From The MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE): “A sanitizer in the galactic centre region”

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

June 28, 2022

Dr. Norbert Junkes
Press and public relations
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
+49 2 28525-399
njunkes@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

Dr. Arnaud Belloche
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
+49 228 525-376
belloche@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

Prof. Dr. Karl M. Menten
Director at the Institute and Head of the “Millimeter and Submillimeter Astronomy” Research Dept.
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn
+49 228 525-471
kmenten@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

Interstellar detection of iso-propanol in Sagittarius B2

Many of us have probably already – literally – handled the chemical compound iso-propanol: it can used as an antiseptic, a solvent or a cleaning agent. But this substance is not only found on Earth: researchers led by Arnaud Belloche from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn have now detected the molecule in interstellar space for the first time. It was observed in a “delivery room” of stars-the massive star-forming region Sagittarius B2 which is located near the centre of our Milky Way. The molecular cloud is the target of an extensive investigation of its chemical composition with the ALMA telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

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

Alcohol in space: the position of star-forming molecular cloud Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2) close to the central source of the Milky Way, Sgr A*. The image, taken from the GLOSTAR Galactic Plane Survey (Effelsberg & VLA) shows radio sources in the Galactic centre region. The isomers propanol and iso-propanol were both detected in Sgr B2 using the ALMA telescope.
© GLOSTAR (Bruntaler et al. 2021, Astronomy & Astrophysics): Background image. Wikipedia (public domain): Propanol and isopropanol models.

The search for molecules in space has been going on for more than 50 years. To date astronomers have identified 276 molecules in the interstellar medium. The “Cologne Database for Molecular Spectroscopy (CDMS)” provides spectroscopic data to detect these molecules contributed by many research groups and has been instrumental in their detection in many cases.

The goal of the present work is to understand how organic molecules form in the interstellar medium, in particular in regions where new stars are born, and how complex these molecules can be. The underlying motivation is to establish connections to the chemical composition of bodies in the Solar system such as comets, as delivered for instance by the Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko a few years ago.

The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) legendary comet explorer Rosetta.

An outstanding star forming region in our Galaxy where many molecules were detected in the past is Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2), which is located close to the famous source Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole in the centre of our Galaxy.

“Our group began to investigate the chemical composition of Sgr B2 more than 15 years ago with the IRAM 30-m telescope”, says Arnaud Belloche from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn/Germany, the leading author of the detection paper.

IRAM 30m Radio telescope in Spain.

“These observations were successful and led in particular to the first interstellar detection of several organic molecules, among many other results.”

With the advent of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) ten years ago it became possible to go beyond what could be achieved toward Sgr B2 with a single-dish telescope and a long-term study of the chemical composition of Sgr B2 was started that took advantage of the high angular resolution and sensitivity provided by ALMA.

So far, the ALMA observations have led to the identification of three new organic molecules (iso-propyl cyanide, N-methylformamide, urea) since 2014. The latest result within this ALMA project is now the detection of propanol (C3H7OH).

Propanol is an alcohol, and is now the largest in this class of molecules that has been detected in interstellar space. This molecule exists in two forms (“isomers”), depending on which carbon atom the hydroxyl (OH) functional group is attached to: 1) normal-propanol, with OH bound to a terminal carbon atom of the chain, and 2) iso-propanol, with OH bound to the central carbon atom in the chain. Iso-propanol is also well known as the key ingredient in hand sanitizers on Earth. Both isomers of propanol in Sgr B2 were identified in the ALMA data set. It is the first time that iso-propanol is detected in the interstellar medium, and the first time that normal-propanol is detected in a star forming region. The first interstellar detection of normal-propanol was obtained shortly before the ALMA detection by a Spanish research team with single-dish radio telescopes in a molecular cloud not far from Sgr B2. The detection of iso-propanol toward Sgr B2, however, was only possible with ALMA.

“The detection of both isomers of propanol is uniquely powerful in determining the formation mechanism of each. Because they resemble each other so much, they behave physically in very similar ways, meaning that the two molecules should be present in the same places at the same times”, says Rob Garrod from the University of Virginia. “The only open question is the exact amounts that are present – this makes their interstellar ratio far more precise than would be the case for other pairs of molecules. It also means that the chemical network can be tuned much more carefully to determine the mechanisms by which they form.”

The ALMA telescope network was essential for the detection of both isomers of propanol toward Sgr B2, thanks to its high sensitivity, its high angular resolution, and its broad frequency coverage. One difficulty in the identification of organic molecules in the spectra of star forming regions is the spectral confusion. Each molecule emits radiation at specific frequencies-its spectral “fingerprint”-which is known from laboratory measurements.

“The bigger the molecule the more spectral lines at different frequencies it produces. In a source like Sgr B2, there are so many molecules contributing to the observed radiation that their spectra overlap and it is difficult to disentangle their fingerprints and identify them individually”, says Holger Müller from Cologne University where laboratory work especially on normal-propanol was performed.

Thanks to ALMA’s high angular resolution it was possible to isolate parts of Sgr B2 that emit very narrow spectral lines-five times more narrow than the lines detected on larger scales with the IRAM 30-m radio telescope! The narrowness of these lines reduces the spectral confusion, and this was key for the identification of both isomers of propanol in Sgr B2. The sensitivity of ALMA also played a key role: it would not have been possible to identify propanol in the collected data if the sensitivity had been just twice worse.

This research is a long-standing effort to probe the chemical composition of sites in Sgr B2 where new stars are being formed, and thereby understand the chemical processes at work in the course of star formation. The goal is to determine the chemical composition of the star forming sites, and possibly identify new interstellar molecules. “Propanol has long been on our list of molecules to search for, but it is only thanks to the recent work done in our laboratory to characterize its rotational spectrum that we could identify its two isomers in a robust way”, says Oliver Zingsheim, also from Cologne University.

Detecting closely related molecules that slightly differ in their structure (such as normal- and iso-propanol or, as was done in the past: normal- and iso-propyl cyanide) and measuring their abundance ratio allows the researchers to probe specific parts of the chemical reaction network that leads to their production in the interstellar medium.

“There are still many unidentified spectral lines in the ALMA spectrum of Sgr B2 which means that still a lot of work is left to decipher its chemical composition. In the near future, the expansion of the ALMA instrumentation down to lower frequencies will likely help us to reduce the spectral confusion even further and possibly allow the identification of additional organic molecules in this spectacular source”, concludes Karl Menten, Director at the MPIfR and Head of its Millimeter and Submillimeter Astronomy research department.

Science paper:
Astronomy & Astrophysics

See the full article here .

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MPIFR campus

Effelsberg Radio Telescope- a radio telescope in the Ahr Hills (part of the Eifel) in Bad Münstereifel(DE)

The MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie] (DE) is located in Bonn, Germany. It is one of 80 institutes in the MPG Society.

By combining the already existing radio astronomy faculty of the University of Bonn led by Otto Hachenberg with the new MPG institute the MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy was formed. In 1972 the 100-m radio telescope in Effelsberg was opened. The institute building was enlarged in 1983 and 2002.

The institute was founded in 1966 by the MPG Society as the “MPG Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) (DE)”.

The foundation of the institute was closely linked to plans in the German astronomical community to construct a competitive large radio telescope in (then) West Germany. In 1964, Professors Friedrich Becker, Wolfgang Priester and Otto Hachenberg of the Astronomische Institute der Universität Bonn submitted a proposal to the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk for the construction of a large fully steerable radio telescope.

In the same year the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk approved the funding of the telescope project but with the condition that an organization should be found, which would guarantee the operations. It was clear that the operation of such a large instrument was well beyond the possibilities of a single university institute.

Already in 1965 the MPG Society decided in principle to found the MPG Institut für Radioastronomie. Eventually, after a series of discussions, the institute was officially founded in 1966.

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
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
• Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing

From The Ohio University via “phys.org” : “Another few weeks of observations could tell us if the Wow! signal repeats”

From The Ohio University

via

“phys.org”

June 23, 2022
Brian Koberlein

An aerial view of the Big Ear telescope. Credit: Bigear.org / NAAPO.

In the decades-long search for extraterrestrial intelligence, there has never been confirmed evidence of an alien signal. There have, however, been a few tantalizing mysteries. Perhaps the greatest of these is known as the Wow! signal.

Observed on 15 August 1977 by the Big Ear radio telescope at The Ohio University, the signal was a strong, continuous, narrow band radio signal lasting at least 72 seconds. Our knowledge of the signal is limited given the design of Big Ear. Rather than being able to track radio signals like most modern radio telescopes, Big Ear was set to a particular elevation and relied on Earth’s rotation to scan across the sky. The reason the Wow! signal lasts 72 seconds is that’s how long it took the source to sweep across Big Ear’s observation range.

Big Ear was also a passive telescope. Astronomers simply set it up, and it would run on its own, recording the strength of signals as it goes. Because of this, the signal was only discovered days after the event when recorded observations were reviewed. By the time astronomers could go back to observe the source, the event was long over.

But despite having just one observation, the Wow! signal is considered the strongest candidate for an extraterrestrial signal. Several natural origins have been proposed, but all of them are a bit lacking. The most basic idea is that the signal was of terrestrial origin, perhaps a plane passing overhead, or a radio signal scattered off space debris. But a plane wouldn’t be in range for more than 72 seconds, and there is no record of such a flight. A scattered signal is possible, but the strength of the signal would be unusual, and the frequency of the Wow! signal is within a range where transmissions are restricted.

Plot of signal strength vs time of the Wow! signal on August 15, 1977. Credit: Maksim Rossomakhin.

Several years ago it was proposed that the signal might have been caused by comets that were near the observed area of the sky, but this has since been disproven. While two comets were close to the source location, they weren’t really within the observed range. And comets aren’t likely to emit such a strong narrowband signal.

One interesting aspect of the signal is that its frequency was very close to that of the so-called 21-centimeter line. This is a faint radio emission caused by neutral hydrogen in the universe. Because hydrogen is the most common element in the cosmos, any radio astronomers in the universe would make observations at that frequency. If you wanted to get the attention of alien astronomers, a strong signal near that frequency would be a good way to do it.

Given the tantalizing nature of the Wow! signal, there have been several attempts at repeat observations. Several radio telescopes have been aimed at the source over the years, but to no luck. Every observation in that area since has turned up nothing. So what’s an astronomer to do? Well, one way to tackle the problem is to look at what your observations exclude. That’s the idea behind a recent paper for MNRAS.

Applying Bayesian statistics to a likely outcome. Credit: Wikipedia.

In this work, the authors argue that the source could be some kind of stochastic repeater. Most repeating sources are periodic. Things like variable stars or fast radio bursts can have a predictable variability. Astronomers have considered this idea, and have made observations that rule out a source with a regular periodicity. A stochastic repeater is a bit different. Rather than having a measurable period, stochastic repeaters repeat somewhat randomly. A good example would be earthquakes. We know where they generally happen, know they will happen again, but predicting exactly when is nigh on impossible. Astrophysical processes can be stochastic in a similar way.

On the face of it, this seems like a silly idea. We’ve never seen the Wow! signal repeat, and we’ve proved it can’t be repeating periodically, but maybe it’s been repeating non-randomly such that we’ve never observed it. It sounds like the authors are arguing that it must be a non-random repeater because we’ve never observed it repeat. But the idea isn’t as silly as it sounds. The authors look at when an unobserved burst might have occurred, and apply Bayesian statistics to calculate when a future burst might occur.

Bayesian statistics is subtle but powerful. It’s more than just calculating the odds of a likely event. It looks at the pattern of events to predict specific outcomes. It takes into account not just how often something has occurred, but how those events changed over time. So, knowing of one burst event, and knowing when other burst events haven’t occurred, the authors calculate the times at which future events are most likely. This is good to know since we can now specifically observe the regions during the most likely event periods. If the Wow! signal was a stochastic repeater, then we’ll likely catch a new event. If we don’t see another event, we can rule out stochastic repeaters as a likely cause.

