The Women and Girls in Astronomy Program (WGAP), led by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), under the North American Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (NA-ROAD), is proud to announce the selection of ten regional projects to receive funding through the 2026 cycle.
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.
Breakthrough Listen, NSF Green Bank Telescope Probe Galactic Heart for Hidden Pulsars
Artist’s impression of the NSF Green Bank Telescope gathering data on the center of the Milky Way. The inset image shows the black hole at our Galaxy’s center, and a nearby candidate (unconfirmed) pulsar. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / Breakthrough Listen
Astronomers discover possible millisecond pulsar, challenging ideas about how many neutron stars lurk around the Milky Way’s central black hole
Astronomers from Breakthrough Listen have used the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope (NSF GBT) to carry out one of the most sensitive pulsar searches ever aimed at the Milky Way’s Galactic Center.
The Galactic Center, home to the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* and dense stellar populations, presents unique scientific opportunities and challenges for understanding stellar dynamics, extreme astrophysical environments, and tests of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity. In this research, recent Columbia University PhD graduate Karen Perez and collaborators conducted more than 20 hours of observations with the NSF GBT using the Breakthrough Listen Digital Backend, which enabled high-time and high-frequency resolution data products across a wide radio bandwidth. Of these observations, 11 hours were dedicated to the innermost 1.4 arcminutes of the Galactic Center, resulting in one of the deepest and most sensitive pulsar surveys ever performed toward this region.
These observations uncovered a promising candidate for a millisecond pulsar, with a rotation period of 8.19 milliseconds. If confirmed it would be the first such object found in the Galactic Center.
Find links to the paper, press materials, artwork, and the datasets and software at the University of Oxford Physics Department and the Breakthrough Listen Research Group.
About NRAO
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on February 9, 2026.
Recent News
NA-ROAD Announces the 2026 Women and Girls in Astronomy Program Cohort
The Women and Girls in Astronomy Program (WGAP), led by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), under the North American Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (NA-ROAD), is proud to announce the selection of ten regional projects to receive funding through the 2026 cycle.
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.