2025 was an incredibly productive year for AUI, marked by significant advances across astronomy, energy, advanced therapeutics, and STEM education and workforce development.
Recent News
ALMA Reveals Teenage Years of New Worlds
The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has produced the sharpest images ever of 24 debris disks, the dusty belts left after planets finish forming. These disks are the cosmic equivalent of the teenage years for planetary systems—somewhat more mature than newborn, planet-forming disks, but not yet settled into adulthood.
The NSF Very Large Array Helps Reveal Record-Breaking Stream of Super-Heated Gas from Nearby Galaxy
New radio images from the the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array trace a pair of powerful plasma jets launched by galaxy VV 340a’s central supermassive black hole, which appear to be driving hot coronal gas out of the galaxy and shutting down future star formation.
Modelling for National Security
AUI Joins BEACONS Center and LEAP Manufacturing Efforts
AUI has joined with LEAP Manufacturing in support of the UT Dallas Batteries and Energy to Advance Commercialization and National Security (BEACONS) Center, which will develop and commercialize new battery technologies and manufacturing processes, enhance the domestic availability of critical raw materials, and train high-quality workers for jobs in an expanding battery energy storage workforce. BEACONS is funded by a $30M agreement over three years by the U.S. Department of Defense. AUI’s role will relate to modelling the critical mineral supply chain.
Enhancing the domestic manufacturing of batteries for commercialization and national security needs requires a better understanding of the critical material supply chain and efforts to support Defense contractors’ ability to produce batteries domestically. UT Dallas and LEAP Manufacturing are positioning BEACONS to guide the optimization of existing battery systems, foster new battery chemistries, identify and track supply chain challenges, and promote workforce development.
Tom Campbell, Co-Director of LEAP Manufacturing emphasized “the need for exploring advanced manufacturing for the battery supply chain, including related critical materials, is a national need, and BEACONS will help address the gaps.”
“Better, more informed decision making starts with the supply chain,” AUI President Adam Cohen said. “It’s exciting to be part of the battery campus, which will help identify and pursue battery chemistries and manufacturing capabilities that will be important for the country’s economic and national security.”
AUI is an independent, not-for-profit founded in 1946 that specializes in the design, construction, and management and operations of cutting-edge research facilities and development and implementation of innovative approaches to education, outreach and workforce development. AUI manages the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the Green Bank Observatory (GBO) for the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Recent News
Making Scientific Breakthroughs Possible in 2025
2025 was an incredibly productive year for AUI, marked by significant advances across astronomy, energy, advanced therapeutics, and STEM education and workforce development.
ALMA Reveals Teenage Years of New Worlds
The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has produced the sharpest images ever of 24 debris disks, the dusty belts left after planets finish forming. These disks are the cosmic equivalent of the teenage years for planetary systems—somewhat more mature than newborn, planet-forming disks, but not yet settled into adulthood.
The NSF Very Large Array Helps Reveal Record-Breaking Stream of Super-Heated Gas from Nearby Galaxy
New radio images from the the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array trace a pair of powerful plasma jets launched by galaxy VV 340a’s central supermassive black hole, which appear to be driving hot coronal gas out of the galaxy and shutting down future star formation.