An international team of astronomers has discovered the first radio-bright tidal disruption event (TDE) occurring outside a galaxy’s center using the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) Very Large Array (NSF VLA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), along with several partner telescopes.
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First-ever Detection of “Heavy Water” in a Planet-forming Disk
The discovery of ancient water in a planet-forming disk reveals that some of the water found in comets—and maybe even Earth—is older than the disk’s star itself, offering breakthrough insights into the history of water in our Solar System.
Astronomers Detect Lowest Mass Dark Object Yet in Distant Universe
An international research team, using a worldwide network of radio telescopes, has detected an enigmatic dark object with a mass about one million times that of our Sun without observing any emitted light. This is the lowest mass dark object ever detected at a cosmological distance using only its gravitational influence.
NRAO and SpaceX Coordinate to Protect Radio Astronomy
NRAO and SpaceX have engaged in coordinated experiments involving NRAO telescopes and the Starlink satellite constellation for over two years. Early experiments began in late 2021 with the deployment of working Starlink user terminals near the Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and have continued to the present day. These experiments highlight the ways in which satellite constellations and radio telescopes might be able to coexist, provided there is mutual awareness of what the other is doing.
Supported by the National Science Foundation, NRAO and SpaceX are developing a system called Operational Data Sharing (ODS) that provides the current status (position in the sky and observing frequency) of two of its telescopes: the VLA in New Mexico and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia. SpaceX is able to incorporate these data into its operational algorithm so that its Starlink satellites can steer their downlink beams away the NRAO telescope “boresight” (where the telescopes are pointed in the sky) at the moment an observation is taking place. This adaptation helps to ensure critical internet connectivity for users of the Starlink system while protecting and potentially expanding the frequency bands that radio astronomers can use for their research.
For more details on this developing system, see a recent video produced for NRAO by One World Media above.
This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on March 18, 2024.
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Astronomers Discover Fastest-Evolving Radio Signals Ever Observed from Black Hole Tearing Apart Star
An international team of astronomers has discovered the first radio-bright tidal disruption event (TDE) occurring outside a galaxy’s center using the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) Very Large Array (NSF VLA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), along with several partner telescopes.
First-ever Detection of “Heavy Water” in a Planet-forming Disk
The discovery of ancient water in a planet-forming disk reveals that some of the water found in comets—and maybe even Earth—is older than the disk’s star itself, offering breakthrough insights into the history of water in our Solar System.
Astronomers Detect Lowest Mass Dark Object Yet in Distant Universe
An international research team, using a worldwide network of radio telescopes, has detected an enigmatic dark object with a mass about one million times that of our Sun without observing any emitted light. This is the lowest mass dark object ever detected at a cosmological distance using only its gravitational influence.