An international team of astronomers used ALMA to capture high-resolution images of eight protoplanetary disks in the Sigma Orionis cluster, which is irradiated by intense ultraviolet light from a massive nearby star. To their surprise, they found evidence of gaps and rings in most of the disks—structures commonly associated with the formation of giant planets, like Jupiter.
Recent News
Astronomers Discover New Building Blocks for Complex Organic Matter
There should be a lot of carbon in space, but surprisingly, it’s not always easy to find. While it can be observed in many places, it doesn’t add up to the volume astronomers would expect to see. The discovery of a new, complex molecule (1-cyanopyrene), challenges these expectations, about where the building blocks for carbon are found, and how they evolve.
Massive Stars Born from Violent Cosmic Collapse
An international team of astronomers has observed evidence that massive stars can be born from rapidly collapsing clouds of gas and dust, challenging long-held assumptions about star formation.
Ethan Schreier recognized by the AAAS for his work in advancing science
Dr. Ethan J. Schreier, who recently retired as president of Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers, and the AAAS’s recognition of Schreier, in the Astronomy section, is based upon his renown “leadership in building and operating radio astronomy facilities, crowning a distinguished career as an astronomer supporting and observing with NASA space missions.”
The formal announcement of this year’s AAAS Fellows will be given in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on 24 November 2017. Schreier will receive a certificate confirming his election as an AAAS Fellow during the upcoming AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, on 17 February 2018.
Dr. Roscoe Giles, chair of the AUI Board of Trustees, responded to the news by saying, “I join my fellow AUI Trustees, and our many friends in the astronomy community, in congratulating Ethan for this well-deserved, prestigious recognition, and I thank the AAAS and its members for their acknowledgement of Ethan’s magnificent service to astronomy over his entire career and for their appreciation, in particular, of the tremendous value of Ethan’s contribution to the advancement of radio astronomy while he occupied the office of AUI president.”
The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association’s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee’s institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer. Fellows must have been continuous members of AAAS for four years by the end of the calendar year in which they are elected. Each steering group reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, the policy-making body of the organization, which votes on the aggregate list. This year 396 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) is a research management corporation that plans, builds and operates facilities for the research community, and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
On 1 November 2017, Dr. Adam Cohen became AUI’s 15th president. Currently, AUI manages the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the Long Baseline Observatory, and the Green Bank Observatory. AUI is engaged as the North American Executive of ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international partnership among Europe (ESO), North America (NRAO) and East Asia (NAOJ), in collaboration with the Republic of Chile. AUI’s management of all these facilities is undertaken via Cooperative Agreements with the National Science Foundation.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science (www.sciencemag.org) as well as Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances, Science Immunology, and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes nearly 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and has the mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert! (www.eurekalert.org), a service of AAAS. See www.aaas.org.
Recent News
ALMA Reveals Planets Can Form Under Harsh Radiation
An international team of astronomers used ALMA to capture high-resolution images of eight protoplanetary disks in the Sigma Orionis cluster, which is irradiated by intense ultraviolet light from a massive nearby star. To their surprise, they found evidence of gaps and rings in most of the disks—structures commonly associated with the formation of giant planets, like Jupiter.
Astronomers Discover New Building Blocks for Complex Organic Matter
There should be a lot of carbon in space, but surprisingly, it’s not always easy to find. While it can be observed in many places, it doesn’t add up to the volume astronomers would expect to see. The discovery of a new, complex molecule (1-cyanopyrene), challenges these expectations, about where the building blocks for carbon are found, and how they evolve.
Massive Stars Born from Violent Cosmic Collapse
An international team of astronomers has observed evidence that massive stars can be born from rapidly collapsing clouds of gas and dust, challenging long-held assumptions about star formation.