See the full article here .

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In 1786, 11 men gathered at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in Boston to propose development of the area north of the Ohio River and west of the Allegheny Mountains known then as the Ohio Country. Led by Manasseh Cutler and Rufus Putnam, the Ohio Company petitioned Congress to take action on the proposed settlement. The eventual outcome was the enactment of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which provided for settlement and government of the territory and stated that “…schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

In 1803, Ohio became a state and on February 18, 1804, the Ohio General Assembly passed an act establishing “The Ohio University.” The University opened in 1808 with one building, three students, and one professor, Jacob Lindley. One of the first two graduates of the University, Thomas Ewing, later became a United States senator and distinguished himself as cabinet member or advisor to four presidents.

Twenty-four years after its founding, in 1828, Ohio University conferred an A.B. degree on John Newton Templeton, its first black graduate and only the third black man to graduate from a college in the United States. In 1873, Margaret Boyd received her B.A. degree and became the first woman to graduate from the University. Soon after, the institution graduated its first international alumnus, Saki Taro Murayama of Japan, in 1895.

From The SETI Institute: “Checking in our neighbors – is anyone home?”

From The SETI Institute

Jun 2, 2022

The Allen Telescope Array [ATA] has embarked on a survey of nearby stars

SETI Institute Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek Radio Observatory, Hat Creek, CA. – Image Credit Simon Steel

It’s 6 o’clock in the morning—sunrise is just warming the horizon—when Pranav Premnath, a research assistant at the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), shuffles to the desk. He boots up his computer, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he waits. Last night, he calibrated the ATA, an array of small radio dishes designed to pick up signals from space, to observe Wolf 424, a binary system consisting of two red dwarf stars.

When Pranav connects to the ATA systems, he confirms the array’s antennas spent the last night focused on one patch of sky containing Wolf 424 at the desired radio frequency. Now it’s time to recalibrate the instrument at a new frequency band for the next round of observations.

Wolf 424, a binary system consisting of two red dwarf stars.

“Odd hours are part of observing,” says Pranav. “My schedule depends on when a star is visible, and that’s just a matter of the time of year and Earth’s rotation.”

Pranav is leading a survey of 300 stellar objects that Dr. Sofia Sheikh, who recently joined the ATA team as an NSF-ASCEND Postdoctoral Fellow, identified from the Research Consortium on Nearby Stars (RECONS). Astronomers compiled this list of all stars within 10 parsecs, or about 30 lightyears, of Earth in 1994 and continue to update it as new discoveries are made.

Of course, the observation targets aren’t the stars themselves but the stellar systems, which include any planets orbiting the stars. Some of the stars in the RECONS list are known to host planets, but statistically all of them should have planetary systems and around 10-20 percent should have a planet that could be habitable.

Each target in Pranav’s survey is observed multiple times to capture the ATA’s entire bandwidth capabilities. One observation can include two tunings, each spanning 700 MHz of radio frequency, so it takes about 8 passes to listen across 1-12 GHz for any sign of advanced life.

WHAT MAKES THE ATA SPECIAL

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has long focused on radio emission because it’s useful for communication and travels through interstellar space easily. In fact, humans use radio so much that an advanced civilization could easily eavesdrop on us if they tuned their radio receivers in our direction. Scientists figure there’s a decent chance other advanced civilizations are using radio as well, and this is why the ATA, one of the SETI Institute’s crowning achievements, consists of radio antennas.

The ATA is located at Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO), which is nestled between farmland in Lassen National Forest, about a 90-minute drive Northeast from Redding, California. The instrument, which is the only radio array built with the SETI as its primary purpose, consists of 42 six-meter dishes. Each dish has specialized hardware developed specifically to detect radio signals that could originate from advanced civilizations beyond Earth.

An array allows for more flexibility than a single large dish—like the Greenbank Telescope in West Virginia or the legendary Arecibo Telescope that was in Puerto Rico. This is because the antennas can all function together, separately, or a combination of the two.

“For this survey we’re using the ATA’s beam forming capability,” says Dr. Sheikh. “So, we’re pointing many antennas at the same patch of sky to increase the sensitivity of our observations. Because the ATA is comprised of 40ish small antennas rather than a single large dish, it’s extremely flexible. Beam forming is just one of many observing modes.”

When the antennas are pointed at the same patch of sky, they make more sensitive observations of targets within that field of view. This could be a single star or multiple if the objects are in the same patch of sky when viewed from the ATA.

The dishes can also be used separately to observe the huge swaths of the night sky—albeit at a lower sensitivity than when used together like in the previous scenario. In this mode, the ATA can observe an area 500 times larger than the moon at once.

And the dishes can be used in any combination. You could have a cluster of three dishes observing one patch of sky with two targets of interest and use the rest to observe a wider field of view and all the billions of stars in it. It depends on the team’s scientific goals.

GIVING THE ATA A FACELIFT

The ATA was built in the early 2000s with the first observations in 2007. Telescope hardware, particularly computing technology, has advanced significantly since then and the ATA needed an upgrade to reach its full potential. Thanks to generous support from Franklin Antonio, the onsite team has spent the last two years upgrading 20 of the array’s front-end receivers as well as the legacy signal processing hardware.

This hard work means the ATA is more sensitive and reliable—capable of observing even fainter signals than ever before. The new digital backend can process 20x the bandwidth compared to the original setup, observe many more stars simultaneously, and search for more complex signals. The ATA can observe from 1-12 GHz continuously, which is different from other instruments.

The team is making good use of these upgrades in the survey of nearby stars.

REDUCING INTERFERENCE

Interference is a serious concern for radio SETI instruments like the ATA. The instrument’s frequency coverage excludes most interference from the universe as well as molecules in our own atmosphere, but a rogue microwave or Bluetooth device could cause a spike that’s easily confused as a sign of E.T.

To combat this, the ATA team regularly monitors for potential sources of radio interference, and during recent maintenance, saw an alarming spike in interference from one of the dishes while pointed in a specific direction. Dr. Sheikh, who was observing remotely, spoke to the onsite team about what she was seeing, and luckily it only took a quick walk outside to find the culprit.

A tree had grown too close to the dish. Since trees are warm bodies, the same temperature as the Earth, it was creating the interference the team saw in their observations. The tree was removed, and observations could continue. It also gave the team a good laugh.

AUTOMATING SETI

While Pranav had to get up early this morning, he’s hoping that will soon be a thing of the past.

“Every time we finish an observation, we have to make sure the instrument is calibrated correctly,” says Pranav. “This could mean making sure the ATA is pointed at the right target or making sure it’s tuned to the new frequency. We’ve started automating this process, but we don’t trust it enough yet to let it run by itself.”

To automate the ATA’s observations, Pranav and his advisor Dr. Wael Farah, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the ATA, are continuously developing and deploying automation procedures to leverage the capability of the instrument.

“Everything is so new,” says Wael. “So we have to watch it closely to make sure everything is on track. Once we trust the instrument, and all the automation and processing scripts to run autonomously, we’ll have even more time to spend analyzing the survey data since we’ll be less involved in the calibration process.”

Dr. Farah and Pranav are also working to refine the algorithm that earmarks potentially interesting signals. SETI algorithms are trickier than those used in other astronomy observations because scientists looking for intelligent life beyond Earth are hunting for distant signals that look exactly like Earth-based activities. Essentially, SETI scientists are listening to distant planetary systems for radio emissions like you might hear when you listen to Earth—air traffic control towers, wireless computer networks, radio programs, and cellphones, to name a few. So there’s a greater potential for false positives.

“Analyzing data at the moment requires more human time than we’d like,” says Dr. Farah. “But the plan is to create a more sophisticated approach that can sift through data more quickly and accurately in real time, allowing for a more efficient review of observations.”
===
WHAT’S NEXT?

The team meets about once a week to look at the data collected in the ongoing survey of nearby stars for any anomalies. They haven’t found anything yet, but they’re only 30 percent of the way through their list of targets. It will take at least another month for the team to complete all observations, and then they will go through the process all over again for the sake of repeatability.

“It’s important to make your observations more than once,” says Dr. Sheikh. “Every additional time you listen, you’re strengthening your science and can make more confident conclusions. If there is an advanced civilization, their signals would likely be intermittent, so that’s another good reason to observe targets more than once. You don’t want to tune in when they’re asleep and assume no one is home.”

Once this survey of nearby stars is complete, the ATA team may expand the parameters to 30 parsecs rather than 20 to observe the next closest stars.

Or the team could make use of the instrument’s updated capabilities and flexibility for different SETI science projects. This could include surveys of large amounts of the sky, observing millions of stars simultaneously. The ATA can also be used to take radio images and conduct other types of observations across a wide range of science areas like astrochemistry and fast radio bursts.

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

SETI Institute
About The SETI Institute
What is life? How does it begin? Are we alone? These are some of the questions we ask in our quest to learn about and share the wonders of the universe. At the SETI Institute we have a passion for discovery and for passing knowledge along as scientific ambassadors.

The SETI Institute is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit scientific research institute headquartered in Mountain View, California. We are a key research contractor to NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and we collaborate with industry partners throughout Silicon Valley and beyond.

Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute employs more than 130 scientists, educators, and administrative staff. Work at the SETI Institute is anchored by three centers: the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe (research), the Center for Education and the Center for Outreach.

The SETI Institute welcomes philanthropic support from individuals, private foundations, corporations and other groups to support our education and outreach initiatives, as well as unfunded scientific research and fieldwork.

A Special Thank You to SETI Institute Partners and Collaborators
• Campoalto, Chile, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Headquarters, National Science Foundation, Aerojet Rocketdyne,SRI International

Frontier Development Lab Partners
• Breakthrough Prize Foundation, The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU), Google Cloud, IBM, Intel, KBRwyle. Kx Lockheed Martin, NASA Ames Research Center, Nvidia, SpaceResources Luxembourg, XPrize
In-kind Service Providers
• Gunderson Dettmer – General legal services, Hello Pilgrim – Website Design and Development Steptoe & Johnson – IP legal services, Danielle Futselaar

SETI/Allen Telescope Array situated at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, 290 miles (470 km) northeast of San Francisco, California, USA, Altitude 986 m (3,235 ft), the origins of the Institute’s search.

March 23, 2015
By Hilary Lebow
The NIROSETI instrument saw first light on the Nickel 1-meter Telescope at Lick Observatory on March 15, 2015. (Photo by Laurie Hatch.)

Astronomers are expanding the search for extraterrestrial intelligence into a new realm with detectors tuned to infrared light at UC’s Lick Observatory. A new instrument, called NIROSETI, will soon scour the sky for messages from other worlds.

Alumna Shelley Wright, now an assistant professor of physics at UC San Diego (US), discusses the dichroic filter of the NIROSETI instrument, developed at the U Toronto Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (CA) and brought to UCSD and installed at the UC Santa Cruz Lick Observatory Nickel Telescope (Photo by Laurie Hatch).

Shelley Wright of UC San Diego with NIROSETI, developed at U Toronto Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (CA) at the 1-meter Nickel Telescope at Lick Observatory at UC Santa Cruz

NIROSETI team from left to right Rem Stone UCO Lick Observatory Dan Werthimer, UC Berkeley; Jérôme Maire, U Toronto; Shelley Wright, UCSD; Patrick Dorval, U Toronto; Richard Treffers, Starman Systems. (Image by Laurie Hatch).

Laser SETI

LaserSETI observatory installation at Haleakala Observatory in Maui, Hawai’i

LaserSETI observatory installation at Haleakala Observatory in Maui, Hawai’i aimed East. There is also an installation at Robert Ferguson Observatory, Sonoma, CA aimed West for full coverage [no image available].

