Damage caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017 The National Science Foundation (NSF) has provided $2 million to repair damage to the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) station on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands caused by Hurricane Maria in September of 2017. The funding is part of a bill passed by Congress and signed by the President on Feb. 9. The...
Summary: Astronomers have made the first definitive detection of a radioactive molecule in interstellar space: a form, or isotopologue of aluminum monofluoride (26AlF). The new data – made with ALMA and the NOEMA radio telescopes – reveal that this radioactive isotopologue was ejected into space by the collision of two stars, a tremendously rare...
ALMA Creates Its First-ever Movie of Cosmic Explosion Summary: Astronomers using ALMA studied a cataclysmic stellar explosion known as a gamma-ray burst, or GRB, and found its enduring “afterglow.” The rebound, or reverse shock, triggered by the GRB’s powerful jets slamming into surrounding debris, lasted thousands of times longer than expected....
Astronomers pinpoint likely source of high-energy cosmic rays for first time A single, ghostly subatomic particle that traveled some 4 billion light-years before reaching Earth has helped astronomers pinpoint a likely source of high-energy cosmic rays for the first time. Subsequent observations with the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Karl G....