The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has produced the sharpest images ever of 24 debris disks, the dusty belts left after planets finish forming. These disks are the cosmic equivalent of the teenage years for planetary systems—somewhat more mature than newborn, planet-forming disks, but not yet settled into adulthood.
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Radio Telescopes Uncover ‘Invisible’ Gas Around Record-Shattering Cosmic Explosion
Astronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have revealed a dense cocoon of gas around one of the most extreme cosmic explosions ever seen, showing that a ravenous black hole ripped apart a massive star and then lit up its surroundings with powerful X-rays.
The Green Bank Telescope Snaps New Hot Photos of the Moon
This unusual view of the Moon, made with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), shows the glow from the Moon’s heat revealing features undetectable to an ordinary telescope that sees only reflected light.
This image was made using a new, extremely sensitive radio camera called MUSTANG-2, which detects high frequency radio waves, and the GBT, the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. The wavelength of the radio waves detected by the camera is about 3.3mm (a frequency of 90 GHz), which makes it able to measure the temperature of the Moon as if it were sticking a thermometer into its surface.
The image slider above provides three views of the Moon – optical, MUSTANG-2 unfiltered radio image, and MUSTANG-2 radio image (filtered). Advance the slider by clicking the arrows on the right or left to view all the images. Images may be saved individually for use in other publications. All images should retain the image caption/source information.
In the thermal image, the Moon’s North Pole points towards the upper left, and the Sun’s illumination comes from the upper right. We can see the patterns of some of the vast dark plains, or maria, created by enormous lava flows billions of years ago. Ordinarily, when we look at the Moon in reflected sunlight, these maria give the Moon its distinctive pattern of dark patches, but in the MUSTANG-2/GBT image some appear bright, which means that they are warmer than their surroundings. One of these bright maria just to the upper right of center is the Sea of Tranquility, the landing site for the Apollo 11 mission.
Many craters are also visible, but these craters look very different than they do in the optical photographs that we are used to. The normally prominent rays emanating from the Tycho crater (near bottom center) are almost entirely absent because they are formed from compositional differences that do not have a distinct temperature signature. Scientists may use images like this to learn more about the Moon’s geologic history.
The level of detail in this new image of the Moon is made possible by the high angular resolution of the MUSTANG-2 camera (9 arcseconds) which can discern features as small as 16km (10 miles) on the Moon’s surface. Because of the extreme sensitivity of this 223-pixel bolometer camera, in use with the giant collecting surface of the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope, it took less than 40 minutes to make this image.
The MUSTANG-2 camera was developed by the University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with the Green Bank Observatory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the University of Michigan, and Cardiff University. The MUSTANG-2 team is supported by the National Science Foundation (1615604), the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Society, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The Green Bank Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation and is operated by Associated Universities, Inc.
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Contacts:
Jill Malusky, Public Relations Specialist, Green Bank Observatory, 304-456-2236, [email protected]
Mark Devlin, 215-573-7521, [email protected] , University of Pennsylvania
Simon Dicker, 215-573-7558, [email protected], University of Pennsylvania
Paul Hayne, (303) 735-6399, [email protected], University of Colorado, Boulder
Recent News
ALMA Reveals Teenage Years of New Worlds
The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has produced the sharpest images ever of 24 debris disks, the dusty belts left after planets finish forming. These disks are the cosmic equivalent of the teenage years for planetary systems—somewhat more mature than newborn, planet-forming disks, but not yet settled into adulthood.
The NSF Very Large Array Helps Reveal Record-Breaking Stream of Super-Heated Gas from Nearby Galaxy
New radio images from the the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array trace a pair of powerful plasma jets launched by galaxy VV 340a’s central supermassive black hole, which appear to be driving hot coronal gas out of the galaxy and shutting down future star formation.
Radio Telescopes Uncover ‘Invisible’ Gas Around Record-Shattering Cosmic Explosion
Astronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have revealed a dense cocoon of gas around one of the most extreme cosmic explosions ever seen, showing that a ravenous black hole ripped apart a massive star and then lit up its surroundings with powerful X-rays.