelberg was closed in 2003;
• Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena was renamed to the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in 2014;
• Max Planck Institute for Ionospheric Research in Katlenburg-Lindau was renamed to Max Planck Institute for Aeronomics in 1958;
• Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, Stuttgart
• Max Planck Institute of Oceanic Biology in Wilhelmshaven was renamed to Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology in 1968 and moved to Ladenburg 1977;
• Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich merged into the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in 2004;
• Max Planck Institute for Protein and Leather Research in Regensburg moved to Munich 1957 and was united with the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in 1977;
• Max Planck Institute for Virus Research in Tübingen was renamed as Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in 1985;
• Max Planck Institute for the Study of the Scientific-Technical World in Starnberg (from 1970 until 1981 (closed)) directed by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Jürgen Habermas.
• Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology
• Max Planck Institute of Experimental Endocrinology
• Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Social Law
• Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics
• Max Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding

From The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US) : “ALMA’s Most Scientifically Productive Receiver Will Soon See Further than Ever Before”

From The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US)

December 17, 2021

Amy C. Oliver
Public Information Officer, ALMA
Public Information & News Manager, NRAO
+1 434 242 9584
aoliver@nrao.edu

Multi-million dollar upgrade will increase sensitivity, seeing distance, and image clarity for Band 6 receivers

Patricio Escarate, a Cryogenics and Vacuum Technician at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) works on a front end, or chilled cooler that hold the cutting edge receivers for each ALMA antenna. Credit: M. Alexander, The European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europaiche Sûdsternwarte] (EU)(CL)

The National Science Foundation (US) and the board of The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA (CL)) have approved a multi-million dollar upgrade project for the Observatory’s 1.3mm (Band 6) receivers through the North American ALMA Development Program. The receivers—originally built, and to be upgraded, by the Central Development Laboratory (CDL) at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)—are the most scientifically productive in ALMA’s lineup. Launching in 2021, Phase 1 of the project—funded for $7.68 million—aims to produce a prototype receiver by 2026 that will allow NRAO to plan for the build-out of an entirely upgraded set of Band 6 receivers for ALMA. These new Band 6v2 receivers will increase the quantity and quality of science measured in wavelengths between 1.4mm and 1.1mm.

Crystal Brogan, ALMA-North America Program Scientist and the ALMA Development Program Coordinator at NRAO, said that for scientists, the upgrade—which will take place over a decade from design to completion—provides three significant improvements. The wavelength coverage of any one observation will more than double, which will allow many more spectral lines to be observed at once. In addition, the upgrade will increase the overall wavelength range accessible by the receiver and improve its sensitivity which reduces the observing time required. Brogan said, “What this means for scientists is that a wider selection of diagnostic line transitions can be observed simultaneously with better sensitivity than ever before, leading to more accurate and efficient scientific results.”

The Band 6 upgrade is part of the ambitious “ALMA2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade,” which seeks to at least double and eventually quadruple the correlated bandwidth of the Observatory’s antennas. Band 6v2 will be the first receiver upgraded as a part of the ALMA2030 Development Roadmap. Brogan noted that the receiver was chosen for the first upgrade because “Band 6 is currently ALMA’s most popular band in terms of the number of hours proposed each cycle. We see more ALMA publications reporting results from this band than any other in every observing year.”

Technologically, the extensive project includes upgrading or replacing virtually every critical subsystem on the receivers, including the feed horn antennas, the polarization separators (also referred to as orthomode transducers, or OMTs), mixers and amplifiers, and local oscillators.

Extremely weak signals from space are collected by the ALMA antennas and focussed onto receivers, like these two shown here, which transform the faint radiation into an electrical signal. The upgraded Band 6v2 receivers will increase both the quality and quantity of science that ALMA can achieve in the band, allowing for more accurate and efficient science. Credit: ESO.

Behind the dish of each ALMA antenna sits one of these Front Ends, the chilled coolers that hold the suite of cutting-edge receivers. Each receiver was hand-crafted in one of three different laboratories around the world. They were brought together to be assembled into this cryogenic unit and shipped to Chile for installation inside each of ALMA’s 66 antennas. Credit: P. Carrillo, ALMA (ESO/The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan[[国立天文台](JP)/NRAO)

The upgrade includes several new or improved technologies resulting from NRAO’s collaboration with The University of Virginia (US)’s Innovations in Fabrication (IFAB) Laboratory. Bert Hawkins, Director of CDL, said, “Our work with UVA includes the development of a new superconducting SIS mixer at the heart of the new receiver that extends the wavelength range the receiver will be sensitive to, thus increasing the scientific capabilities of Band 6. We’re also working together to develop a new class of superconducting hybrid couplers used inside the receiver to separate sidebands in the signal. In addition to our work with UVA, our internal teams are improving upon myriad technologies. Our low-noise amplifier team, for example, is developing a new generation of cryogenically-cooled amplifiers based on a commercially-available transistor.”

Hawkins added, “The original Band 6 receiver was designed over 20 years ago. Since then, the National Science Foundation has invested in improving millimeter-wave receiver technology through NRAO. This effort has paid off, and now, by leveraging technology developed at CDL and with our partners at the University of Virginia, this upgrade answers the call of the ALMA2030 Development Roadmap to increase the bandwidth and wavelength coverage of ALMA receivers while improving sensitivity.” In addition to continuing a longstanding partnership with UVA, the upgrade will allow ALMA-North America to leverage its existing relationship with the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative at The Piedmont Virginia Community College (US), providing students with hands-on experiences like micro-assembly and wire bonding, the use of small software-defined radios to measure and characterize the electromagnetic spectrum, high-frequency measurements, and cryogenic measurements of electronics.

“The international ALMA collaboration has a clear view for the future of radio astronomy, and the Band 6v2 upgrade is the first in a long line of upgrades to come that will bring unparalleled sensitivity to this already immensely powerful observatory,” said Tony Beasley, Director of NRAO. “The original Band 6 quickly became the most scientifically productive receiver at ALMA because of its capabilities. With this upgrade from CDL, Band 6v2 will hold that position at ALMA for years to come.”

ALMA Director Sean Dougherty added, “This is a very exciting upgrade to the most productive receiver system at ALMA. Aside from the phenomenal new science capabilities, ALMA will be able to make observations much faster as the new receivers will be much more sensitive. This will substantially increase the amount of high-quality observations we can deliver to the community.”

The North American ALMA Development Program is funded by the NSF and The National Research Council Canada [Conseil national de recherches Canada](CA). “These Band 6v2 upgrades point to the fantastic ability to make improvements as technology advances,” said Dr. Joe Pesce, ALMA Program Officer at the National Science Foundation. “The new science capabilities made possible by the upgrades will allow ALMA to remain at the cutting edge of millimeter science.”

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

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 (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan.

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

ALMA is a time machine!

ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins

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

National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US) Karl G Jansky Very Large Array located in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, ~50 miles (80 km) west of Socorro. The VLA comprises twenty-eight 25-meter radio telescopes.

ngVLA, to be located near the location of the NRAO Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (US) site on the plains of San Agustin, fifty miles west of Socorro, NM, USA, at an elevation of 6970 ft (2124 m) with additional mid-baseline stations currently spread over greater New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Mexico.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US)Very Long Baseline Array.

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.
Access to ALMA observing time by the North American astronomical community will be through the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC).

*The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) comprises ten radio telescopes spanning 5,351 miles. It’s the world’s largest, sharpest, dedicated telescope array. With an eye this sharp, you could be in Los Angeles and clearly read a street sign in New York City!

Astronomers use the continent-sized VLBA to zoom in on objects that shine brightly in radio waves, long-wavelength light that’s well below infrared on the spectrum. They observe blazars, quasars, black holes, and stars in every stage of the stellar life cycle. They plot pulsars, exoplanets, and masers, and track asteroids and planets.