SETI Institute – 189 Bernardo Ave., Suite 100
Mountain View, CA 94043
Phone 650.961.6633 – Fax 650-961-7099
Privacy Policy – Questions and Comments

Also in the hunt, but not a part of the SETI Institute
SETI@home, a BOINC [Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing] project originated in the Space Science Lab at UC Berkeley.

BOINC is a leader in the field(s) of Distributed Computing, Grid Computing and Citizen Cyberscience. BOINC is more properly the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, developed at UC Berkeley.

From ALMA (CL): “Unknown structure in galaxy revealed by high contrast imaging”

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).

From ALMA (CL)

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

Junko Ueda
Public Information Officer
NAOJ
Email: junko.ueda@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

31 May, 2022

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/
Full identification of an astronomical asset will be presented once in the first instance of that asset.

Artist’s impression of a giant galaxy with a high-energy jet. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

Quasar 3C273 observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) (left). The exceeding brightness results in radial leaks of light created by light scattered by the telescope. At the lower right is a high-energy jet released by the gas around the central black hole. | Radio image of 3C273 observed by ALMA, showing the faint and extended radio emission (in blue-white color) around the nucleus (right). The bright central source has been subtracted from the image. The same jet as the image on the left can be seen in orange. Credit: Komugi et al., NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

As a result of achieving high imaging dynamic range, a team of astronomers in Japan has discovered for the first time a faint radio emission covering a giant galaxy with an energetic black hole at its center. The radio emission is released from gas created directly by the central black hole. The team expects to understand how a black hole interacts with its host galaxy by applying the same technique to other quasars.

3C273, which lies at a distance of 2.4 billion light-years from Earth, is a quasar. A quasar is the nucleus of a galaxy believed to house a massive black hole at its center, which swallows its surrounding material, giving off enormous radiation. Contrary to its bland name, 3C273 is the first quasar ever discovered, the brightest, and the best studied. It is one of the most frequently observed sources with telescopes because it can be used as a standard of position in the sky: in other words, 3C273 is a radio lighthouse.

When you see a car’s headlight, the dazzling brightness makes it challenging to see the darker surroundings. The same thing happens to telescopes when you observe bright objects. Dynamic range is the contrast between the most brilliant and darkest tones in an image. You need a high dynamic range to reveal both the bright and dark parts in a telescope’s single shot. ALMA can regularly attain imaging dynamic ranges up to around 100, but commercially available digital cameras would typically have a dynamic range of several thousands. Radio telescopes aren’t very good at seeing objects with significant contrast.

3C273 has been known for decades as the most famous quasar, but knowledge has been concentrated on its bright central nuclei, where most radio waves come from. However, much less has been known about its host galaxy itself because the combination of the faint and diffuse galaxy with the 3C273 nucleus required such high dynamic ranges to detect. The research team used a technique called self-calibration to reduce the leakage of radio waves from 3C273 to the galaxy, which used 3C273 itself to correct for the effects of Earth’s atmospheric fluctuations on the telescope system. They reached an imaging dynamic range of 85000, an ALMA record for extragalactic objects.

As a result of achieving high imaging dynamic range, the team discovered the faint radio emission extending for tens of thousands of light-years over the host galaxy of 3C273. Radio emission around quasars typically suggests synchrotron emission, which comes from highly energetic events like bursts of star formation or ultra-fast jets emanating from the central nucleus. A synchrotron jet exists in 3C273 as well, seen in the lower right of the images. An essential characteristic of synchrotron emission is its brightness changes with frequency, but the faint radio emission discovered by the team had constant brightness irrespective of the radio frequency. After considering alternative mechanisms, the team found that this faint and extended radio emission came from hydrogen gas in the galaxy energized directly by the 3C273 nucleus. This is the first time that radio waves from such a mechanism are found to extend for tens of thousands of light-years in the host galaxy of a quasar. Astronomers had overlooked this phenomenon for decades in this iconic cosmic lighthouse.

So why is this discovery so important? It has been a big mystery in galactic astronomy whether the energy from a quasar nucleus can be strong enough to deprive the galaxy’s ability to form stars. The faint radio emission may help to solve it. Hydrogen gas is an essential ingredient in creating stars, but if such an intense light shines on it that the gas is disassembled (ionized), no stars can be born. To study whether this process is happening around quasars, astronomers have used optical light emitted by ionized gas. The problem working with optical light is that cosmic dust absorbs the light along the way to the telescope, so it is difficult to know how much light the gas gives off.

Moreover, the mechanism responsible for giving off optical light is complex, forcing astronomers to make a lot of assumptions. The radio waves discovered in this study come from the same gas due to simple processes and are not absorbed by dust. Using radio waves makes measuring ionized gas created by 3C273’s nucleus much easier. In this study, the astronomers found that at least 7% of the light from 3C273 was absorbed by gas in the host galaxy, creating ionized gas amounting to 10-100 billion times the sun’s mass. However, 3C273 had a lot of gas just before the formation of stars, so as a whole, it didn’t look like star formation was strongly suppressed by the nucleus.

“This discovery provides a new avenue to studying problems previously tackled using observations by optical light,” says Shinya Komugi, an associate professor at Kogakuin University and lead author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal. “By applying the same technique to other quasars, we expect to understand how a galaxy evolves through its interaction with the central nucleus.”

Additional Information

The team is composed of Shinya Komugi (Kogakuin University), Yoshiki Toba (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan [NAOJ]), Yoshiki Matsuoka (Ehime University), Toshiki Saito (NAOJ), and Takuji Yamashita (NAOJ).

This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP20K04015, JP21K13968, and JP19K14759.

See the full article here .

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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 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.

The antennas can be moved across the desert plateau over distances from 150 m to 16 km, which will give ALMA a powerful variable “zoom”, similar in its concept to that employed at the centimetre-wavelength Very Large Array (VLA) site in New Mexico, United States.

The high sensitivity is mainly achieved through the large numbers of antenna dishes that will make up the array.

The telescopes were provided by the European, North American and East Asian partners of ALMA. The American and European partners each provided twenty-five 12-meter diameter antennas, that compose the main array. The participating East Asian countries are contributing 16 antennas (four 12-meter diameter and twelve 7-meter diameter antennas) in the form of the Atacama Compact Array (ACA), which is part of the enhanced ALMA.

By using smaller antennas than the main ALMA array, larger fields of view can be imaged at a given frequency using ACA. Placing the antennas closer together enables the imaging of sources of larger angular extent. The ACA works together with the main array in order to enhance the latter’s wide-field imaging capability.

ALMA has its conceptual roots in three astronomical projects — the Millimeter Array (MMA) of the United States, the Large Southern Array (LSA) of Europe, and the Large Millimeter Array (LMA) of Japan.

The first step toward the creation of what would become ALMA came in 1997, when the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) agreed to pursue a common project that merged the MMA and LSA. The merged array combined the sensitivity of the LSA with the frequency coverage and superior site of the MMA. ESO and NRAO worked together in technical, science, and management groups to define and organize a joint project between the two observatories with participation by Canada and Spain (the latter became a member of ESO later).

A series of resolutions and agreements led to the choice of “Atacama Large Millimeter Array”, or ALMA, as the name of the new array in March 1999 and the signing of the ALMA Agreement on 25 February 2003, between the North American and European parties. (“Alma” means “soul” in Spanish and “learned” or “knowledgeable” in Arabic.) Following mutual discussions over several years, the ALMA Project received a proposal from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) whereby Japan would provide the ACA (Atacama Compact Array) and three additional receiver bands for the large array, to form Enhanced ALMA. Further discussions between ALMA and NAOJ led to the signing of a high-level agreement on 14 September 2004 that makes Japan an official participant in Enhanced ALMA, to be known as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 6, 2003 and the ALMA logo was unveiled.

During an early stage of the planning of ALMA, it was decided to employ ALMA antennas designed and constructed by known companies in North America, Europe, and Japan, rather than using one single design. This was mainly for political reasons. Although very different approaches have been chosen by the providers, each of the antenna designs appears to be able to meet ALMA’s stringent requirements. The components designed and manufactured across Europe were transported by specialist aerospace and astrospace logistics company Route To Space Alliance, 26 in total which were delivered to Antwerp for onward shipment to Chile.

Partners

European Southern Observatory (EU) and the European Regional Support Centre
National Science Foundation (US) via the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US) and the North American ALMA Science Center (US)
National Research Council Canada [Conseil national de recherches Canada] (CA)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP) under the National Institute of Natural Sciences (自然科学研究機構, Shizenkagaku kenkyuukikou) (JP)
ALMA-Taiwan at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics [中央研究院天文及天文物理研究所](TW)
Republic of Chile

ALMA is a time machine!

ALMA-In Search of our Cosmic Origins

From Macquarie University (AU) and The National University of Singapore [新加坡国立大学](SG) via Science Alert : “A New Quantum Technique Could Change How We Study The Universe” “

From Macquarie University (AU)

and

The National University of Singapore [新加坡国立大学](SG)

via

Science Alert

29 MAY 2022
MATT WILLIAMS | UNIVERSE TODAY

(sakkmesterke/iStock/Getty Images)

There’s a revolution underway in astronomy. In fact, you might say there are several. In the past ten years, exoplanet studies have advanced considerably, gravitational wave astronomy has emerged as a new field, and the first images of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have been captured.

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.

This is the first image of Sagittarius A* – the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. EHT Collaboration.

A related field, interferometry, has also advanced incredibly thanks to highly-sensitive instruments and the ability to share and combine data from observatories worldwide. In particular, the science of very-long baseline interferometry (VLBI) is opening entirely new realms of possibility.

According to a recent study by researchers from Australia and Singapore, a new quantum technique could enhance optical VLBI. It’s known as Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP), which allows quantum information to be transferred without losses.

When imprinted into a quantum error correction code, this technique could allow for VLBI observations into previously inaccessible wavelengths. Once integrated with next-generation instruments, this technique could allow for more detailed studies of black holes, exoplanets, the Solar System, and the surfaces of distant stars.

The research was led by Zixin Huang, a postdoctoral research fellow with the Centre for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She was joined by Gavin Brennan, a professor of theoretical physics with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Centre of Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Yingkai Ouyang, a senior research fellow with the Centre of Quantum Technologies at NUS.

Animated sequence of the VLTI images of stars around the Milky Way’s central black hole. Credit: The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral] [Observatoire européen austral][Europaiche Sûdsternwarte] (EU)(CL).

To put it plainly, the interferometry technique consists of combining light from various telescopes to create images of an object that would otherwise be too difficult to resolve.

Very-long baseline interferometry refers to a specific technique used in radio astronomy where signals from an astronomical radio source (black holes, quasars, pulsars, star-forming nebulae, etc.) are combined to create detailed images of their structure and activity.

In recent years, VLBI has yielded the most detailed images of the stars that orbit Sagitarrius A* (Sgr A*), the SMBH at the center of our galaxy. It also allowed astronomers with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration to capture the first image of a black hole (M87*)[above] and Sgr A*[above] itself!

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Event Horizon Telescope Array

EHT map.
The locations of the radio dishes that will be part of the Event Horizon Telescope array. Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope sites, via University of Arizona at https://www.as.arizona.edu/event-horizon-telescope.

University of Arizona Radio Observatory at NOAO Kitt Peak National Observatory, AZ USA, U Arizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory(US) at altitude 2,096 m (6,877 ft).

U Arizona 12 meter Radio Telescope

ESO operates the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, APEX, for The MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE) at one of the highest observatory sites on Earth, at an elevation of 5100 metres, high on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region.

Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy(US)), in the Inyo Mountains to the east of the California Institute of Technology Owens Valley Radio Observatory(US), at a site called Cedar Flat, Altitude 1,222 m (4,009 ft), relocated to Owens Valley Radio Observatory, Altitude 1,222 m (4,009 ft).

