Tucked away in a star-forming region in the Taurus constellation, a pair of circling stars are displaying some unexpected differences in the circumstellar disks of dust and gas that surround them. A new study led by researchers at Lowell Observatory, combining data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Keck Observatory, has unveiled intriguing findings about planet formation in this binary star system, known as DF Tau, along with other systems in this region.
German tech factory reveals antenna prototype—ngVLA will open a new window into the Universe
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German tech factory reveals antenna prototype—ngVLA will open a new window into the Universe
Scientific, business, and political leaders from the US and Germany gather in front of a portion of the ngVLA structure at its debut at the mtex Antenna Technology factory in Saxony, Germany. Credit: NSF/AUI/NRAO/J.Malusky
Usually it’s Octoberfest that draws a crowd to Germany this time of year. For hundreds of folks gathered at mtex antenna technology in Schkeuditz, it’s a first look at a prototype radio telescope that may one day be part one of the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescopes in the world, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA). The prototype antenna was unveiled to an excited crowd of government and business leaders, scientists, engineers, and the press from Germany and US.
The prototype antenna’s 18-meter dish, just under the height of a six-story building, is composed of 76 individual aluminum panels assembled in a striking 8-sided shape. “This design allows the surface of the dish to withstand whatever the environment throws at it—extreme temperature, wind, gravity—the reflector will maintain its precise shape within several microns, the equivalent of three human hairs,” explained Lutz Stenvers, managing director of mtex antenna technology. “The structure has 724 pieces, held together with 2,500 screws, weighing in at 43 tons. This design can be shipped in multiple containers to anywhere in the world, and assembled in very little time.”
Time and distance are important factors in ngVLA’s development. A total of 244 dishes are planned for the massive instrument, with a core array of telescopes working together throughout New Mexico and the American southwest, along with a longer baseline across the US, Mexico and Canada.
The ngVLA has received funding for design and project review from the National Science Foundation (NSF), who supports the majority of NRAO’s operations, with oversight from Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI.)
This preview of the antenna was the closing event for scientists and AUI, NRAO, and NSF staff attending a workshop exploring research opportunities for the ngVLA held at Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig.
mtex has been awarded a $1 million state grant from the New Mexico Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) job-creation fund to assist with land, building, and infrastructure costs for their new Albuquerque facility. The City has pledged an additional $300,000 from its municipal LEDA funds.
NRAO’s partnerships with New Mexico Tech and the University of New Mexico are crucial to the ngVLA’s future. NRAO recently signed a new memo of understanding with the University of New Mexico to explore data housing, internships and training for astronomy, engineering, and other fields of STEM education.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under a cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
This news article was originally published on NRAO website on September 28, 2023.
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Double the Disks, Double the Discovery: New Insights into Planet Formation in DF Tau
Tucked away in a star-forming region in the Taurus constellation, a pair of circling stars are displaying some unexpected differences in the circumstellar disks of dust and gas that surround them. A new study led by researchers at Lowell Observatory, combining data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Keck Observatory, has unveiled intriguing findings about planet formation in this binary star system, known as DF Tau, along with other systems in this region.
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Astronomers have made groundbreaking discoveries about young star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), along with observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, gives new insight into the early stages of massive star formation outside our galaxy.
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International teams of astronomers monitoring a supermassive black hole in the heart of a distant galaxy have detected features never seen before using data from NASA missions and other facilities including the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The features include the launch of a plasma jet moving at nearly one-third the speed of light and unusual, rapid X-ray fluctuations likely arising from near the very edge of the black hole.