From ALMA Observatory (CL) : “Stars’ secret embraces revealed by ALMA”

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP)

From ALMA Observatory (CL)

16 December, 2021

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

Masaaki Hiramatsu
Education and Public Outreach Officer, NAOJ Chile
Observatory
, Tokyo – Japan
Phone: +81 422 34 3630
Email: hiramatsu.masaaki@nao.ac.jp

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6670
Email: pio@eso.org
Amy C. Oliver
Public Information & News Manager
National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO), USA
Phone: +1 434 242 9584
Email: aoliver@nrao.edu

All general references:
ALMA Observatory (CL)
European Southern Observatory(EU)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP)
National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)

ALMA’s image of water-fountain star system W43A lies about 7000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquila, the Eagle. The double star at its center is much too small to be resolved in this image. However, ALMA’s measurements show the stars’ interaction has changed its immediate environment. The two jets ejected from the central stars are seen in blue (approaching us) and red (receding). Dusty clouds entrained by the jets are shown in pink. Credit:D. Tafoya et al., ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO).

A pair of stars at the start of a common envelope phase. In this artist’s impression, we get a view from very close to a binary system in which two stars have just started to share the same atmosphere. The bigger star, a red giant star, has provided a huge, cool atmosphere that only just holds together. The smaller star orbits ever faster around the stars’ center of mass, spinning on its axis and interacting dramatically with its new surroundings. The interaction creates powerful jets that throw out gas from its poles and a slower-moving ring of material at its equator. Credit: Danielle Futselaar, artsource.nl

Unlike our Sun most stars live with a companion. Sometimes, two come so near that one engulfs the other – with far-reaching consequences. A team of astronomers that used ALMA to study 15 unusual stars was surprised to find that they all recently underwent this phase. The discovery promises new insight into the sky’s most dramatic phenomena, life, death, and rebirth among the stars.

Using the gigantic telescope ALMA in Chile, a Chalmers University of Technology[ tekniska högskola ](SE)-led team of scientists studied 15 unusual stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, the closest 5000 light-years from Earth. Their measurements show that all the stars are double. All have recently experienced a rare phase that is poorly understood but probably leads to many other astronomical phenomena. Their results are published this week in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy.

The science paper includes Khouri (Chalmers), Wouter H. T. Vlemmings (Chalmers), Daniel Tafoya (Chalmers), Andrés F. Pérez-Sánchez (The Leiden University [Universiteit Leiden](NL)), Carmen Sánchez Contreras (Centro de Astrobiología (The Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia [Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía] CSIC (ES)–National Institute for Aerospace Technique [Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA)] (ES)), José F. Gómez (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Spain), Hiroshi Imai (Kagoshima University (鹿児島大学](JP)) and Raghvendra Sahai (JPL/Caltech-NASA(US))

By directing ALMA towards each star and measuring light from different molecules close to each star, the researchers hoped to find clues to their backstories. Nicknamed “water fountains” these stars were known to astronomers because of intense light from water molecules –produced by unusually dense and fast-moving gas.

Located 5000 m above sea level in Chile, the ALMA is sensitive to light with wavelengths around one millimeter, invisible to human eyes, but ideal for looking through the Milky Way’s layers of dusty interstellar clouds towards dust-enshrouded stars.

“We were extra curious about these stars because they seem to be blowing out quantities of dust and gas into space, some in the form of jets with speeds up to 1.8 million kilometers per hour. We thought we might find out clues to how the jets were being created, but instead, we found much more than that”, says Theo Khouri, first author of the new study.

The scientists used the telescope to measure signatures of carbon monoxide (CO) molecules in the light from the stars and compared signals from different atoms (isotopes) of carbon and oxygen. Unlike its sister molecule, carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide is relatively easy to discover in space and is a favorite tool for astronomers.

“Thanks to ALMA’s exquisite sensitivity, we were able to detect the very faint signals from several different molecules in the gas ejected by these stars. When we looked closely at the data, we saw details that we weren’t expecting to see”, says Theo Khouri.

The observations confirmed that the stars were all blowing off their outer layers. But the proportions of the different oxygen atoms in the molecules indicated that the stars were in another respect not as extreme as they had seemed, explains team member Wouter Vlemmings, an astronomer at Chalmers.

“We realized that these stars started their lives with the same mass as the Sun or only a few times more. Now our measurements showed that they have ejected up to 50% of their total mass just in the last few hundred years. Something flamboyant must have happened to them”, he says.

Why were such small stars come losing so much mass so quickly? The evidence all pointed to one explanation, the scientists concluded. These were all double stars and they had all just been through a phase in which the two stars shared the same atmosphere-one star entirely embraced by the other.

“In this phase, the two stars orbit together in a sort of cocoon. This phase, we call it a “common envelope” phase, is really brief and only lasts a few hundred years. In astronomical terms, it’s over in the blink of an eye”, says team member Daniel Tafoya.

Most stars in binary systems simply orbit around a common center of mass. These stars, however, share the same atmosphere. It can be a life-changing experience for a star and may even lead to the stars merging completely.

Scientists believe that this sort of intimate episode can lead to some of the sky’s most spectacular phenomena. Understanding how it happens could help answer some of the astronomers’ most important questions about how stars live and die, Theo Khouri explains.

“What happens to cause a supernova explosion? How do black holes get close enough to collide? What’s makes the beautiful and symmetric objects we call planetary nebulae? Astronomers have suspected for many years that common envelopes are part of the answers to questions like these. Now we have a new way of studying this momentous but mysterious phase”, he says.

Understanding the typical envelope phase will also help scientists study what will happen in the very distant future, when the Sun too will become a more extensive, cooler star – a red giant – and engulf the innermost planets.

“Our research will help us understand how that might happen, but it gives me a more hopeful perspective. When these stars embrace, they send dust and gas out into space that can become the ingredients for coming generations of stars and planets, and with them the potential for new life”, says Daniel Tafoya.

Since the 15 stars seem to be evolving on a human timescale, the team plans to keep monitoring them with ALMA and with other radio telescopes. With the future telescopes of the SKA Observatory, they hope to study how the stars form their jets and change their surroundings. They also hope to find more – if there are any.

“Actually, we think the known “water fountains” could be almost all the systems of their kind in the whole of our galaxy. If that’s true, then these stars are the key to understanding the strangest, most wonderful, and most important process that two stars can experience in their lives together”, concludes Theo Khouri.

The original Press Release was published by Chalmers University.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

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 (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan.

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 (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (US) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

ALMA is a time machine!

ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins

From Manu Garcia- a friend from IAC-Institute of Astrophysics of the Canaries[Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias](ES): “Stellar cocoon with organic molecules on the edge of our galaxy”

From Manu Garcia- a friend from IAC-Institute of Astrophysics of the Canaries[Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias](ES).

The universe around us.
Astronomy, everything you wanted to know about our local universe and never dared to ask.

Artist’s image of the protostar discovered at the outermost edge of the Galaxy. Credit: Niigata University [新潟大学](JP).

12.15.21

For the first time, a science team has detected a newborn star and the surrounding cocoon of complex organic molecules at the edge of our galaxy, which is known as the extreme outer galaxy. The discovery, which revealed the hidden chemical complexity of our Universe, appears in an article in The Astrophysical Journal.

Above: Radio spectrum of a protostar at the outer edge of the Galaxy discovered with ALMA. Bottom: Distributions of radio emissions from the protostar. Emissions of dust, formaldehyde (H2CO), ethynyl radical (CCH), carbon monosulfide (CS), sulfur monoxide (SO), silicon monoxide (SiO), acetonitrile (CH3CN), formamide (NH2CHO), propanonitrile (C2H5CN), Methyl formate (HCOOCH3), ethanol (C2H5OH), acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), deuterated water (HDO) and methanol (CH3OH) are shown as examples. In the lower right panel, a 2-color infrared composite image of the surrounding region is displayed (red: 2.16m and blue: 1.25m, based on 2MASS data). Credit: ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO), T. Shimonishi (Niigata University)

Caltech 2MASS Telescopes Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics(US) Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory(US), located near Amado, Arizona on the slopes of Mount Hopkins, Altitude 2,606 m (8,550 ft) and at CTIO in Chile.

Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory located near Amado, Arizona on the slopes of Mount Hopkins, Altitude 2,606 m (8,550 ft)

European Southern Observatory/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Observatory (CL).

The Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomical facility, is a partnership between The European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL), The National Science Foundation (US), and The National Institutes of Natural Sciences [NINS] [自然科学研究機構] (JP). (NINS) 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 [Conseil national de recherches Canada] (CA) and The Ministry of Science and Technology[科技部](TW), and by NINS in cooperation with Academia Sinica ( AS) of Taiwan and The Korea Institute of Science and Technology [ 한국과학기술연구](KR).
===
Scientists from the University of Niigata (Japan), The Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics(TW) and The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP), used the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile [above] to observe a newborn star (protostar) in the WB89-789 region, located at the outermost edge of the galaxy. A variety of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and silicon carrier molecules were detected, including complex organic molecules containing up to nine atoms. Such a protostar, as well as the associated cocoon of chemically rich molecular gas, were first detected at the edge of our galaxy.

The ALMA observations reveal that several types of complex organic molecules, such as methanol (CH3OH), ethanol (C2H5OH), methyl formate (HCOOCH3), dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3), formamide (NH2CHO), propanonitrile (C2H5CN), etc., are present even in the primordial environment of the extreme outer galaxy. These complex organic molecules potentially act as raw materials for larger prebiotic molecules.

Interestingly, the relative abundance of complex organic molecules in this newly discovered object remarkably resembles what is found in similar objects in the interior of the galaxy. Observations suggest that complex organic molecules form with similar efficiency even at the edge of our galaxy, where the environment is very different from that in the solar neighborhood.

The outer part of our galaxy is believed to still host a primordial environment that existed in the early age of galaxy formation. The environmental characteristics of the extreme outer galaxy, for example, low abundance of heavy elements, little or no disturbance of the galactic spiral arms, are very different from those seen in the current solar neighborhood. Due to its unique characteristics, the extreme outer galaxy is an excellent laboratory for studying star formation and the interstellar medium in the past galactic environment.

“With ALMA we were able to see a star in formation and the surrounding molecular cocoon at the edge of our galaxy,” says Takashi Shimonishi, an astronomer at Niigata University, Japan, and lead author of the paper. ‘To our surprise, there are a variety of complex organic molecules that are abundant in the primordial environment of the extreme outer galaxy. The interstellar conditions to form chemical complexity could have persisted since the early history of the Universe, “adds Shimonishi.

‘These observations have revealed that complex organic molecules can be formed efficiently even in low metallicity environments such as the outermost regions of our galaxy. This finding provides an important piece of the puzzle for understanding how complex organic molecules form in the Universe, ”says Kenji Furuya, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and a co-author of the paper.

However, it is not yet clear whether such chemical complexity is common in the outer part of the galaxy. Complex organic molecules are of special interest, because some of them are connected to prebiotic molecules formed in space. The team plans to observe a greater number of star-forming regions in the future and hopes to clarify whether chemically rich systems, as seen in our Solar System, are ubiquitous throughout the history of the Universe.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

The Instituto de Astrofísica the headquarters, which is in La Laguna (Tenerife).

Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma (ES) at an altitude of 2400m.

The seeing statistics at ORM make it the second-best location for optical and infrared astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere, after Mauna Kea Observatory Hawaii (US).

Maunakea Observatories Hawai’i (US) altitude 4,213 m (13,822 ft).

The site also has some of the most extensive astronomical facilities in the Northern Hemisphere; its fleet of telescopes includes the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias, the world’s largest single-aperture optical telescope as of July 2009, the William Herschel Telescope (second largest in Europe), and the adaptive optics corrected Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope.

Gran Telescopio Canarias [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias ](ES) sited on a volcanic peak 2,267 metres (7,438 ft) above sea level.

Isaac Newton Group 4.2 meter William Herschel Telescope at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands(ES), 2,396 m (7,861 ft).

The Swedish 1m Solar Telescope SST at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory on La Palma Spain, Altitude 2,360 m (7,740 ft).

The observatory was established in 1985, after 15 years of international work and cooperation of several countries with the Spanish island hosting many telescopes from Britain, The Netherlands, Spain, and other countries. The island provided better seeing conditions for the telescopes that had been moved to Herstmonceux by the Royal Greenwich Observatory, including the 98 inch aperture Isaac Newton Telescope (the largest reflector in Europe at that time). When it was moved to the island it was upgraded to a 100-inch (2.54 meter), and many even larger telescopes from various nations would be hosted there.

Tiede Observatory, Tenerife, Canary Islands (ES)

Teide Observatory [Observatorio del Teide], IAU code 954, is an astronomical observatory on Mount Teide at 2,390 metres (7,840 ft), located on Tenerife, Spain. It has been operated by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias since its inauguration in 1964. It became one of the first major international observatories, attracting telescopes from different countries around the world because of the good astronomical seeing conditions. Later the emphasis for optical telescopes shifted more towards Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma.

From The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (US): “Exoplanets in Debris Disks”

From The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (US)

12.03.21

An artist’s impression of a star’s dusty debris disk, thought to be produced when asteroids or other planetesimals collide and fragment. Astronomers studying the debris disk around the star HD 206893 have imaged a wide gap in the disk extending from about 50 to 185 au from the star. After modeling the system, they conclude it contains a 1.4 Jupiter-mass planet orbiting about 79 au from the central star.

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan[[国立天文台](JP)

Debris disks around main-sequence stars are tenuous belts of dust thought to be produced when asteroids or other planetesimals collide and fragment. They are common: more than about a quarter of all main-sequence stars have debris disks and, since these disks can be hard to detect, it is likely that the fraction is even higher. Current instruments are only able to detect debris disks in systems that are at least an order of magnitude more luminous than the disk generated by the solar system’s Kuiper Belt (the region extending from the orbit of Neptune at about thirty astronomical units out to about fifty au).

The dust in debris disks is worthy of study in its own right but also offers an opportunity to trace the properties of planetary systems. The largest dust grains (those as big as a millimeter), whose collective thermal emission is measured with telescopes like ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array), are relatively unaffected by stellar winds or radiation pressure.

European Southern Observatory/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Observatory (CL)

Rather, their distribution reveals the effects of gravity and collisions. The “chaotic zone” is the extended region around a planet within which dust has no stable gravitational orbits, resulting in a gap whose width depends among other things on the planet’s mass. A planet in a debris disk can create such a gap, and measurements of the gap’s dimensions can thus be used to deduce the mass of the planet – a key exoplanet parameter that is otherwise difficult to obtain.

CfA astronomers Sean Andrews and David Wilner were members of a team that used ALMA to study the known debris disk around the star HD 206893 about 135 light-years away from us. The star also has a brown dwarf binary companion orbiting at about 10au and whose mass is about 15-30 Jupiter-masses. The ALMA images spatially resolve the disk – it extends from about 50 -185 au – and the astronomers find evidence for a gap stretching from about 63 – 94 au. If the gap was carved by a single planet in a circular orbit, chaotic zone theory implies the planet should have a mass of about 1.4 Jupiter-masses and orbit at about 79 au. Future, higher resolution ALMA observations have the potential to help constrain the dynamical behavior of the brown dwarf as well as to improve the characterization of the inferred new planet.

Science paper:
The Astrophysical Journal

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings
Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (US) combines the resources and research facilities of the Harvard College Observatory(US) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory(US) under a single director to pursue studies of those basic physical processes that determine the nature and evolution of the universe. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory(US) is a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution(US), founded in 1890. The Harvard College Observatory, founded in 1839, is a research institution of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University(US), and provides facilities and substantial other support for teaching activities of the Department of Astronomy.

Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the CfA leads a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, Earth and space sciences, as well as science education. The CfA either leads or participates in the development and operations of more than fifteen ground- and space-based astronomical research observatories across the electromagnetic spectrum, including the forthcoming Giant Magellan Telescope(CL) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory(US), one of NASA’s Great Observatories.

Giant Magellan Telescope(CL) 21 meters, to be at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s(US) NSF (US) NOIRLab(US) NOAO(US) Las Campanas Observatory(CL) some 115 km (71 mi) north-northeast of La Serena, Chile, over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) high.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US) Chandra X-ray telescope(US).

Hosting more than 850 scientists, engineers, and support staff, the CfA is among the largest astronomical research institutes in the world. Its projects have included Nobel Prize-winning advances in cosmology and high energy astrophysics, the discovery of many exoplanets, and the first image of a black hole. The CfA also serves a major role in the global astrophysics research community: the CfA’s Astrophysics Data System(ADS)(US), for example, has been universally adopted as the world’s online database of astronomy and physics papers. Known for most of its history as the “Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics”, the CfA rebranded in 2018 to its current name in an effort to reflect its unique status as a joint collaboration between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. The CfA’s current Director (since 2004) is Charles R. Alcock, who succeeds Irwin I. Shapiro (Director from 1982 to 2004) and George B. Field (Director from 1973 to 1982).