NAOJ Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) deployed to its site on Pampa La Bola, near Cerro Chajnantor and the Llano de Chajnantor, Observatory in northern Chile, Altitude 4,800 m (15,700 ft).

California Institute of Technology Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, Altitude 4,205 m (13,796 ft).

IRAM-Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimétrique Plateau de Bure interferometer (FR) at an elevation of 2550 meters, the telescope currently consists of ten antennas, each 15 meters in diameter.interferometer, Located in the French Alpes on the wide and isolated Plateau de Bure at an elevation of 2550 meters.

East Asian Observatory James Clerk Maxwell Telescope MaunaKea Hawai’i, altitude 4207 m (13802 ft) above sea level.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst and Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica MX Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano, Mexico, at an altitude of 4850 meters on top of the Sierra Negra.

CFA Harvard Smithsonian Submillimeter Array on MaunaKea, Hawaii, USA, Altitude 4205 m (13796 ft).

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

South Pole Telescope SPTPOL. The SPT collaboration is made up of over a dozen (mostly North American) institutions, including The University of Chicago; The University of California Berkeley; Case Western Reserve University; Harvard/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; The University of Colorado-Boulder; McGill University(CA); 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. It is funded by the National Science Foundation

About the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)

The EHT consortium consists of 13 stakeholder institutes; The Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics [中央研究院天文及天文物理研究所](TW) , The University of Arizona, The University of Chicago, The East Asian Observatory, Goethe University Frankfurt [Goethe-Universität](DE), Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique, Large Millimeter Telescope, The MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy[MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE), MIT Haystack Observatory, The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan[[国立天文台](JP), The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (CA), Radboud University [Radboud Universiteit](NL) and The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.
_________________________________________

But as they indicated in their study, classical interferometry is still hindered by several physical limitations, including information loss, noise, and the fact that the light obtained is generally quantum in nature (where photons are entangled). By addressing these limitations, VLBI could be used for much finer astronomical surveys.

Said Dr. Huang to Universe Today via email: “Current state-of-the-art large baseline imaging systems operate in the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum. To realize optical interferometry, you need all parts of the interferometer to be stable to within a fraction of a wavelength of light, so the light can interfere.

This is very hard to do over large distances: sources of noise can come from the instrument itself, thermal expansion and contraction, vibration and etc.; and on top of that, there are losses associated with the optical elements.

“The idea of this line of research is to allow us to move into the optical frequencies from microwaves; these techniques equally apply to infrared. We can already do large-baseline interferometry in the microwave. However, this task becomes very difficult in optical frequencies, because even the fastest electronics cannot directly measure the oscillations of the electric field at these frequencies.”

The key to overcoming these limitations, says Dr. Huang and her colleagues, is to employ quantum communication techniques like Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage. STIRAP consists of using two coherent light pulses to transfer optical information between two applicable quantum states.

When applied to VLBI, said Huang, it will allow for efficient and selective population transfers between quantum states without suffering from the usual issues of noise or loss.

As they describe in their paper [above], the process they envision would involve coherently coupling the starlight into “dark” atomic states that do not radiate.

The next step, said Huang, is to couple the light with quantum error correction (QEC), a technique used in quantum computing to protect quantum information from errors due to decoherence and other “quantum noise.”

But as Huang indicates, this same technique could allow for more detailed and accurate interferometry:

“To mimic a large optical interferometer, the light must be collected and processed coherently, and we propose to use quantum error correction to mitigate errors due to loss and noise in this process.

“Quantum error correction is a rapidly developing area mainly focused on enabling scalable quantum computing in the presence of errors. In combination with pre-distributed entanglement, we can perform the operations that extract the information we need from starlight while suppressing noise.”

To test their theory, the team considered a scenario where two facilities (Alice and Bob) separated by long distances collect astronomical light.

Each share pre-distributed entanglement and contain “quantum memories” into which the light is captured, and each prepare its own set of quantum data (qubits) into some QEC code. The received quantum states are then imprinted onto a shared QEC code by a decoder, which protects the data from subsequent noisy operations.

In the “encoder” stage, the signal is captured into the quantum memories via the STIRAP technique, which allows the incoming light to be coherently coupled into a non-radiative state of an atom.

The ability to capture light from astronomical sources that account for quantum states (and eliminates quantum noise and information loss) would be a game-changer for interferometry. Moreover, these improvements would have significant implications for other fields of astronomy that are also being revolutionized today.

“By moving into optical frequencies, such a quantum imaging network will improve imaging resolution by three to five orders of magnitude,” said Huang.

“It would be powerful enough to image small planets around nearby stars, details of solar systems, kinematics of stellar surfaces, accretion disks, and potentially details around the event horizons of black holes – none of which currently planned projects can resolve.”

In the near future, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will use its advanced suite of infrared imaging instruments to characterize exoplanet atmospheres like never before. The same is true of ground-based observatories like the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), and Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT).

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 annotated, finally launched December 25, 2021, ten years late.

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).

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

TMT-Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory, Manua Kea, Hawai’i, Altitude 4,050 m [13290 ft], the only giant 30 meter class telescope for the Northern hemisphere.

Between their large primary mirrors, adaptive optics, coronagraphs, and spectrometers, these observatories will enable direct imaging studies of exoplanets, yielding valuable information about their surfaces and atmospheres.

By taking advantage of new quantum techniques and integrating them with VLBI, observatories will have another way to capture images of some of the most inaccessible and hard-to-see objects in our Universe.

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The National University of Singapore (NUS) is the national research university of Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest higher education institution in Singapore. According to a number of surveys, it is consistently ranked within the top 20 universities in the world and is considered to be the best university in the Asia-Pacific by the QS ranking. NUS is a comprehensive research university, offering a wide range of disciplines, including the sciences, medicine and dentistry, design and environment, law, arts and social sciences, engineering, business, computing and music at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

NUS’s main campus is located in the southwestern part of Singapore, adjacent to Kent Ridge, accommodating an area of 150 ha (0.58 sq mi); the Duke-NUS Medical School, a postgraduate medical school jointly established with Duke University, is located at the Outram campus; its Bukit Timah campus houses the Faculty of Law and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy; the Yale-NUS College, a liberal arts college established in collaboration with Yale University (US), is located at University Town (commonly known as UTown). NUS has one Nobel laureate, Konstantin Novoselov, as a professor among its faculty.

Research

Among the major research focuses at NUS are biomedical and life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, nanoscience and nanotechnology, materials science and engineering, infocommunication and infotechnology, humanities and social sciences, and defence-related research.

One of several niche research areas of strategic importance to Singapore being undertaken at NUS is bioengineering. Initiatives in this area include bioimaging, tissue engineering and tissue modulation. Another new field which holds much promise is nanoscience and nanotechnology. Apart from higher-performance but lower-maintenance materials for manufacturing, defence, transportation, space and environmental applications, this field also heralds the development of accelerated biotechnical applications in medicine, health care and agriculture.

Research institutes and centres

Currently, NUS hosts 21 university-level research institutes and centres (RICs) in various fields such as research on Asia, risk management, logistics, engineering sciences, mathematical sciences, biomedical and life sciences, nanotechnology to marine studies. Besides that, NUS also hosts three Research Centres of Excellence, namely, the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore, Centre for Quantum Technologies and Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore – a partner in Singapore’s fifth Research Centre of Excellence. Besides university-level RICs, NUS also has close affiliation with many national research centres and institutes. A special mention is required for The Logistics Institute – Asia Pacific, which is a collaborative effort between NUS and the Georgia Institute of Technology (US) for research and education programmes in logistics. NUS announced its most recent research institute, the Next Age Institute, a partnership with Washington University in St. Louis (US), in February 2015.

Macquarie University campus

Established in 1964, Macquarie University (AU)began as a bold experiment in higher education. Built to break from traditions: to be distinctive, progressive, and to be transformational. Today our pioneering history continues to be a source of inspiration as we celebrate our place among the best and brightest minds.

Recognised internationally, Macquarie University is consistently ranked in the top two per cent of universities in the world* and within the top 10 in Australia*.

Our research is leading the way in ground-breaking discoveries. Our academics are at the forefront of innovation and, as accomplished researchers, we are embracing the opportunity to tackle the big issues of our time.

Led by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor S Bruce Dowton, Macquarie is home to five faculties. The fifth and newest – Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences – was formed in 2014. We are also home to some of Australia’s most exceptional facilities – hubs of innovation that unite our students, researchers, academics and partners to achieve extraordinary things.

Discover our story.

From The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne [EPFL-École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne] (CH): “Radio astronomy to foster Swiss research and industry”

From The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne [EPFL-École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne] (CH)

5.25.22

SKA-Square Kilometer Array

By becoming a member of the SKA Observatory (SKAO), the largest and most ambitious radio astronomy collaboration in the world, Switzerland intends to foster Swiss research and industry while contributing to an international initiative that promises to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe.

SKA ASKAP Pathfinder Radio Telescope at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO), on the traditional lands of the Wajarri peoples

SKA Murchison Widefield Array (AU), Boolardy station in outback Western Australia, at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO), on the traditional lands of the Wajarri peoples.

SKA SARAO Meerkat Telescope (SA), 90 km outside the small Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, SA.

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope arrays promise to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe and the laws of fundamental physics by studying light from celestial objects in the radio frequency range, and Switzerland has just committed 33.6 million CHF to the project for the period 2021-2030 towards construction and early operation of the telescope.

“The accession of Switzerland to SKAO was an important milestone for Switzerland, as well as for SKAO, as Switzerland was the first non-signatory country of the Convention establishing SKAO to become member. Great challenges lie ahead of us, but I trust we will be able to overcome them.” Martina Hirayama, State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation.

Radio astronomy is now a well-established field of astronomy and has led to the discovery of new celestial objects, and more generally new classes of objects such as quasars, masers, pulsars, radio galaxies and the more recent fast radio bursts. The cosmic background radiation, regarded as evidence for the Big Bang theory, was also discovered through radio astronomy observations in 1965.

Initially, hundreds of dishes will be built in South Africa as part of the SKA-mid telescope, while over 130 thousand low-frequency antennas will be erected in Australia as part of the SKA-low telescope. Ultimately these radio arrays will be expanded to reach over one square kilometre of collecting area for detecting radio frequencies, increasing their sensitivity and resolution even further. Construction activities of the SKA telescopes started in mid-2021.

Expected to be fully operational towards the end of this decade, the powerful radio observatory will collect tremendous amounts of data that will need to be synchronized, automated, stored, processed and distributed to partners around the globe. Switzerland intends to leverage industry and technical partners, providing expertise in the development of advanced receivers for dish antennas, but also in precision timing, automation, signal processing and Big Data.

In exchange, Switzerland will gain access to the vast amounts of data (~650 PBytes/year) generated by the SKA telescopes for fundamental research as outlined in a 2020 whitepaper by the Swiss astrophysics community, including areas such as cosmology, dark energy and astrobiology to name a few. The participation of Switzerland in the construction and operation of SKAO also generates plentiful opportunities for Swiss high-tech companies to position themselves within this unique market. Based on initial projections, the Swiss Industry Liaison Office estimates that at least one fifth of the Swiss contribution will be allocated by SKAO to Swiss entities.

Switzerland also plans to further contribute to the development of the European SKA Regional Centre (SRC) for transforming these data outputs into science products leading to an improved understanding of the Universe and of astrophysical processes. The Swiss branch of the SRC will also be the data interface for Swiss scientists.

Swiss involvement is organized through a strong consortium of research institutions*, called SKACH, in part funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI). In the last five years, EPFL spearheaded Swiss involvement at the national level, and going forward this consortium will be led by a board that includes EPFL and a strong contingent of eight other institutions.

At the House of Switzerland in Davos, key players involved in getting Switzerland on board of the SKAO came together to discuss Switzerland’s participation in the Observatory, and what it means for Switzerland and for SKAO. The event was broadcast remotely.

