A team of astronomers has used archived ALMA observations to identify for the first time the characteristic radio recombination lines associated with shells of ionized gas surrounding Solar System-sized proplyd disks in the Orion Nebula Cluster, at a distance of 1000 light-years from Earth.
Recent News
AUI Wins Bid to Manage IMCA-CAT
In its role, AUI will provide IMCA members support in staffing, operations, development, representation, maintenance, safety, reporting and compliance. IMCA-CAT is a state-of-the-art research facility for pharmaceutical structure-based drug design.
Astronomers Discover ‘Space Tornadoes’ Around the Milky Way’s Core
An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have sharpened our view of the turbulent region surrounding the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy by a factor of 100, discovering a surprising new filamentary structure in this mysterious region of space.
Spotted: ‘Death Star’ Black Holes in Action

Huge black holes are firing powerful beams of particles into space — and then changing their aim to fire at new targets. This discovery, made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), shows what kind of widespread impact black holes can have on their surrounding galaxy and beyond.
A team of astronomers looked at 16 supermassive black holes in galaxies surrounded by hot gas detected in X-rays by Chandra. Using radio data from the VLBA, operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, they studied the directions of beams — also known as jets — of particles fired a few light-years away from the black holes. This gives the scientists a picture of where each beam is currently pointed, as seen from Earth. Each black hole fires two beams in opposite directions.
The team then used Chandra data to study pairs of cavities, or bubbles, in the hot gas that were created in the past by the beams pushing gas outwards. The locations of large outer cavities indicate the direction those beams pointed millions of years earlier. The researchers then compared the directions of the radio beams with the directions of the pairs of cavities. Read the full release.
This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on May 22, 2024.
Recent News
ALMA Detects First-Ever Hydrogen Recombination Lines From Proplyd Disks in Densely Packed Orion Nebula Cluster
A team of astronomers has used archived ALMA observations to identify for the first time the characteristic radio recombination lines associated with shells of ionized gas surrounding Solar System-sized proplyd disks in the Orion Nebula Cluster, at a distance of 1000 light-years from Earth.
AUI Wins Bid to Manage IMCA-CAT
In its role, AUI will provide IMCA members support in staffing, operations, development, representation, maintenance, safety, reporting and compliance. IMCA-CAT is a state-of-the-art research facility for pharmaceutical structure-based drug design.
Astronomers Discover ‘Space Tornadoes’ Around the Milky Way’s Core
An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have sharpened our view of the turbulent region surrounding the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy by a factor of 100, discovering a surprising new filamentary structure in this mysterious region of space.