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is not formally an independent legal organization, but rather an institutional entity operated under a Memorandum of Understanding between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. This collaboration was formalized on July 1, 1973, with the goal of coordinating the related research activities of the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) under the leadership of a single Director, and housed within the same complex of buildings on the Harvard campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The CfA’s history is therefore also that of the two fully independent organizations that comprise it. With a combined lifetime of more than 300 years, HCO and SAO have been host to major milestones in astronomical history that predate the CfA’s founding.

History of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)

Samuel Pierpont Langley, the third Secretary of the Smithsonian, founded the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on the south yard of the Smithsonian Castle (on the U.S. National Mall) on March 1,1890. The Astrophysical Observatory’s initial, primary purpose was to “record the amount and character of the Sun’s heat”. Charles Greeley Abbot was named SAO’s first director, and the observatory operated solar telescopes to take daily measurements of the Sun’s intensity in different regions of the optical electromagnetic spectrum. In doing so, the observatory enabled Abbot to make critical refinements to the Solar constant, as well as to serendipitously discover Solar variability. It is likely that SAO’s early history as a solar observatory was part of the inspiration behind the Smithsonian’s “sunburst” logo, designed in 1965 by Crimilda Pontes.

In 1955, the scientific headquarters of SAO moved from Washington, D.C. to Cambridge, Massachusetts to affiliate with the Harvard College Observatory (HCO). Fred Lawrence Whipple, then the chairman of the Harvard Astronomy Department, was named the new director of SAO. The collaborative relationship between SAO and HCO therefore predates the official creation of the CfA by 18 years. SAO’s move to Harvard’s campus also resulted in a rapid expansion of its research program. Following the launch of Sputnik (the world’s first human-made satellite) in 1957, SAO accepted a national challenge to create a worldwide satellite-tracking network, collaborating with the United States Air Force on Project Space Track.

With the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US) the following year and throughout the space race, SAO led major efforts in the development of orbiting observatories and large ground-based telescopes, laboratory and theoretical astrophysics, as well as the application of computers to astrophysical problems.

History of Harvard College Observatory (HCO)

Partly in response to renewed public interest in astronomy following the 1835 return of Halley’s Comet, the Harvard College Observatory was founded in 1839, when the Harvard Corporation appointed William Cranch Bond as an “Astronomical Observer to the University”. For its first four years of operation, the observatory was situated at the Dana-Palmer House (where Bond also resided) near Harvard Yard, and consisted of little more than three small telescopes and an astronomical clock. In his 1840 book recounting the history of the college, then Harvard President Josiah Quincy III noted that “…there is wanted a reflecting telescope equatorially mounted…”. This telescope, the 15-inch “Great Refractor”, opened seven years later (in 1847) at the top of Observatory Hill in Cambridge (where it still exists today, housed in the oldest of the CfA’s complex of buildings). The telescope was the largest in the United States from 1847 until 1867. William Bond and pioneer photographer John Adams Whipple used the Great Refractor to produce the first clear Daguerrotypes of the Moon (winning them an award at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London). Bond and his son, George Phillips Bond (the second Director of HCO), used it to discover Saturn’s 8th moon, Hyperion (which was also independently discovered by William Lassell).

Under the directorship of Edward Charles Pickering from 1877 to 1919, the observatory became the world’s major producer of stellar spectra and magnitudes, established an observing station in Peru, and applied mass-production methods to the analysis of data. It was during this time that HCO became host to a series of major discoveries in astronomical history, powered by the Observatory’s so-called “Computers” (women hired by Pickering as skilled workers to process astronomical data). These “Computers” included Williamina Fleming; Annie Jump Cannon; Henrietta Swan Leavitt; Florence Cushman; and Antonia Maury, all widely recognized today as major figures in scientific history. Henrietta Swan Leavitt, for example, discovered the so-called period-luminosity relation for Classical Cepheid variable stars, establishing the first major “standard candle” with which to measure the distance to galaxies. Now called “Leavitt’s Law”, the discovery is regarded as one of the most foundational and important in the history of astronomy; astronomers like Edwin Hubble, for example, would later use Leavitt’s Law to establish that the Universe is expanding, the primary piece of evidence for the Big Bang model.

Upon Pickering’s retirement in 1921, the Directorship of HCO fell to Harlow Shapley (a major participant in the so-called “Great Debate” of 1920). This era of the observatory was made famous by the work of Cecelia Payne-Gaposchkin, who became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College (a short walk from the Observatory). Payne-Gapochkin’s 1925 thesis proposed that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, an idea thought ridiculous at the time. Between Shapley’s tenure and the formation of the CfA, the observatory was directed by Donald H. Menzel and then Leo Goldberg, both of whom maintained widely recognized programs in solar and stellar astrophysics. Menzel played a major role in encouraging the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to move to Cambridge and collaborate more closely with HCO.

Joint history as the Center for Astrophysics (CfA)

The collaborative foundation for what would ultimately give rise to the Center for Astrophysics began with SAO’s move to Cambridge in 1955. Fred Whipple, who was already chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department (housed within HCO since 1931), was named SAO’s new director at the start of this new era; an early test of the model for a unified Directorship across HCO and SAO. The following 18 years would see the two independent entities merge ever closer together, operating effectively (but informally) as one large research center.

This joint relationship was formalized as the new Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on July 1, 1973. George B. Field, then affiliated with UC Berkeley(US), was appointed as its first Director. That same year, a new astronomical journal, the CfA Preprint Series was created, and a CfA/SAO instrument flying aboard Skylab discovered coronal holes on the Sun. The founding of the CfA also coincided with the birth of X-ray astronomy as a new, major field that was largely dominated by CfA scientists in its early years. Riccardo Giacconi, regarded as the “father of X-ray astronomy”, founded the High Energy Astrophysics Division within the new CfA by moving most of his research group (then at American Sciences and Engineering) to SAO in 1973. That group would later go on to launch the Einstein Observatory (the first imaging X-ray telescope) in 1976, and ultimately lead the proposals and development of what would become the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Chandra, the second of NASA’s Great Observatories and still the most powerful X-ray telescope in history, continues operations today as part of the CfA’s Chandra X-ray Center. Giacconi would later win the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for his foundational work in X-ray astronomy.

Shortly after the launch of the Einstein Observatory, the CfA’s Steven Weinberg won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on electroweak unification. The following decade saw the start of the landmark CfA Redshift Survey (the first attempt to map the large scale structure of the Universe), as well as the release of the Field Report, a highly influential Astronomy & Astrophysics Decadal Survey chaired by the outgoing CfA Director George Field. He would be replaced in 1982 by Irwin Shapiro, who during his tenure as Director (1982 to 2004) oversaw the expansion of the CfA’s observing facilities around the world.

Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics(US) Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory(US) located near Amado, Arizona on the slopes of Mount Hopkins, Altitude 2,606 m (8,550 ft)

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne](EU)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US) SOHO satellite. Launched in 1995.

National Aeronautics Space Agency(US) NASA Kepler Space Telescope (US)

CfA-led discoveries throughout this period include canonical work on Supernova 1987A, the “CfA2 Great Wall” (then the largest known coherent structure in the Universe), the best-yet evidence for supermassive black holes, and the first convincing evidence for an extrasolar planet.

The 1990s also saw the CfA unwittingly play a major role in the history of computer science and the internet: in 1990, SAO developed SAOImage, one of the world’s first X11-based applications made publicly available (its successor, DS9, remains the most widely used astronomical FITS image viewer worldwide). During this time, scientists at the CfA also began work on what would become the Astrophysics Data System (ADS), one of the world’s first online databases of research papers. By 1993, the ADS was running the first routine transatlantic queries between databases, a foundational aspect of the internet today.