SKACH

The SKA Switzerland (SKACH) Consortium includes: Centro Svizzero di Calcolo Scientifico (CSCS, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ), Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW), Haute École spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO), Universität Basel (UniBAS), Université de Genève (UniGE), Universität Zürich (UZH), Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW).

See the full article here .

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Stem Education Coalition

EPFL campus

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne [EPFL-École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne] (CH) is a research institute and university in Lausanne, Switzerland, that specializes in natural sciences and engineering. It is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, and it has three main missions: education, research and technology transfer.

The QS World University Rankings ranks EPFL(CH) 14th in the world across all fields in their 2020/2021 ranking, whereas Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranks EPFL(CH) as the world’s 19th best school for Engineering and Technology in 2020.

EPFL(CH) is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland; the sister institution in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zürich [Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich] (CH). Associated with several specialized research institutes, the two universities form The Domain of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Domain) [ETH-Bereich; Domaine des Écoles Polytechniques Fédérales] (CH) which is directly dependent on the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research. In connection with research and teaching activities, EPFL(CH) operates a nuclear reactor CROCUS; a Tokamak Fusion reactor; a Blue Gene/Q Supercomputer; and P3 bio-hazard facilities.

ETH Zürich, EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) [École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne](CH), and four associated research institutes form The Domain of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Domain) [ETH-Bereich; Domaine des Écoles polytechniques fédérales] (CH) with the aim of collaborating on scientific projects.

The roots of modern-day EPFL(CH) can be traced back to the foundation of a private school under the name École Spéciale de Lausanne in 1853 at the initiative of Lois Rivier, a graduate of the École Centrale Paris (FR) and John Gay the then professor and rector of the Académie de Lausanne. At its inception it had only 11 students and the offices were located at Rue du Valentin in Lausanne. In 1869, it became the technical department of the public Académie de Lausanne. When the Académie was reorganized and acquired the status of a university in 1890, the technical faculty changed its name to École d’Ingénieurs de l’Université de Lausanne. In 1946, it was renamed the École polytechnique de l’Université de Lausanne (EPUL). In 1969, the EPUL was separated from the rest of the University of Lausanne and became a federal institute under its current name. EPFL(CH), like ETH Zürich (CH), is thus directly controlled by the Swiss federal government. In contrast, all other universities in Switzerland are controlled by their respective cantonal governments. Following the nomination of Patrick Aebischer as president in 2000, EPFL(CH) has started to develop into the field of life sciences. It absorbed the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) in 2008.

In 1946, there were 360 students. In 1969, EPFL(CH) had 1,400 students and 55 professors. In the past two decades the university has grown rapidly and as of 2012 roughly 14,000 people study or work on campus, about 9,300 of these being Bachelor, Master or PhD students. The environment at modern day EPFL(CH) is highly international with the school attracting students and researchers from all over the world. More than 125 countries are represented on the campus and the university has two official languages, French and English.

Organization

EPFL is organized into eight schools, themselves formed of institutes that group research units (laboratories or chairs) around common themes:

School of Basic Sciences
Institute of Mathematics
Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering
Institute of Physics
European Centre of Atomic and Molecular Computations
Bernoulli Center
Biomedical Imaging Research Center
Interdisciplinary Center for Electron Microscopy
MPG-EPFL Centre for Molecular Nanosciences and Technology
Swiss Plasma Center
Laboratory of Astrophysics

School of Engineering

Institute of Electrical Engineering
Institute of Mechanical Engineering
Institute of Materials
Institute of Microengineering
Institute of Bioengineering

School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Institute of Architecture
Civil Engineering Institute
Institute of Urban and Regional Sciences
Environmental Engineering Institute

School of Computer and Communication Sciences

Algorithms & Theoretical Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Computational Biology
Computer Architecture & Integrated Systems
Data Management & Information Retrieval
Graphics & Vision
Human-Computer Interaction
Information & Communication Theory
Networking
Programming Languages & Formal Methods
Security & Cryptography
Signal & Image Processing
Systems

School of Life Sciences

Bachelor-Master Teaching Section in Life Sciences and Technologies
Brain Mind Institute
Institute of Bioengineering
Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research
Global Health Institute
Ten Technology Platforms & Core Facilities (PTECH)
Center for Phenogenomics
NCCR Synaptic Bases of Mental Diseases

College of Management of Technology

Swiss Finance Institute at EPFL
Section of Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship
Institute of Technology and Public Policy
Institute of Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship
Section of Financial Engineering

College of Humanities

Human and social sciences teaching program

EPFL Middle East

Section of Energy Management and Sustainability

In addition to the eight schools there are seven closely related institutions

Swiss Cancer Centre
Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM)
Centre for Advanced Modelling Science (CADMOS)
École Cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL)
Campus Biotech
Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuro-engineering
Swiss National Supercomputing Centre

From The National Astronomical Observatories [ 中国科学院国家天文台] of the The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN) via phys.org: “LOFAR survey aids in study of clustering property of radio galaxies”

From The National Astronomical Observatories [ 中国科学院国家天文台] of the The Chinese Academy of Sciences [中国科学院](CN)

via

phys.org

The distribution of radio galaxies in the LoTSS-DR1 catalog after masking and flux cut. Credit: Prabhakar Tiwari.

A research team led by Dr. Zhao Gongbo from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), in collaboration with scientists from the U.K. and Germany, investigated the large-scale structure distribution of radio galaxies observed by Low Frequency Array telescope (LOFAR), and determined the galaxy bias, which could help to better understand the clustering property of these galaxies.

ASTRON Institute for Radio Astronomy(NL) LOFAR Radio Antenna Bank(NL)

These results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.

In the standard model of cosmology, the matter density of the universe is dominated by cold dark matter. The formation and evolution of galaxies occur inside these dark matter halos, and the mass and evolution of the host halo are correlated with the evolution and type of galaxy residing inside.

By using galaxy bias, the astronomers describe the relationship between the spatial distribution of galaxies and the underlying dark matter density field. Measuring the bias of radio galaxies can help us understand their formation and evolution history.

The LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey (LoTSS) is an ongoing sensitive, high-resolution survey of the northern sky. This is a factor 10 more sensitive than the current best high-resolution sky survey, and will detect over 10 million radio sources, mostly star-forming galaxies but with a large proportion of active galactic nuclei (AGN).

Since the strongest radio sources are often optically faint or invisible, radio-loud AGNs are found to reside in more massive halos than optical AGNs. The radio surveys sample galaxies with higher bias as compared with optical observations, and thus complement existing and upcoming visible galaxy surveys. LoTSS provides a new perspective for studying the large-scale structure of the universe.

The research group systematically studied and processed LoTSS DR1’s catalog, employed a proper flux cut and sky mask to ensure sample completeness, and finally selected over 100,000 sources for clustering analysis.

Unlike previous surveys, the LoTSS DR1 catalog contains a significant number of multi-component sources, and the researchers took this effect into account when interpreting the measured angular power spectrum.

Using the standard model of cosmology and employing the Monte Carlo Markov chain method, the research group obtained the constraints on the radio galaxy bias.

The results demonstrate that the LOFAR survey is suitable for cosmological studies. The upcoming data releases from LOFAR are expected to be deeper and wider, and will therefore provide improved cosmological measurements.

“This work helps understand the bias of LoTSS galaxy population and lays the foundation for future LoTSS DR2 analysis,” said Dr. Prabhakar Tiwari, the first author of the study.

See the full article here .

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Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The Chinese Academy of Sciences[中国科学院](CN) is the national academy for the natural sciences of the People’s Republic of China. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republican era and was formerly also known by that name. Collectively known as the “Two Academies (两院)” along with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, it functions as the national scientific think tank and academic governing body, providing advisory and appraisal services on issues stemming from the national economy, social development, and science and technology progress. It is headquartered in Xicheng District, Beijing, with branch institutes all over mainland China. It has also created hundreds of commercial enterprises, Lenovo being one of the most famous.

It is the world’s largest research organization, comprising around 60,000 researchers working in 114 institutes, and has been consistently ranked among the top research organizations around the world. It also holds the University of Science and Technology of China and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has been ranked the No. 1 research institute in the world by Nature Index since the list’s inception in 2016 by Nature Portfolio. It is the most productive institution publishing articles of sustainable development indexed in Web of Science from 1981 to 2018 among all universities and research institutions in the world.

The Chinese Academy originated in the Academia Sinica founded, in 1928, by the Republic of China. After the Communist Party took control of mainland China in 1949, the residual of Academia Sinica was renamed Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), while others relocated to Taiwan.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has six academic divisions:

Chemistry (化学部)
Information Technological Sciences (信息技术科学部)
Earth Sciences (地学部)
Life Sciences and Medical Sciences (生命科学和医学学部)
Mathematics and Physics (数学物理学部)
Technological Sciences (技术科学部)

The CAS has thirteen regional branches, in Beijing, Shenyang, Changchun, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Kunming, Xi’an, Lanzhou, Hefei and Xinjiang. It has over one hundred institutes and four universities (the University of Science and Technology of China at Hefei, Anhui, the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, ShanghaiTech University, and Shenzhen Institute of Adavanced Technology). Backed by the institutes of CAS, UCAS is headquartered in Beijing, with graduate education bases in Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Lanzhou, four Science Libraries of Chinese Academy of Sciences, three technology support centers and two news and publishing units. These CAS branches and offices are located in 20 provinces and municipalities throughout China. CAS has invested in or created over 430 science- and technology-based enterprises in eleven industries, including eight companies listed on stock exchanges.

Being granted a Fellowship of the Academy represents the highest level of national honor for Chinese scientists. The CAS membership system includes Academicians (院士), Emeritus Academicians (荣誉院士) and Foreign Academicians (外籍院士).

The Chinese Academy of Sciences was ranked #1 in the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 Nature Index Annual Tables, which measure the largest contributors to papers published in 82 leading journals.

Research institutes

Beijing Branch
University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS)
Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science
Institute of Acoustics (IOA)
Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Institute of Physics (IOPCAS)
Institute of Semiconductors
Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEE)
Institute of Information Engineering (IIE)
Institute of Theoretical Physics
Institute of High Energy Physics
Institute of Biophysics
Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology
Institute of Electronics
National Astronomical Observatories
Institute of Computing Technology
Institute of Software
Institute of Automation
Beijing Institute of Genomics
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources
Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG)
Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
National Center for Nanoscience and Technology
Institute of Policy and Management
Institute of Psychology
Institute of Zoology
Changchun Branch
Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics
Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology
Changchun Observatory
Chengdu Branch
Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment
Chengdu Institute of Biology
Institute of Optics and Electronics
Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry
Institute of Computer Application
Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology
Guangzhou Branch
South China Botanical Garden
Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology
South China Sea Institute of Oceanology
Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion
Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry
Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health
Guiyang Branch
Institute of Geochemistry
Hefei Branch
Hefei Institutes of Physical Science
University of Science and Technology of China
Kunming Branch
Kunming Institute of Botany
Kunming Institute of Zoology
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden
Institute of Geochemistry
Yunnan Astronomical Observatory
Lanzhou Branch
Institute of Modern Physics
Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics
Lanzhou Institute of Geology
Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology
Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources
Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes Research
Nanjing Branch
Purple Mountain Observatory (Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory)
Institute of Soil Science
Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology
Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology
Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology
Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (SINANO)
Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (SIBET)
Nanjing Botanical Garden, Memorial Sun Yat-Sen (Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Science)
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing College
Shanghai Branch
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology
Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics
Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics
Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry
Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics
Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences
Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica
Institut Pasteur of Shanghai
Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, CAS
Institute of Neuroscience (ION)
ShanghaiTech University
Shenyang Branch
Institute of Metal Research
Shenyang Institute of Automation
Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology, formerly the Institute of Forestry and Pedology
Shenyang Institute of Computing Technology
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Qingdao Institute of Oceanology
Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology
Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research
Taiyuan Branch
Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry (ICCCAS)
Wuhan Branch
Wuhan Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics
Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics
Wuhan Institute of Virology
Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics
Institute of Hydrobiology
Wuhan Botanical Garden
Xinjiang Branch
Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry
Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography
Xi’an Branch
Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics
National Time Service Center
Institute of Earth Environment

From The University of Arizona: “Optical sciences researcher dishes up new method for measuring radio antennas”

From The University of Arizona

4.21.22
Ryan Irene Cella and Paul Tumarkin|Tech Launch Arizona

The UArizona startup Fringe Metrology will make its technology available for academia and industry.

Doctoral student Joel Berkson uses a combination of laser projectors and cameras to create a 3D computer model of radio antenna surfaces. Credit: Paul Tumarkin/Tech Launch Arizona.

Joel Berkson, a third-year doctoral student in the University of Arizona James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences and Steward Observatory, has developed a new way for precisely measuring the surfaces of radio antenna, which are used to collect and focus radio waves for astronomy and satellite communications.

These dish-shaped antennas, like the ones depicted in the 1997 movie Contact starring Jodie Foster, must be manufactured with an extremely high level of accuracy to work well. To ensure their accuracy, engineers measure the antenna surfaces using metrology, a technique that applies the science of measurement to manufacturing; instrumentation and calibration processes.

“People always want to make larger, more accurate antennas for radio telecscopes, and more of them,” Berkson said. “If we can’t figure out better ways to make them faster and more accurate, the cost and time it takes to measure each surface to ensure its quality will be prohibitive.”

Existing methods for measuring curved surfaces of radio antennas and telescope mirrors involve placing stickers across the antenna or mirror surface and then using cameras to analyze the surface by looking at the stickers. Other methods involve physically probing the surface with a coordinate measuring machine. These techniques are limited to only measuring the number of points indicated by the stickers or touched by a physical probe; it is a manual, slow and often expensive process.

To make things even more complicated, sometimes the surfaces do not come out perfectly and need to be fixed and measured again, translating into more money and time spent.

Berkson’s invention eliminates the need for stickers or physical touch. The method he developed uses a combination of laser projectors and cameras to create a 3D model of the surface. By rendering the actual surface shape as a computer model, the new process overcomes another limitation of the old methods; rather than being limited to measuring hundreds of points, it allows for the measurement of millions of points on a surface.

Tech Launch Arizona, the UArizona office that commercializes inventions stemming from university research, has worked with Berkson to patent the technology on behalf of the university and license it to Berkson’s startup, Fringe Metrology.

“It was particularly rewarding to see Joel’s work, envisioning an approach to address a real-world challenge and transforming it into an elegant commercial solution,” said Bruce Burgess, director of venture development at TLA. “Joel recognized the wealth of resources TLA offers researchers and was quick to work with our team.”

“A lot of systems out there today are black-box systems and need customization to be useful in the field,” Berkson said. “Ours is one system that can be easily configured to measure surfaces of different shapes and sizes. You can’t do that with any other current technologies out there.”

When Berkson realized existing metrology systems require the use of stickers to make measurements, he was inspired to take a problem-solving approach to simplifying the process.

“Stickers have been used across the board and are the standard and well-trusted,” he said, “but as the demand for more accurate and complicated surfaces increases, the measurement requirements equally increase. The current methods are not as good as people want and need to be able to advance these systems.”

Working with his co-inventor, Justin Hyatt, a senior research associate at Steward Observatory, Berskon began developing the invention with funding from the National Science Foundation to advance current methods for radio telescope manufacturing. He connected with the TLA commercialization team, which worked with him to develop the intellectual property for the invention. Berkson then started Fringe Metrology, licensed the invention from UArizona and has begun building a business around it.

The startup is developing specialized systems for a variety of surface metrology applications but initially will focus on the meticulous measurements needed for the manufacture of radio telescope panels.

“The radio telescopes like the ones you see in the movie ‘Contact’ are very precise and expensive to manufacture, and they need to be perfectly shaped to function correctly,” Berkson said. “The company will initially focus on these high-value customers to develop the initial go-to-market product.”

As Berkson focuses on growing his business, he hopes the technology can offer a solution for the current limitations in radio telescope manufacturing and contribute to the evolution of the industry.

“Ultimately,” he said, “I’d like to see quicker, cheaper, higher quality measuring systems in every lab.”

See the full article here .

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

Stem Education Coalition

As of 2019, the The University of Arizona enrolled 45,918 students in 19 separate colleges/schools, including The University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson and Phoenix and the James E. Rogers College of Law, and is affiliated with two academic medical centers (Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix). The University of Arizona is one of three universities governed by the Arizona Board of Regents. The university is part of the Association of American Universities and is the only member from Arizona, and also part of the Universities Research Association . The university is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity”.

Known as the Arizona Wildcats (often shortened to “Cats”), The University of Arizona’s intercollegiate athletic teams are members of the Pac-12 Conference of the NCAA. The University of Arizona athletes have won national titles in several sports, most notably men’s basketball, baseball, and softball. The official colors of the university and its athletic teams are cardinal red and navy blue.

After the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, the push for a university in Arizona grew. The Arizona Territory’s “Thieving Thirteenth” Legislature approved The University of Arizona in 1885 and selected the city of Tucson to receive the appropriation to build the university. Tucson hoped to receive the appropriation for the territory’s mental hospital, which carried a $100,000 allocation instead of the $25,000 allotted to the territory’s only university Arizona State University was also chartered in 1885, but it was created as Arizona’s normal school, and not a university). Flooding on the Salt River delayed Tucson’s legislators, and by the time they reached Prescott, back-room deals allocating the most desirable territorial institutions had been made. Tucson was largely disappointed with receiving what was viewed as an inferior prize.

With no parties willing to provide land for the new institution, the citizens of Tucson prepared to return the money to the Territorial Legislature until two gamblers and a saloon keeper decided to donate the land to build the school. Construction of Old Main, the first building on campus, began on October 27, 1887, and classes met for the first time in 1891 with 32 students in Old Main, which is still in use today. Because there were no high schools in Arizona Territory, the university maintained separate preparatory classes for the first 23 years of operation.

Research

The University of Arizona is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”. UArizona is the fourth most awarded public university by National Aeronautics and Space Administration for research. The University of Arizona was awarded over $325 million for its Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) to lead NASA’s 2007–08 mission to Mars to explore the Martian Arctic, and $800 million for its OSIRIS-REx mission, the first in U.S. history to sample an asteroid.

National Aeronautics Space Agency OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft.

The LPL’s work in the Cassini spacecraft orbit around Saturn is larger than any other university globally.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration/European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea][Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU)/ASI Italian Space Agency [Agenzia Spaziale Italiana](IT) Cassini Spacecraft.

The University of Arizona laboratory designed and operated the atmospheric radiation investigations and imaging on the probe. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, a part of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

U Arizona NASA Mars Reconnaisance HiRISE Camera.

NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

While using the HiRISE camera in 2011, University of Arizona alumnus Lujendra Ojha and his team discovered proof of liquid water on the surface of Mars—a discovery confirmed by NASA in 2015. The University of Arizona receives more NASA grants annually than the next nine top NASA/JPL-Caltech-funded universities combined. As of March 2016, The University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory is actively involved in ten spacecraft missions: Cassini VIMS; Grail; the HiRISE camera orbiting Mars; the Juno mission orbiting Jupiter; Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO); Maven, which will explore Mars’ upper atmosphere and interactions with the sun; Solar Probe Plus, a historic mission into the Sun’s atmosphere for the first time; Rosetta’s VIRTIS; WISE; and OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. sample-return mission to a near-earth asteroid, which launched on September 8, 2016.

NASA – GRAIL Flying in Formation (Artist’s Concept). Credit: NASA.
National Aeronautics Space Agency Juno at Jupiter.

NASA/Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

NASA/Mars MAVEN

NASA Parker Solar Probe Plus named to honor Pioneering Physicist Eugene Parker. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Wise/NEOWISE Telescope.

The University of Arizona students have been selected as Truman, Rhodes, Goldwater, and Fulbright Scholars. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, UArizona is among the top 25 producers of Fulbright awards in the U.S.

The University of Arizona is a member of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy , a consortium of institutions pursuing research in astronomy. The association operates observatories and telescopes, notably Kitt Peak National Observatory just outside Tucson.

National Science Foundation NOIRLab National Optical Astronomy Observatory Kitt Peak National Observatory on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono O’odham Nation, 88 kilometers (55 mi) west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona, Altitude 2,096 m (6,877 ft). annotated.

Led by Roger Angel, researchers in the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab at The University of Arizona are working in concert to build the world’s most advanced telescope. Known as the Giant Magellan Telescope (CL), it will produce images 10 times sharper than those from the Earth-orbiting Hubble Telescope.

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

The telescope is set to be completed in 2021. GMT will ultimately cost $1 billion. Researchers from at least nine institutions are working to secure the funding for the project. The telescope will include seven 18-ton mirrors capable of providing clear images of volcanoes and riverbeds on Mars and mountains on the moon at a rate 40 times faster than the world’s current large telescopes. The mirrors of the Giant Magellan Telescope will be built at The University of Arizona and transported to a permanent mountaintop site in the Chilean Andes where the telescope will be constructed.

Reaching Mars in March 2006, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter contained the HiRISE camera, with Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen as the lead on the project. This National Aeronautics and Space Agency mission to Mars carrying the UArizona-designed camera is capturing the highest-resolution images of the planet ever seen. The journey of the orbiter was 300 million miles. In August 2007, The University of Arizona, under the charge of Scientist Peter Smith, led the Phoenix Mars Mission, the first mission completely controlled by a university. Reaching the planet’s surface in May 2008, the mission’s purpose was to improve knowledge of the Martian Arctic. The Arizona Radio Observatory , a part of The University of Arizona Department of Astronomy Steward Observatory , operates the Submillimeter Telescope on Mount Graham.

University of Arizona Radio Observatory at NOAO Kitt Peak National Observatory, AZ USA, U Arizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory at altitude 2,096 m (6,877 ft).

U Arizona Steward Observatory at NSF’s NOIRLab NOAO Kitt Peak National Observatory in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert 88 kilometers 55 mi west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona in the Quinlan Mountains of the Tohono O’odham Nation, altitude 2,096 m (6,877 ft).

Kitt Peak National Observatory in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert 88 kilometers 55 mi west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona in the Quinlan Mountains of the Tohono O’odham Nation, altitude 2,096 m (6,877 ft)

The National Science Foundation funded the iPlant Collaborative in 2008 with a $50 million grant. In 2013, iPlant Collaborative received a $50 million renewal grant. Rebranded in late 2015 as “CyVerse”, the collaborative cloud-based data management platform is moving beyond life sciences to provide cloud-computing access across all scientific disciplines.

In June 2011, the university announced it would assume full ownership of the Biosphere 2 scientific research facility in Oracle, Arizona, north of Tucson, effective July 1. Biosphere 2 was constructed by private developers (funded mainly by Texas businessman and philanthropist Ed Bass) with its first closed system experiment commencing in 1991. The university had been the official management partner of the facility for research purposes since 2007.

U Arizona mirror lab-Where else in the world can you find an astronomical observatory mirror lab under a football stadium?

University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2, located in the Sonoran desert. An entire ecosystem under a glass dome? Visit our campus, just once, and you’ll quickly understand why The University of Arizona is a university unlike any other.

University of Arizona Landscape Evolution Observatory at Biosphere 2.

From Scientific American: “Astronomers Gear Up to Grapple with the High-Tension Cosmos”

From Scientific American

April 18, 2022
Anil Ananthaswamy

A debate over conflicting measurements of key cosmological properties is set to shape the next decade of astronomy and astrophysics.

Atacama Cosmology Telescope at Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Credit: Giulio Ercolani/Alamy Stock Photo.

How fast is the universe expanding? How much does matter clump up in our cosmic neighborhood? Different methods of answering these two questions—either by observing the early cosmos and extrapolating to present times, or by making direct observations of the nearby universe—are yielding consistently different answers. The simplest explanation for these discrepancies is merely that our measurements are somehow erroneous, but researchers are increasingly entertaining another, more breathtaking possibility: These twin tensions—between expectation and observation, between the early and late universe—may reflect some deep flaw in the standard model of cosmology, which encapsulates our knowledge and assumptions about the universe. Finding and fixing that flaw, then, could profoundly transform our understanding of the cosmos.

One way or another, an answer seems certain to emerge from the fog over the coming decade, as eager astronomers gear up for a host of new space and terrestrial telescopes to gain clearer cosmic views. “Pursuing these tensions is a great way to learn about the universe,” says astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University. “They give us the ability to focus our experiments on very specific tests, rather than just making it a general fishing expedition.”

These new telescopes, Riess anticipates, are about to usher in the third generation of precision cosmology. The first generation came of age in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and with NASA’s WMAP satellite that sharpened our measurements of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration/The European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU) Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA/Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 2001 to 2010

CMB per European Space Agency(EU) Planck.

It was also shaped by a number of eight-meter-class telescopes in Chile and the twin 10-meter Keck behemoths in Hawaii.

The European Southern Observatory [La Observatorio Europeo Austral][Observatoire européen austral][Europäische Südsternwarte](EU)(CL), 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.

W.M. Keck Observatory two ten meter telescopes operated by California Institute of Technology and The University of California, at Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii, altitude 4,207 m (13,802 ft). Credit: Caltech.

Collectively, these observatories helped cosmologists formulate the standard model of cosmology, which is a cocktail of 5 percent ordinary matter, 27 percent dark matter and 68 percent dark energy that can with uncanny accuracy account for most of what we observe about galaxies, galaxy clusters and other large-scale structures and their evolution over cosmic time.

Standard Model of Cosmology Cornell University

Ironically-by its very success-the model highlights what we do not know: the exact nature of 95 percent of the universe.

Driven by even more precise measurements of the CMB from ESA’s Planck satellite [above] and various ground-based telescopes, the second generation of precision cosmology supported the standard model but also brought to light the tensions. The focus shifted to reducing so-called systematics: repeatable errors that creep in because of faults in the design of experiments or equipment.

The third generation has been waiting in the wings for years and is only now starting to take center stage with the successful launch and deep-space deployment of Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

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 annotated, finally launched December 25, 2021, ten years late.

On Earth, CMB measurements are poised to reach new Planck-surpassing levels of precision via radio telescope arrays such as the Simons Observatory in the Atacama Desert and the nascent CMB-S4, a future assemblage of 21 dishes and a half million cryogenically cooled detectors that will be divided between sites in the Atacama and at the South Pole.

The Simons Array in the Atacama in Chile, altitude 5,200 m (17,100 ft) with the 6 meter Atacama Cosmology Telescope.

CMB-S4: Next Generation CMB Experiment

But the jewels in the third generation’s crown will be telescopes that stare at wide swathes of the sky. The first of these is likely to be ESA’s 1.2-meter Euclid space telescope, due for launch in 2023 to study the shapes and distributions of billions of galaxies with a gaze that spans about a third of the sky.

European Space Agency [La Agencia Espacial Europea] [Agence spatiale européenne][Europäische Weltraumorganisation](EU)/Euclid spacecraft depiction.

Euclid’s studies will dovetail with those of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a 2.4-meter telescope with a field of view about 100 times bigger than Hubble’s that is slated for launch in 2025.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Nancy Grace Roman Infrared Space Telescope [WFIRST] depiction.

Finally, when it begins operations in the mid-2020s, the ground-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory will map the entire overhead sky every few nights with its 8.4-meter mirror and a three-billion-pixel camera, the largest ever built for astronomy.

The National Science Foundation NOIRLab National Optical Astronomy Observatory Vera C. Rubin Observatory [LSST] Telescope currently under construction on the El Peñón peak at Cerro Pachón Chile, a 2,682-meter-high mountain in Coquimbo Region, in northern Chile, alongside the Gemini South Telescope and Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope.

“We’re not going to be limited by noise and by systematics, because these are independent observatories,” says astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University. “Even if we have a systematic in our framework, we should [be able to] figure it out.”

Scaling the Distance Ladder

Riess, for one, would like to see a resolution of the Hubble tension, which arises from differing estimates of the value of the Hubble constant, H0, the rate at which the universe is expanding. Riess leads the Supernovae, H0, for the Equation of State of Dark Energy (SH0ES)project to measure H0. The SH0ES process starts with astronomers climbing onto the first rung of the so-called cosmic distance ladder, a hierarchy of methods to gauge ever-greater celestial expanses.

The first rung—that is, the one concerning the nearest cosmic objects—relies on geometric parallax to determine the distance to special stars called Cepheid variables, which pulsate in proportion to their intrinsic luminosity. Pegging the distance to a Cepheid via parallax allows astronomers to calibrate the relationship between its brightness and variability, making it a workhorse “standard candle” for estimating greater cosmic distances.

Standard Candles to measure age and distance of the universe

This forms the basis of the second rung, which uses telescopes like the HST to find Cepheids in more remote galaxies, measure their variability to determine their distance and then use that distance to calibrate another, more powerful set of standard candles called type Ia (pronounced “one-A”) supernovae, or SNe Ia, in those very same galaxies. Ascending further, astronomers locate SNe Ia in even more far-flung galaxies, using them to establish a relationship between distance and a galaxy’s redshift, a measure of how fast it is moving away from us. The end result is an estimate of H0.

Others, besides SH0ES, have also been on the case, including the Pantheon+ team, which has compiled a large dataset of type Ia supernovae.

In December, Riess says, “after a couple of years of taking a deep dive on the subject,” the SH0ES team and the Pantheon+ team announced the results of nearly 70 different analyses of their combined data. The data included observations of Cepheid variables in 37 host galaxies that contained 42 type Ia supernovae, more than double the number of supernovae studied by SH0ES in 2016. Riess and his co-authors suspect this latest study represents the HST’s last stand, the outer limits of that hallowed telescope’s ability to help them climb higher up the cosmic scale. The set of supernovae now includes “all suitable SNe Ia (of which we are aware) observed between 1980 and 2021” in the nearby universe. In their analysis, H0 comes out to be 73.04 ± 1.04 kilometers per second per megaparsec.

That is way off the value obtained by an entirely different method that looks at the other end of cosmic history—the so-called epoch of recombination when the universe became transparent to light, about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

Epoch of Recombination-astronomy.swin.edu.au

Universe Atacama Large Millimiter/submillimeter Array (CL) [ALMA] Years After the Big Bang Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan[国立天文台] (JP)

The light from this epoch, now stretched to microwave wavelengths because of the universe’s subsequent expansion, is detectable as the all-pervading cosmic microwave background. Tiny fluctuations in temperature and polarization of the CMB capture an all-important signal: the distance a sound wave travels from almost the beginning of the universe to the epoch of recombination. This length is a useful metric for precision cosmology and can be used to estimate the value of H0 by extrapolating to the present-day universe using the standard LCDM model (where L stands for lambda or dark energy, and CDM for cold dark matter; cold refers to the assumption that dark matter particles are relatively slow-moving).

Lamda Cold Dark Matter Accerated Expansion of The universe http://www.scinotions.com the-cosmic-inflation-suggests-the-existence-of-parallel-universes. Credit: Alex Mittelmann.

Published a year ago, the latest analysis combined data from the Planck satellite and two ground-based instruments, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the South Pole Telescope (SPT), to arrive at an H0 of 67.49 ± 0.53.

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

South Pole Telescope SPTPOL. The SPT collaboration is made up of over a dozen (mostly North American) institutions, including The University of Chicago; The University of California Berkeley; Case Western Reserve University; Harvard/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; The University of Colorado-Boulder; McGill University(CA); 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. It is funded by the National Science Foundation

The discrepancy between the two estimates has a statistical significance of five σ, meaning there is only about a one-in-a-million chance of it being a statistical fluke. “It’s certainly at the level that people should take seriously—and they have,” Riess says.

How Clumpy Is the Cosmos?

The other tension that researchers are starting to take seriously concerns a cosmic parameter called S8, which depends on the density of matter in the universe and the extent to which it is clumped up rather than evenly distributed. Estimates of S8 also involve, on one end, measurements of the CMB, with measurements of the local universe on the other. The CMB-derived value of S8 in the early universe, extrapolated using LCDM, generates a present-day value of about 0.834.

The local universe measurements of S8 involve a host of different methods. Among the most stringent of these are so-called weak gravitational lensing observations, which measure how the average shape of millions of galaxies across large patches of the sky is distorted by the gravitational influence of intervening concentrations of dark and normal matter.

Weak gravitational lensing. NASA/ESA Hubble.

Astronomers used the latest data from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), which more than doubled its sky coverage from 350 to 777 square degrees of the sky (the full moon, by comparison, spans a mere half a degree), and estimated S8 to be about 0.759. The tension between the early- and late-universe estimates of S8 has grown from being at 2.5 sigma in 2019 to three sigma now (or, a one-in-740 chance of being a fluke). “This tension isn’t going away,” says astronomer Hendrik Hildebrandt of The Ruhr-University Bochum [Ruhr-Universität Bochum] (DE). “It has hardened.”

There is yet another way to arrive at the value of S8: by counting the number of the most massive galaxy clusters in some volume of space. Astronomers can either do that directly (for example, by using gravitational lensing), or by studying the imprint of these clusters in the cosmic microwave background, thanks to something called the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (which causes CMB photons to scatter off the hot electrons in clusters of galaxies, creating shadows in the CMB that are proportional to the mass of the cluster). A detailed 2019 study using data from the South Pole Telescope estimated S8 to be 0.749—again, way off from the CMB+LCDM–based estimates. These numbers could be reconciled if the estimates of the masses of these clusters were wrong by about 40–50 percent, Natarajan says. However, she thinks such substantial revisions are unlikely. “We are not that badly off in the measurement game,” she says. “So that’s another kind of internal inconsistency, another anomaly pointing to something else.”

Breaking the Tensions

Given these tensions, it is no surprise cosmologists are anxiously awaiting fresh data from the new generation of observatories. For instance, David Spergel of Princeton University is eager for astronomers to use the JWST to study the brightest of the so-called red-giant-branch stars. These stars have a well-known luminosity and can be used as standard candles to measure galactic distances—an independent rung on the cosmic ladder, if you will. In 2019, Wendy Freedman of The University of Chicago and colleagues used this technique to estimate H0, finding that their value sits smack in the middle of the early- and late-universe estimates. “The error bars on the current tip of the red-giant-branch data are such that they’re consistent with both possibilities,” Spergel says. Astronomers are also planning to use JWST to recalibrate the Cepheids surveyed by Hubble, and separately the telescope will help create another new rung for the distance ladder by targeting Mira stars (which, like Cepheids, have a luminosity-periodicity relation useful for cosmic cartography).

Whereas JWST might resolve or strengthen the H0 tension, the wide-field survey data from the Euclid, Roman and Rubin observatories could do the same for the S8 tension by studying the clustering and clumping of matter. The sheer amount of data expected from this trio of telescopes will reduce S8 error bars enormously. “The statistics are going to go through the roof,” Natarajan says.

Meanwhile, theoreticians are already having a field day with the twin tensions. “This is a playground for theorists,” Riess says. “You throw in some actual observed tensions, and they are having more fun than we are.”

