Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured the first direct, high-resolution images of a magnetic field wrapped tightly around the outflow of gas streaming away from a forming star — evidence that solves a decades-old puzzle about how young stars sculpt the powerful jets that form them.
Recent News
A Trillion Mile Cosmic Stream of Gas Feeds GW Orionis
A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a partner, has captured a massive stream of gas—one trillion miles, or .2 light years long—feeding the young triple-star system GW Orionis.
NSF NRAO radio observations help rule out a relativistic jet in rare stellar explosion
Astronomers studying a rare stellar explosion first spotted as a brief burst of X-rays used radio observations to help show that the dying star did not produce the powerful jet often associated with gamma-ray bursts.
A Million Reasons to Celebrate: NSF NRAO Hits One Million Citations
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
The U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) is celebrating a historic achievement: research using our telescopes has now been cited over one million times in scientific literature!
This remarkable milestone highlights the tremendous impact of our world-class facilities—including the Very Large Array (VLA), Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA),the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Together, these instruments have fueled groundbreaking discoveries and inspired generations of astronomers worldwide.
Highlights of this achievement:
- The VLA stands out as the most-cited NRAO instrument, with more than 561,000 citations.
- Of the Top 5 most-cited papers connected to NRAO, two are based on our instruments, two were authored by NRAO staff without instrument data, and one showcases key NRAO technology supporting a major space mission.
- The single most-cited NRAO instrument paper is the legendary NRAO VLA Sky Survey (Condon et al. 1998), with over 5,200 citations.
These numbers reflect not only decades of pioneering research, but also the dedication of engineers, staff, and scientists who keep these facilities at the forefront of exploration. From the earliest days of the NSF NRAO to today, every discovery has built toward this extraordinary accomplishment.
As we celebrate, we’re also looking ahead. The new generation of radio science—through projects like the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade, and advances in Next Generation Radar—will open fresh windows onto the Universe.
With more than a million citations behind us and countless discoveries ahead, NRAO remains committed to advancing humanity’s understanding of the cosmos.
Explore the milestone: NRAO Publications Statistics
This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on September 8, 2025.
Recent News
Twisted Physics: Astronomers Solve 30-Year-Old Stellar Mystery
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured the first direct, high-resolution images of a magnetic field wrapped tightly around the outflow of gas streaming away from a forming star — evidence that solves a decades-old puzzle about how young stars sculpt the powerful jets that form them.
A Trillion Mile Cosmic Stream of Gas Feeds GW Orionis
A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a partner, has captured a massive stream of gas—one trillion miles, or .2 light years long—feeding the young triple-star system GW Orionis.
NSF NRAO radio observations help rule out a relativistic jet in rare stellar explosion
Astronomers studying a rare stellar explosion first spotted as a brief burst of X-rays used radio observations to help show that the dying star did not produce the powerful jet often associated with gamma-ray bursts.