The CfA Today

Research at the CfA

Charles Alcock, known for a number of major works related to massive compact halo objects, was named the third director of the CfA in 2004. Today Alcock overseas one of the largest and most productive astronomical institutes in the world, with more than 850 staff and an annual budget in excess of $100M. The Harvard Department of Astronomy, housed within the CfA, maintains a continual complement of approximately 60 Ph.D. students, more than 100 postdoctoral researchers, and roughly 25 undergraduate majors in astronomy and astrophysics from Harvard College. SAO, meanwhile, hosts a long-running and highly rated REU Summer Intern program as well as many visiting graduate students. The CfA estimates that roughly 10% of the professional astrophysics community in the United States spent at least a portion of their career or education there.

The CfA is either a lead or major partner in the operations of the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, the Submillimeter Array, MMT Observatory, the South Pole Telescope, VERITAS, and a number of other smaller ground-based telescopes. The CfA’s 2019-2024 Strategic Plan includes the construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope as a driving priority for the Center.

CFA Harvard Smithsonian Submillimeter Array on MaunaKea, Hawaii, USA, Altitude 4,205 m (13,796 ft).

South Pole Telescope SPTPOL. The SPT collaboration is made up of over a dozen (mostly North American) institutions, including The University of Chicago (US); The University of California Berkeley (US); Case Western Reserve University (US); Harvard/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (US); The University of Colorado, Boulder; McGill(CA) University, The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign;The University of California, Davis; Ludwig Maximilians Universität München(DE); DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory; and The National Institute for Standards and Technology. The University of California, Davis; Ludwig Maximilians Universität München(DE); DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory; and The National Institute for Standards and Technology. It is funded by the National Science Foundation(US).

Along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the CfA plays a central role in a number of space-based observing facilities, including the recently launched Parker Solar Probe, Kepler Space Telescope, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and HINODE. The CfA, via the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, recently played a major role in the Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-Funded Large Mission Concept Study commissioned as part of the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (“Astro2020”). If launched, Lynx would be the most powerful X-ray observatory constructed to date, enabling order-of-magnitude advances in capability over Chandra.

NASA Parker Solar Probe Plus named to honor Pioneering Physicist Eugene Parker.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US)Solar Dynamics Observatory(US)

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) (国立研究開発法人宇宙航空研究開発機構] (JP)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration(US) HINODE spacecraft.

SAO is one of the 13 stakeholder institutes for the Event Horizon Telescope Board, and the CfA hosts its Array Operations Center. In 2019, the project revealed the first direct image of a black hole.

Messier 87*, The first image of the event horizon of a black hole. This is the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87. Image via The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released on 10 April 2019 via National Science Foundation(US).

The result is widely regarded as a triumph not only of observational radio astronomy, but of its intersection with theoretical astrophysics. Union of the observational and theoretical subfields of astrophysics has been a major focus of the CfA since its founding.

In 2018, the CfA rebranded, changing its official name to the “Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian” in an effort to reflect its unique status as a joint collaboration between Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution. Today, the CfA receives roughly 70% of its funding from NASA, 22% from Smithsonian federal funds, and 4% from the National Science Foundation. The remaining 4% comes from contributors including the United States Department of Energy, the Annenberg Foundation, as well as other gifts and endowments.

From ALMA Observatory (CL) : “Stellar Cocoon with Organic Molecules at the Edge of our Galaxy”

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP)

From ALMA Observatory (CL)

1 December, 2021

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

Masaaki Hiramatsu
Education and Public Outreach Officer, NAOJ Chile
Observatory
, Tokyo – Japan
Phone: +81 422 34 3630
Email: hiramatsu.masaaki@nao.ac.jp

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6670
Email: pio@eso.org

Amy C. Oliver
Public Information & News Manager
National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO), USA
Phone: +1 434 242 9584
Email: aoliver@nrao.edu

All general references:
ALMA Observatory (CL)
European Southern Observatory(EU)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP)
National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)

Top: Radio spectrum of a protostar in the extreme outer Galaxy discovered with ALMA. Bottom: Distributions of radio emissions from the protostar. Emissions from dust, formaldehyde (H2CO), ethynylradical (CCH), carbon monosulfide (CS), sulfur monoxide (SO), silicon monoxide (SiO), acetonitrile (CH3CN), formamide (NH2CHO), propanenitrile (C2H5CN), methyl formate (HCOOCH3), ethanol (C2H5OH), acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), deuterated water (HDO), and methanol (CH3OH) are shown as examples. In the bottom right panel, an infrared 2-color composite image of the surrounding region is shown (red: 2.16 m and blue: 1.25 m, based on Caltech 2MASS(US) data). Credit: T. Shimonishi (Niigata University [新潟大学](JP)) ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO).

Artist’s conceptual image of the protostar discovered in the extreme outer Galaxy. Credit: Niigata University.

For the first time, astronomers have detected a newborn star and the surrounding cocoon of complex organic molecules at the edge of our Galaxy, which is known as the extreme outer Galaxy.

Credit: R. Hurt/NASA JPL-Caltech(US) Milky Way. The bar is visible in this image.

The discovery, which revealed the hidden chemical complexity of our Universe, appears in a paper in The Astrophysical Journal.

The scientists from Niigata University [新潟大学](JP), The Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (TW), and The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan [国立天文台](JP), used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to observe a newborn star (protostar) in the WB89-789 region, located in the extreme outer Galaxy. A variety of carbon-, oxygen-, nitrogen-, sulfur-, and silicon-bearing molecules, including complex organic molecules containing up to nine atoms, were detected. Such a protostar, as well as the associated cocoon of chemically-rich molecular gas, were for the first time detected at the edge of our Galaxy.

The ALMA observations reveal that various kinds of complex organic molecules, such as methanol (CH3OH), ethanol (C2H5OH), methyl formate (HCOOCH3), dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3), formamide (NH2CHO), propanenitrile (C2H5CN), etc., are present even in the primordial environment of the extreme outer Galaxy. Such complex organic molecules potentially act as the feedstock for larger prebiotic molecules.

Interestingly, the relative abundances of complex organic molecules in this newly discovered object resemble remarkably well what is found in similar objects in the inner Galaxy. The observations suggest that complex organic molecules are formed with similar efficiency even at the edge of our Galaxy, where the environment is very different from the solar neighborhood.

It is believed that the outer part of our Galaxy still harbors a primordial environment that existed in the early epoch of galaxy formation. The environmental characteristics of the extreme outer Galaxy, e.g., low abundance of heavy elements, small or no perturbation from Galactic spiral arms, are very different from those seen in the present-day solar neighborhood. Because of its unique characteristics, the extreme outer Galaxy is an excellent laboratory to study star formation and the interstellar medium in the past Galactic environment.

“With ALMA we were able to see a forming star and the surrounding molecular cocoon at the edge of our Galaxy,” says Takashi Shimonishi, an astronomer at Niigata University, Japan, and the paper’s lead author. “To our surprise, a variety of abundant complex organic molecules exists in the primordial environment of the extreme outer Galaxy. The interstellar conditions to form the chemical complexity might have persisted since the early history of the Universe,” Shimonishi adds.

“These observations have revealed that complex organic molecules can be efficiently formed even in low-metallicity environments like the outermost regions of our Galaxy. This finding provides an important piece of the puzzle to understand how complex organic molecules are formed in the Universe,” says Kenji Furuya, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and the paper’s co-author.

It is not yet clear, however, if such a chemical complexity is common in the outer part of the Galaxy. Complex organic molecules are of special interest, because some of them are connected to prebiotic molecules formed in space. The team is planning to observe a larger number of star-forming regions in the future, and hopes to clarify whether chemically-rich systems, as seen in our Solar System, are ubiquitous through the history of the Universe.

Enumerated science team:

Takashi Shimonishi,1, 2; Natsuko Izumi,3; Kenji Furuya,4; and Chikako Yasui,5.

1. Center for Transdisciplinary Research, Niigata University, Ikarashi-ninocho 8050, Nishi-ku, Niigata, 950-2181, Japan.

2. Environmental Science Program, Department of Science, Faculty of Science, Niigata University, Ikarashi-ninocho 8050, Nishi-ku, Niigata, 950-2181, Japan.
3. Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.

4. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan.

5. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, California Office, 100 W. Walnut St., Suite 300, Pasadena, CA 91124, US.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

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 (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan.

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 (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (US) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

ALMA is a time machine!

ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins

From ALMA (CL): “Astronomers make most distant detection yet of fluorine in star-forming galaxy”

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.

From ALMA (CL)

4 November, 2021

Valeria Foncea
Education and Public Outreach Officer
Joint ALMA Observatory Santiago – Chile
Phone: +56 2 2467 6258
Cell phone: +56 9 7587 1963
Email: valeria.foncea@alma.cl

Masaaki Hiramatsu
Education and Public Outreach Officer, NAOJ Chile
Observatory
, Tokyo – Japan
Phone: +81 422 34 3630
Email: hiramatsu.masaaki@nao.ac.jp

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6670
Email: pio@eso.org

Amy C. Oliver
Public Information & News Manager
National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO), USA
Phone: +1 434 242 9584
Email: aoliver@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(US) https://public.nrao.edu/

This artist’s impression shows NGP–190387, a star-forming, dusty galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to reach us. ALMA observations have revealed the presence of fluorine in the gas clouds of NGP–190387. To date, this is the most distant detection of the element in a star-forming galaxy, one that we see as it was only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang — about 10% of the current age of the Universe. The discovery sheds a new light on how stars forge fluorine, suggesting short-lived stars known as Wolf–Rayet are its most likely birthplace. Credit: M. Kornmesser/ESO.

This artist’s impression shows the bright core of a Wolf–Rayet star surrounded by a nebula of material which has been expelled by the star itself. Wolf–Rayet stars are hot and massive with lifespans of a few million years. They are thought to end in dramatic supernova explosions, ejecting the elements forged in their cores into the cosmos. Credit: L. Calçada/ESO.

A new discovery is shedding light on how fluorine — an element found in our bones and teeth as fluoride — is forged in the Universe. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers have detected this element in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to reach us. This is the first time fluorine has been spotted in such a distant star-forming galaxy.

“We all know about fluorine because the toothpaste we use every day contains it in the form of fluoride,” says Maximilien Franco from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, who led the new study, published today in Nature Astronomy. Like most elements around us, fluorine is created inside stars but, until now, we did not know exactly how this element was produced. “We did not even know which type of stars produced the majority of fluorine in the Universe!”

Franco and his collaborators spotted fluorine (in the form of hydrogen fluoride) in the large clouds of gas of the distant galaxy NGP–190387, which we see as it was when the Universe was only 1.4 billion years old, about 10% of its current age. Since stars expel the elements they form in their cores as they reach the end of their lives, this detection implies that the stars that created fluorine must have lived and died quickly.

The team believes that Wolf–Rayet stars, very massive stars that live only a few million years, a blink of the eye in the Universe’s history, are the most likely production sites of fluorine. They are needed to explain the amounts of hydrogen fluoride the team spotted, they say. Wolf–Rayet stars had been suggested as possible sources of cosmic fluorine before, but astronomers did not know until now how important they were in producing this element in the early Universe.

“We have shown that Wolf–Rayet stars, which are among the most massive stars known and can explode violently as they reach the end of their lives, help us, in a way, to maintain good dental health!” jokes Franco.

Besides these stars, other scenarios for how fluorine is produced and expelled have been put forward in the past. An example includes pulsations of giant, evolved stars with masses up to few times that of our Sun, called asymptotic giant branch stars. But the team believes these scenarios, some of which take billions of years to occur, might not fully explain the amount of fluorine in NGP–190387.

“For this galaxy, it took just tens or hundreds of millions of years to have fluorine levels comparable to those found in stars in the Milky Way, which is 13.5 billion years old. This was a totally unexpected result,” says Chiaki Kobayashi, a professor at The University of Hertfordshire (UK). “Our measurement adds a completely new constraint on the origin of fluorine, which has been studied for two decades.”

The discovery in NGP–190387 marks one of the first detections of fluorine beyond the Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxies. Astronomers have previously spotted this element in distant quasars, bright objects powered by supermassive black holes at the center of some galaxies. But never before had this element been observed in a star-forming galaxy so early in the history of the Universe.

The team’s detection of fluorine was a chance discovery made possible thanks to the use of space and ground-based observatories. NGP–190387, originally discovered with the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory and later observed with ALMA, is extraordinarily bright for its distance.

European Space Agency Herschel spacecraft active from 2009 to 2013.

The ALMA data confirmed that the exceptional luminosity of this distant galaxy was partly caused by another known massive galaxy, located between it and the Earth, very close to the line of sight. This massive galaxy amplified the light observed by Franco and his collaborators, enabling them to spot the faint radiation emitted billions of years ago by the fluorine in NGP–190387.

Future studies of of this distant galaxy with the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — ESO’s new flagship project, under construction in Chile and set to start operations later this decade — could reveal further secrets about this galaxy.

European Southern Observatory(EU) ELT 39 meter telescope to be on top of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. located at the summit of the mountain at an altitude of 3,060 metres (10,040 ft).

“ALMA is sensitive to radiation emitted by cold interstellar gas and dust,” says Chentao Yang, an ESO Fellow in Chile. “With the ELT, we will be able to observe NGP–190387 through the direct light of stars, gaining crucial information on the stellar content of this galaxy.”

See the full article here .

See also From ESO here.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

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 (ESO) (EU), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) (CA) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan.

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

ALMA is a time machine!

ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins

From European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL): “Astronomers make most distant detection yet of fluorine in star-forming galaxy”

From European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL)

4 November 2021

Maximilien Franco
Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire(UK)
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Tel: +33-649956665
Email: m.franco@herts.ac.uk

Chiaki Kobayashi
Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Tel: +44-7757116615
Email: c.kobayashi@herts.ac.uk

Chentao Yang
European Southern Observatory
Santiago, Chile
Tel: +56 2 2463 3053
Email: cyang@eso.org

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Media Manager
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6670
Cell: +49 151 241 664 00
Email: press@eso.org

Press Office
University of Hertfordshire
Hatfield, UK
Tel: +441707 285770

A new discovery is shedding light on how fluorine — an element found in our bones and teeth as fluoride — is forged in the Universe. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, a team of astronomers have detected this element in a galaxy that is so far away its light has taken over 12 billion years to reach us. This is the first time fluorine has been spotted in such a distant star-forming galaxy.

European Southern Observatory/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Observatory (CL)

“We all know about fluorine because the toothpaste we use every day contains it in the form of fluoride,” says Maximilien Franco from The University of Hertfordshire (UK), who led the new study, published today in Nature Astronomy. Like most elements around us, fluorine is created inside stars but, until now, we did not know exactly how this element was produced. “We did not even know which type of stars produced the majority of fluorine in the Universe!”

Franco and his collaborators spotted fluorine (in the form of hydrogen fluoride) in the large clouds of gas of the distant galaxy NGP–190387, which we see as it was when the Universe was only 1.4 billion years old, about 10% of its current age. Since stars expel the elements they form in their cores as they reach the end of their lives, this detection implies that the stars that created fluorine must have lived and died quickly.

The team believes that Wolf–Rayet stars, very massive stars that live only a few million years, a blink of the eye in the Universe’s history, are the most likely production sites of fluorine. They are needed to explain the amounts of hydrogen fluoride the team spotted, they say. Wolf–Rayet stars had been suggested as possible sources of cosmic fluorine before, but astronomers did not know until now how important they were in producing this element in the early Universe.

“We have shown that Wolf–Rayet stars, which are among the most massive stars known and can explode violently as they reach the end of their lives, help us, in a way, to maintain good dental health!” jokes Franco.

Besides these stars, other scenarios for how fluorine is produced and expelled have been put forward in the past. An example includes pulsations of giant, evolved stars with masses up to few times that of our Sun, called asymptotic giant branch stars. But the team believes these scenarios, some of which take billions of years to occur, might not fully explain the amount of fluorine in NGP–190387.

“For this galaxy, it took just tens or hundreds of millions of years to have fluorine levels comparable to those found in stars in the Milky Way, which is 13.5 billion years old. This was a totally unexpected result,” says Chiaki Kobayashi, a professor at the University of Hertfordshire. “Our measurement adds a completely new constraint on the origin of fluorine, which has been studied for two decades.”