The most recent theoretical idea to garner a great deal of interest is something called early dark energy (EDE). In the canonical LCDM model, dark energy only started dominating the universe relatively late in cosmic history, about five billion years ago. But, Spergel says, “we don’t know why dark energy is the dominant component of the universe today; since we don’t know why it’s important today, it could have also been important early on.” That is partly the rationale for invoking dark energy’s effects much earlier, before the epoch of recombination. Even if dark energy was just 10 percent of the universe’s energy budget during those times, that would be enough to accelerate the early phases of cosmic expansion, causing recombination to occur sooner and shrinking the distance traversed by primordial sound waves. The net effect would be to ease the H0 tension.

“What I find most interesting about these models is that they can be wrong,” Spergel says. Cosmologists’ EDE models make predictions about the resulting EDE-modulated patterns in the photons of the CMB. In February 2022, Silvia Galli, a member of the Planck collaboration at The University of Paris-Sorbonne [Université de Paris-Sorbonne](FR), and colleagues published an analysis of observations from Planck and ground-based CMB telescopes, suggesting that they collectively favor EDE over LCDM, by a statistical smidgen. Confirming or refuting this rather tentative result, however, will require more and better data—which could come soon from upcoming observations by same ground-based CMB telescopes. But even if EDE models prove to be better fits and fix the H0 tension, they do little to alleviate the tension from S8.

Potential fixes for S8 exhibit a similarly vexing lack of overlap with H0. In March, Guillermo Franco Abellán of The University of Montpellier [Université de Montpellier](FR) and colleagues published a study in Physical Review D showing that the S8 tension could be eased by the hypothetical decay of cold dark matter particles (into one massive particle and one “warm” massless particle). This mechanism would lower the value of S8 arising from CMB-based extrapolations, bringing it more in line with the late universe measurements. Unfortunately, it does little to solve the H0 tension.

“It seems like a robust pattern: whatever model you come up with that solves the H0 tension makes the S8 tension worse, and the other way around,” Hildebrandt says. “There are a few models that at least don’t make the other tension worse, but also don’t improve it a lot.”

“We Are Missing Something”

Once fresh data arrive, Spergel foresees a few possible scenarios unfolding. First, the new CMB data could turn out to be consistent with early dark energy, resolving the H0 tension, and the upcoming survey telescope observations could separately ease the S8 tension. That would be a win for early dark energy models—and would constitute a major shift in our understanding of the opening chapters of cosmic history.

Or, it is possible that both H0 and S8 tensions resolve in favor of LCDM. This would be a win for the standard model, and a possibly bittersweet victory for cosmologists hoping for paradigm-shifting breakthroughs rather than “business as usual.”

“Outcome three would be both tensions become increasingly significant as the data improves—and early dark energy isn’t the answer,” Spergel says. Then, LCDM would presumably have to be reworked differently, but absent further specifics the impact of such an outcome is difficult to foresee.

Natarajan thinks that the tensions and discrepancies are probably telling us that LCDM is merely an “effective theory,” a technical term meaning that it accurately explains a certain subset of the current compendium of cosmic observations. “Perhaps what’s really happening is that there is an underlying, more complex theory,” she says. “And that LCDM is this [effective] theory, which seems to have most of the key ingredients. For the level of observational probes that we had previously, that effective theory was sufficient.” But times change, and the data deluge from precision cosmology’s third generation of powerful observatories may demand more creative and elaborate theories.

Theorists, of course, are more than happy to oblige. For instance, Spergel speculates that if early dark energy could interact with dark matter (in LCDM, dark energy and dark matter do not interact), this could suppress the fluctuations of matter in the early universe in ways that would resolve the S8 tension, while simultaneously taking care of the H0 tension. “It makes the models more baroque, but maybe that’s what nature will demand,” Spergel says.

As an observational astronomer, Hildebrandt is circumspect. “If there was a convincing model that beautifully solves these two tensions, we’d already have the next standard model. That we’re instead still talking about these tensions and scratching our heads is just reflecting the fact that we don’t have such a model yet.”

Riess agrees. “After all, this is a problem of using a model based on an understanding of physics and the universe that is about 95 percent incomplete, in terms of the nature of dark matter and dark energy,” he says. “It wouldn’t be crazy to think that we are missing something.”

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From The MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie](DE): “The Hunt for the Gravitational Wave Background”

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

April 07, 2022

Dr. Aditya Parthasarathy
adityapartha3112@mpifr.de
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn

Dr. Matthew Kerr
+1 202 294-9761 matthew.kerr@nrc.gov
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

Prof. Dr. Michael Kramer
Director and Head of “Fundamental Physics in Radio Astronomy”
Research Department
+49 228 525-278
mkramer@mpifr.de
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn

Dr. Norbert Junkes
Press and Public Outreach +49 228 525-399
njunkes@mpifr.de
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn

NASA’s FERMI Satellite Hunts for Extremely Long-wavelength Gravitational Wave Signals.

Coalescing supermassive black holes in the centers of merging galaxies fill the universe with low-frequency gravitational waves. Astronomers have been searching for these waves by using large radio telescopes to look for the subtle effect these spacetime ripples have on radio waves emitted by pulsars within our Galaxy. Now, an international team of scientists has shown that the high-energy light collected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope can also be used in the search. Using gamma rays instead of radio waves yields a clearer view to the pulsars and provides an independent and complementary way to detect gravitational waves.

The findings of an international team of scientists including Aditya Parthasarathy and Michael Kramer from the Max Planck Institute of Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, are published in Science this week.

Fig. 1: Orbiting 500 km above the earth, the Fermi Large Area Telescope collects gamma rays from millisecond pulsars. As these high-energy photons travel across the Milky Way, they encounter a sea of low-frequency gravitational waves produced by pairs of supermassive black holes coalescing in the centers of merged galaxies. The spacetime ripples, with wavelengths extending beyond 100 trillion kilometers, cause each photon to arrive slightly earlier or slightly later than expected. Monitoring the gamma rays from many of these millisecond pulsars—an experiment known as a pulsar timing array—can reveal this telltale signature. Pulsar timing arrays have previously only used sensitive radio telescopes. Now, data from Fermi are enabling a gamma-ray based pulsar timing array and giving a new, clear view of these gravitational waves. © Daniëlle Futselaar/MPIfR (artsource.nl).

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Fermi Gamma-Ray Large Area Telescope.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope.

A Sea of Gravitational Waves

At the heart of most galaxies—collections of hundreds of billions of stars like our own Milky Way—lies a supermassive black hole. Galaxies are drawn to each other by their immense gravitation, and when they merge their black holes sink to the new center. As the black holes spiral inward and coalesce, they create long gravitational waves that stretch out hundreds of trillions of kilometers between wave crests. The universe is full of such merging supermassive black holes, and they fill it with a sea of low-frequency spacetime ripples.

Astronomers have been searching for these waves for decades by observing the pulses from pulsars, the dense remnants of massive stars. Pulsars rotate with extreme regularity and astronomers know exactly when to expect each pulse. The sea of gravitational waves, however, subtly alters when the pulses arrive at the earth, and precisely monitoring many pulsars across the sky can reveal its presence.
Previous searches for these waves have exclusively used large radio telescopes, which collect and analyze radio waves. But now an international team of scientists has looked for these minute variations in more than ten years of data collected with NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and their analysis shows that detecting these waves may be possible with just a few years of additional observations.

“Fermi studies the universe in gamma rays, the most energetic form of light. We’ve been surprised at how good it is at finding the types of pulsars we need to look for these gravitational waves—over 100 so far!” said Matthew Kerr, a research physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. “Fermi and gamma rays have some special characteristics that together make them a very powerful tool in this investigation.”

The results of the study, co-led by Kerr and Aditya Parthasarathy, a researcher at the MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, Germany, were published in the April 07 issue of Science.

Cosmic Clocks

Light takes on many forms. Low-frequency radio waves can pass through some objects, while high-frequency gamma rays explode into energetic particle showers when they encounter matter. Gravitational waves also cover a wide spectrum, and more massive objects tend to generate longer waves.

It is impossible to build a detector large enough to detect the trillion-kilometer waves powered by merging supermassive black holes, so astronomers use naturally-occurring detectors called pulsar timing arrays. These are collections of millisecond pulsars that shine in both radio waves and gamma rays and which rotate hundreds of times each second. Like lighthouses, these beams of radiation appear to pulse regularly as they sweep over the earth, and as they pass through the sea of gravitational waves they are imprinted with the faint rumble of distant, massive black holes.

A Unique Probe

Pulsars were originally discovered using radio telescopes, and pulsar timing array experiments with radio telescopes have been operating for nearly two decades.

Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell, discovered pulsars with radio astronomy. Jocelyn Bell at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, University of Cambridge(UK), taken for the Daily Herald newspaper in 1968. Denied the Nobel.

Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) One-Mile Telescope at the operated by Cambridge University.

These big dishes provide the most sensitivity to the effects of gravitational waves, but interstellar effects complicate the analysis of radio data. Space is mostly empty, but in crossing the vast distance between a pulsar and the earth, radio waves still encounter many electrons. Similarly to the way a prism bends visible light, interstellar electrons bend the radio waves and alter their arrival time. The energetic gamma rays aren’t affected in this way, so they provide a complementary and independent method of pulsar timing.

“The Fermi results are already 30% as good as the radio pulsar timing arrays when it comes to potentially detecting the gravitational wave background,” Parthasarathy said. “With another five years of pulsar data collection and analysis, it’ll be equally capable with the added bonus of not having to worry about all those stray electrons.”

A gamma-ray pulsar timing array, not envisioned before the launch of Fermi, represents a powerful new capability in gravitational wave astrophysics.

IPTA-International Pulsar Timing Array

IPTA-International Pulsar Timing Array-Clockwise from upper left: Green Bank Radio Telescope, Arecibo Radio Telescope [no longer in service], Nancay Radio Telescope (FR), Lovell Radio Telescope Cheshire (UK), Parkes Radio Telescope (AU), LOFAR Radio Telescope Exloo (NL), GMRT Pune India, Westerbork Radio Telescope (NL), Effelsberg Radio Telescope (DE)

“Detecting the gravitational wave background with pulsars is within reach but remains difficult. An independent method, shown here unexpectedly through Fermi is great news, both for confirming future findings and in demonstrating its synergies with radio experiments”, concludes Michael Kramer, a director at the MPIfR and head of its Fundamental Physics in Radio Astronomy research department.

Additional Information
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership managed by The National Aeronautics and Space Agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Fermi was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the United States.

The FERMI-LAT collaboration comprises an international team of scientists including Aditya Parthasarathy and Michael Kramer, both from, the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy.

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MPIFR campus

Effelsberg Radio Telescope- a radio telescope in the Ahr Hills (part of the Eifel) in Bad Münstereifel(DE)

The MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie] (DE) is located in Bonn, Germany. It is one of 80 institutes in the MPG Society.

By combining the already existing radio astronomy faculty of the University of Bonn led by Otto Hachenberg with the new MPG institute the MPG Institute for Radio Astronomy was formed. In 1972 the 100-m radio telescope in Effelsberg was opened. The institute building was enlarged in 1983 and 2002.

The institute was founded in 1966 by the MPG Society as the “MPG Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR) (DE)”.

The foundation of the institute was closely linked to plans in the German astronomical community to construct a competitive large radio telescope in (then) West Germany. In 1964, Professors Friedrich Becker, Wolfgang Priester and Otto Hachenberg of the Astronomische Institute der Universität Bonn submitted a proposal to the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk for the construction of a large fully steerable radio telescope.

In the same year the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk approved the funding of the telescope project but with the condition that an organization should be found, which would guarantee the operations. It was clear that the operation of such a large instrument was well beyond the possibilities of a single university institute.

Already in 1965 the MPG Society decided in principle to found the MPG Institut für Radioastronomie. Eventually, after a series of discussions, the institute was officially founded in 1966.

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

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
• Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing