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ALMA Spots Most Distant Dusty Galaxy Hidden in Plain Sight

ALMA Spots Most Distant Dusty Galaxy Hidden in Plain Sight

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted the light of a massive galaxy seen only 970 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy, called MAMBO-9, is the most distant dusty star-forming galaxy that has ever been observed without the help of a gravitational lens . Dusty star-forming galaxies are the...

A Weakened Black Hole Allows its Galaxy to Awaken

A Weakened Black Hole Allows its Galaxy to Awaken

Astronomers Find First Example of Furious Star Formation at Core of a Galaxy Cluster Hot gas, radio jets, and star formation in a galaxy cluster Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/M.McDonald et al; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF; Optical: NASA/STScI. Astronomers have confirmed the first example of a galaxy cluster where large numbers of stars are being born at its...

Gas ‘Waterfalls’ Reveal Infant Planets around Young Star

Gas ‘Waterfalls’ Reveal Infant Planets around Young Star

** Synopsis: For the first time, astronomers using ALMA have witnessed 3D motions of gas in a planet-forming disk. At three locations in the disk around a young star called HD 163296, gas is flowing like a waterfall into gaps that are most likely caused by planets in formation. These gas flows have long been predicted and would directly influence...

Going Against the Flow Around a Supermassive Black Hole

Going Against the Flow Around a Supermassive Black Hole

At the center of a galaxy called NGC 1068, a supermassive black hole hides within a thick doughnut-shaped cloud of dust and gas. When astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study this cloud in more detail, they made an unexpected discovery that could explain why supermassive black holes grew so rapidly in the...