The discovery in NGP–190387 marks one of the first detections of fluorine beyond the Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxies. Astronomers have previously spotted this element in distant quasars, bright objects powered by supermassive black holes at the centre of some galaxies. But never before had this element been observed in a star-forming galaxy so early in the history of the Universe.

The team’s detection of fluorine was a chance discovery made possible thanks to the use of space and ground-based observatories. NGP–190387, originally discovered with the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory and later observed with the Chile-based ALMA, is extraordinarily bright for its distance.

European Space Agency Herschel spacecraft active from 2009 to 2013.

The ALMA data confirmed that the exceptional luminosity of NGP–190387 was partly caused by another known massive galaxy, located between NGP–190387 and the Earth, very close to the line of sight. This massive galaxy amplified the light observed by Franco and his collaborators, enabling them to spot the faint radiation emitted billions of years ago by the fluorine in NGP–190387.

Future studies of NGP–190387 with the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — ESO’s new flagship project [below], under construction in Chile and set to start operations later this decade — could reveal further secrets about this galaxy. “ALMA is sensitive to radiation emitted by cold interstellar gas and dust,” says Chentao Yang, an ESO Fellow in Chile. “With the ELT, we will be able to observe NGP–190387 through the direct light of stars, gaining crucial information on the stellar content of this galaxy.”

This research was presented in the paper in Nature Astronomy.

The team is composed of M. Franco (Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, UK [CAR]), K. E. K. Coppin (CAR), J. E. Geach (CAR), C. Kobayashi (CAR), S. C. Chapman (Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University (CA) and National Research Council Canada (CA), The Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA)), C. Yang (European Southern Observatory, Chile), E. González-Alfonso (University of Alcalá [Universidad de Alcalá](ES), Departamento de Física y Matematicas, Spain), J. S. Spilker (Department of Astronomy, University of Texas-Austin (US)), A. Cooray (Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of California-Irvine (US)), M. J. Michałowski (Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics, Poland).

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, The National Science Foundation (US) and National Institutes of Natural Sciences [NINS] [自然科学研究機構] (JP) 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 MEXT:Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (JP) and by NINS in cooperation with The Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics(TW) and Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute[알림사항](KR). ALMA construction and operations are led by The European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL), on behalf of its Member States; by The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US), managed by The Associated Universities Inc (US), on behalf of North America; and by The National Astronomy Observatory of Japan (JP) 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 University of Hertfordshire brings the transformational impact of higher education to all. Its students, staff and businesses consistently reach their full potential. Through high quality teaching, 550 degree programmes, cutting-edge research projects and powerful business partnerships, they think bigger, stand out and positively impact local, national and international communities.

See the full article here .

See also from ALMA here.

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

Visit ESO (EU) in Social Media-

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)(CL) is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

European Southern Observatory(EU) La Silla HELIOS (HARPS Experiment for Light Integrated Over the Sun)

ESO 3.6m telescope & HARPS atCerro LaSilla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

MPG Institute for Astronomy [Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie](DE) 2.2 meter telescope at/European Southern Observatory(EU) Cerro La Silla, Chile, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) La Silla Observatory 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.
European Southern Observatory(EU) , Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ) •KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ) •MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and •YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening star). Elevation 2,635 m (8,645 ft) from above Credit J.L. Dauvergne & G. Hüdepohl atacama photo.

European Southern Observatory(EU) VLTI Interferometer image, Cerro Paranal, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level, •ANTU (UT1; The Sun ),
•KUEYEN (UT2; The Moon ),
•MELIPAL (UT3; The Southern Cross ), and
•YEPUN (UT4; Venus – as evening star).

ESO Very Large Telescope 4 lasers on Yepun (CL)

Glistening against the awesome backdrop of the night sky above ESO’s Paranal Observatory, four laser beams project out into the darkness from Unit Telescope 4 UT4 of the VLT, a major asset of the Adaptive Optics system.

ESO/NTT NTT at Cerro La Silla , Chile, at an altitude of 2400 metres.

Part of ESO’s Paranal Observatory the VLT Survey Telescope (VISTA) observes the brilliantly clear skies above the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is the largest survey telescope in the world in visible light, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.

European Southern Observatory(EU) ELT 39 meter telescope to be on top of Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. located at the summit of the mountain at an altitude of 3,060 metres (10,040 ft).

European Southern Observatory(EU)/MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE) ESO’s Atacama Pathfinder Experiment(CL) high on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region, at an altitude of over 4,800 m (15,700 ft).

Leiden MASCARA instrument cabinet at Cerro La Silla, located in the southern Atacama Desert 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2,400 metres (7,900 ft).

ESO Next Generation Transit Survey telescopes, an array of twelve robotic 20-centimetre telescopes at Cerro Paranal,(CL) 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

ESO Speculoos telescopes four 1 meter robotic telescopes at ESO Paranal Observatory 2635 metres 8645 ft above sea level.
TAROT telescope at Cerro LaSilla, 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.

European Southern Observatory(EU) ExTrA telescopes at erro LaSilla at an altitude of 2400 metres.

A novel gamma ray telescope under construction on Mount Hopkins, Arizona. A large project known as the Čerenkov Telescope Array composed of hundreds of similar telescopes to be situated in the Canary Islands and Chile at, ESO Cerro Paranal site The telescope on Mount Hopkins will be fitted with a prototype high-speed camera, assembled at the. University of Wisconsin–Madison and capable of taking pictures at a billion frames per second. Credit: Vladimir Vassiliev.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU), The new Test-Bed Telescope 2is housed inside the shiny white dome shown in this picture, at ESO’s LaSilla Facility in Chile. The telescope has now started operations and will assist its northern-hemisphere twin in protecting us from potentially hazardous, near-Earth objects.The domes of ESO’s 0.5 m and the Danish 0.5 m telescopes are visible in the background of this image.Part of the world-wide effort to scan and identify near-Earth objects, the European Space Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 (TBT2), a technology demonstrator hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has now started operating. Working alongside its northern-hemisphere partner telescope, TBT2 will keep a close eye on the sky for asteroids that could pose a risk to Earth, testing hardware and software for a future telescope network.

European Space Agency [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) The open dome of The black telescope structure of the‘s Test-Bed Telescope 2 peers out of its open dome in front of the rolling desert landscape. The telescope is located at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, which sits at a 2400 metre altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert.

From ALMA (CL): “ALMA Scientists Detect Signs of Water in a Galaxy Far Far Away”

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte] (EU)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP) ALMA Array in Chile in the Atacama at Chajnantor plateau, at 5,000 metres.

From ALMA (CL)

11.3.21

Valeria Foncea
Education and Public Outreach Officer
Joint ALMA Observatory Santiago – Chile
Phone: +56 2 2467 6258
Cell phone: +56 9 7587 1963
Email: valeria.foncea@alma.cl

Masaaki Hiramatsu
Education and Public Outreach Officer, NAOJ Chile
Observatory
, Tokyo – Japan
Phone: +81 422 34 3630
Email: hiramatsu.masaaki@nao.ac.jp

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6670
Email: pio@eso.org

Amy C. Oliver
Public Information & News Manager
National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO), USA
Phone: +1 434 242 9584
Email: aoliver@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(US) https://public.nrao.edu/

Water has been detected in the most massive galaxy in the early Universe according to new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Scientists studying SPT0311-58 found H2O along with carbon monoxide in the galaxy which is located nearly 12.88 billion light years from Earth. Detection of these two molecules in abundance suggests that the molecular Universe was going strong shortly after the elements were forged in early stars. The new research comprises the most detailed study of molecular gas content of a galaxy in the early Universe to date and the most distant detection of H2O in a regular star-forming galaxy. The research is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

SPT0311-58 is actually made up of two galaxies and was first seen by ALMA scientists in 2017 at its location- or time-in the Epoch of Reionization. This epoch occurred at a time when the Universe was just 780 million years old—roughly 5-percent of its current age—and the first stars and galaxies were being born. Scientists believe that the two galaxies may be merging, and that their rapid star formation is not only using up their gas, or star-forming fuel, but that it may eventually evolve the pair into massive elliptical galaxies like those seen in the Local Universe.

“Using high-resolution ALMA observations of molecular gas in the pair of galaxies known collectively as SPT0311-58 we detected both water and carbon monoxide molecules in the larger of the two galaxies. Oxygen and carbon, in particular, are first-generation elements, and in the molecular forms of carbon monoxide and water, they are critical to life as we know it,” said Sreevani Jarugula, an astronomer at The University of Illinois (US) and the principal investigator on the new research. “This galaxy is the most massive galaxy currently known at high redshift, or the time when the Universe was still very young. It has more gas and dust compared to other galaxies in the early Universe, which gives us plenty of potential opportunities to observe abundant molecules and to better understand how these life-creating elements impacted the development of the early Universe.”

Water, in particular, is the third most abundant molecule in the Universe after molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Previous studies of galaxies in the local and early Universe have correlated water emission and the far-infrared emission from dust. “The dust absorbs the ultraviolet radiation from the stars in the galaxy and re-emits it as far-infrared photons,” said Jarugula. “This further excites the water molecules, giving rise to the water emission that scientists are able to observe. In this case, it helped us to detect water emission in this massive galaxy. This correlation could be used to develop water as a tracer of star formation, which could then be applied to galaxies on a cosmological scale.”

Studying the first galaxies to form in the Universe helps scientists to better understand the birth, growth, and evolution of the Universe, and everything in it, including the Solar System and Earth. “Early galaxies are forming stars at a rate thousands of times that of the Milky Way, said Jarugula. “Studying the gas and dust content of these early galaxies informs us of their properties, such as how many stars are being formed, the rate at which gas is converted into stars, how galaxies interact with each other and with the interstellar medium, and more.”

According to Jarugula, there’s plenty left to learn about SPT0311-58 and the galaxies of the early Universe. “This study not only provides answers about where, and how far away, water can exist in the Universe, but also has given rise to a big question: How has so much gas and dust assembled to form stars and galaxies so early in the Universe? The answer requires further study of these and similar star-forming galaxies to get a better understanding of the structural formation and evolution of the early Universe.”

“This exciting result, which shows the power of ALMA, adds to a growing collection of observations of the early Universe,” said Joe Pesce, astrophysicist and ALMA Program Director at the National Science Foundation. “These molecules, important to life on Earth, are forming as soon as they can, and their observation is giving us insight into the fundamental processes of a Universe very much different from today’s.”

This artist’s conception shows the dust continuum and molecular lines of carbon monoxide and water seen in the pair of galaxies known as SPT0311-58. ALMA data reveals abundant CO and H2O in the larger of the two galaxies, indicating that the molecular Universe was going strong shortly after the elements were initially forged. Credit:S. Dagnello (NRAO)/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO).

These science images show the molecular lines and dust continuum seen in ALMA observations of the pair of early massive galaxies known as SPT0311-58. On left: A composite image combining the dust continuum with molecular lines for H2O and CO. On right: The dust continuum seen in red (top), molecular line for H2O shown in blue (2nd from top), molecular line transitions for carbon monoxide, CO(6-5) shown in purple (middle), CO(7-6) shown in magenta (second from bottom), and CO(10-9) shown in pinks and deep blue (bottom). Credit: S. Dagnello (NRAO)/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO).

This animated gif moves through the dust continuum and molecular lines for water and carbon monoxide seen in ALMA observations of the pair of early massive galaxies known as SPT0311-58. This gif begins with a composite combining the dust continuum with molecular lines for H2O and CO. It is followed by the dust continuum seen in red, molecular lines for H2O seen in blue, molecular lines for carbon monoxide, CO(10-9) shown in pinks and deep blue, CO(7-6) shown in magenta, and CO(6-5) shown in purple. Credit: S. Dagnello (NRAO)/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO).

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

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 (ESO) (EU), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) (CA) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan.

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

ALMA is a time machine!

ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins

From ALMA Observatory (CL) : “A Cosmic Whodunit- ALMA Study Confirms What’s Robbing Galaxies of Their Star-Forming Gas”

European Southern Observatory [Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL)/National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP)

From ALMA Observatory (CL)

2 November, 2021

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

Masaaki Hiramatsu
Education and Public Outreach Officer, NAOJ Chile
Observatory
, Tokyo – Japan
Phone: +81 422 34 3630
Email: hiramatsu.masaaki@nao.ac.jp

Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6670
Email: pio@eso.org
Amy C. Oliver
Public Information & News Manager
National Radio Astronomical Observatory (NRAO), USA
Phone: +1 434 242 9584
Email: aoliver@nrao.edu

All general references:
ALMA Observatory (CL)
European Southern Observatory(EU)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(JP)
National Radio Astronomy Observatory(US)

The VERTICO—Virgo Environment Traced in Carbon Monoxide—Survey observed the gas reservoirs in 51 galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster and found that the extreme environment in the cluster was killing galaxies by robbing them of their star-forming fuel. In this composite image, ALMA’s radio wavelength observations of the VERTICO galaxies’ molecular gas disks are magnified by a factor of 20. They are overlaid on the X-ray image of the hot plasma within the Virgo Cluster. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Dagnello (NRAO)/Böhringer et al. (ROSAT All-Sky Survey).

Astronomers examining the nearby Universe with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have just completed the largest high-resolution survey of star-forming fuel ever conducted in galaxy clusters. But more importantly, they’re tackling a long-standing mystery in astrophysics: what’s killing galaxies? The research, which provides the clearest evidence to date that extreme environments in space have severe impacts on the galaxies within them, will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

The Virgo Environment Traced in Carbon Monoxide Survey—VERTICO—set out to better understand star formation and the role of galaxies in the Universe. “We know that galaxies are being killed by their environments, and we want to know why,” said Toby Brown, Plaskett Fellow at The National Research Council of Canada [Conseil national de recherches Canada] (CA) and lead author on the paper. “What VERTICO reveals better than ever before is which physical processes affect molecular gas and how they dictate the life and death of the galaxy.”

Galaxies are large collections of stars, and their births, evolutions, and deaths are influenced by where they live in the Universe and how they interact with their surroundings. Galaxy clusters, in particular, are some of the most extreme environments in the Universe, making them of particular interest to scientists studying the evolution of galaxies.

Home to thousands of galaxies the Virgo Cluster is the nearest massive cluster of galaxies to the Local Group, where the Milky Way resides.

Local Group. Andrew Z. Colvin 3 March 2011

Virgo Supercluster Credit: NASA.

The extreme size and proximity make the cluster easy to study, but it also has other features that make it ripe for observation. “The Virgo Cluster is a bit unusual in that it has a relatively large population of galaxies that are still forming stars,” said Christine Wilson, Distinguished University Professor at McMaster University (CA) and co-principal investigator on the VERTICO project. “Many galaxy clusters in the Universe are dominated by red galaxies with little gas and star formation.”

The VERTICO project observed the gas reservoirs of 51 galaxies in the Virgo Cluster in high-resolution, revealing an environment so extreme and inhospitable that it can stop entire galaxies from forming stars in a process known as galaxy quenching. “The Virgo Cluster is the most extreme region of the local Universe, filled with million-degree plasma, extreme galaxy speeds, violent interactions between galaxies and their surroundings, a galaxy retirement village, and accordingly, a galaxy graveyard,” said Brown, adding that the project revealed how gas stripping can stunt, or shut down, one of the most important physical processes in the Universe: star formation. “Gas stripping is one of the most spectacular and violent external mechanisms that can shut down star formation in galaxies,” said Brown. “Gas stripping occurs when galaxies are moving so fast through hot plasma in the cluster that vast quantities of cold molecular gas are stripped away from the galaxy, as though the gas is being swept away by a huge cosmic broom. The exquisite quality of VERTICO’s observations allows us to better see and understand such mechanisms.”

The project was aided by ALMA’s Band 6 receiver—developed at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Central Development Laboratory (CDL)—which provides high sensitivity and high resolution while minimizing required observing time. That, in turn, led to the collection of a significant amount of data, which may contain the clues needed to solve the remaining mysteries of how environments impact galaxies, and accordingly, how galaxies die. Wilson said, “There have been a lot of questions over the years on whether and how the cluster environment affects the molecular gas in galaxies, and how exactly those environments may contribute to their deaths. We still have work to do, but I’m confident VERTICO will allow us to answer these questions once and for all.”

The new paper is the first from VERTICO, with additional research expected to publish in the near future.

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings

Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

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 (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan.

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 (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (US) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

ALMA is a time machine!

ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins