New research reveals that 3I/ATLAS is packed with an unusually large amount of the organic molecule methanol – more than almost all known comets in our own solar system.
Recent News
10 Questions: Anica Miller-Rushing
Meet Anica Miller-Rushing, STEM education research associate for AUI’s Office of Education and Public Engagement.
A Quintillion-to-One: Giant Stars, Tiny Dust
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered that some of the most massive stars in our galaxy are emitting unbelievably tiny grains of carbon dust—dust that one day could form future stars and planets.
Listen to the Music of a Dying Star
The ALMA Music Box, currently on display in Japan, now available on iTunes
Music from the ALMA Music Box — an audio artwork that plays melodies created from ALMA observations — is now available to be purchased in the iTunes store, on the compilation set “Music for a Dying Star”.
R Sculptoris, a massive red giant star located roughly 1000 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor, is in the final stages of its life, and is violently expelling massive amounts of gas into space as it depletes its supply of fuel.
The ALMA Music Box plays musical disks inscribed with information from ALMA’s observations of this dying star, based on images taken at 70 different radio frequencies. The Music Box, a collaboration between the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, PARTY New York, and Qosmo, plays 70 musical disks, each corresponding to a different radio frequency observation. The disks feature holes corresponding to points of intensity in the emission.
The ALMA Music Box will be on display at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan until November 15, 2015. The exhibition also features a miniature model of a Japanese 12-meter ALMA antenna and two receiver cartridges, which are installed into the antennas to receive radio waves.
The exhibition’s success recently prompted the production of the crowd-funded compilation CD “Music for a Dying Star.” This audio set features an assortment of melodies from the box integrated into original tracks from 11 international artists, including Taeji Sawai, Takagi Masakatsu, Throwing a Spoon, and Christian Fennesz.
“Music for a Dying Star” can now be purchased in the iTunes store for $14.88. More information about the ALMA Music Box and the CD is available on the CD’s dedicated website.
More information
ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.
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ALMA Detects Extremely Abundant Alcohol in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
New research reveals that 3I/ATLAS is packed with an unusually large amount of the organic molecule methanol – more than almost all known comets in our own solar system.
10 Questions: Anica Miller-Rushing
Meet Anica Miller-Rushing, STEM education research associate for AUI’s Office of Education and Public Engagement.
A Quintillion-to-One: Giant Stars, Tiny Dust
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered that some of the most massive stars in our galaxy are emitting unbelievably tiny grains of carbon dust—dust that one day could form future stars and planets.