Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made the first-ever observations of a circumplanetary disk, the planet-girding belt of dust and gas that astronomers strongly theorize controls the formation of planets and gives rise to an entire system of moons, like those found around Jupiter. This never-before-seen...
Summary: Using the both ALMA and the VLT, astronomers have imaged the cold, rock-strewn rings encircling the planet Uranus. Rather than observing the reflected sunlight from these rings, ALMA and the VLT imaged the millimeter and mid-infrared “glow” naturally emitted by the frigidly cold particles of the rings themselves. The rings of Uranus are...
Below are the winners of the 2019 AUI Trustee Scholarship competition conducted by International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc. These students will each receive an award of $3,500 per year to aid in defraying expenses at the college or university of their choice. Chloe Hellerman Chloe Hellerman will graduate as valedictorian from Nelson...
How a Telescope Made Mostly of Nothing Became Astronomy’s ‘Killer App’ Astronomers have captured the first direct visual evidence of a black hole at the center of Messier 87 (M87), a giant elliptical galaxy 55 million light-years from Earth. This unprecedented observation was made possible by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), an array of eight...