In December 2022, astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) confirmed the discovery of one of the most distant galaxies ever observed. The faint radio light ALMA captured began its journey to us when the universe was less than 360 million years old. It’s a tremendously distant galaxy, but just how far away is it really? The answer is a bit complicated, and it depends on what you mean by distance.
News
ALMA Traces History of Water in Planet Formation Back to the Interstellar Medium
May 18, 2023
Scientists studying a nearby protostar have detected the presence of water in its circumstellar disk. The new observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) mark the first detection of water being inherited into a protoplanetary disk without significant changes to its composition. These results further suggest that the water in our Solar System formed billions of years before the Sun.
Extreme Galaxy Reveals Clues to Early Supermassive Black Hole Formation
May 18, 2023
While studying galaxies in the early Universe with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), scientists discovered one of the most extreme galaxies ever recorded in the early Universe. What’s more, it was hiding a unique supermassive black hole (SMBH).
ALMA Soon to Receive a New Brain
Feb 8, 2023
The Board of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)— an international collaboration in which the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a partner— has approved multi-million dollar upgrades for the development of a second-generation correlator and a digital transmission system (DTS). As part of the ALMA2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade, these projects aim to double and eventually quadruple the correlated bandwidth of the array.