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.
Recent News
Young Stars in the Milky Way’s Backyard Challenge Our Understanding of How They Form
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.
Astronomers Catch Unprecedented Features at Brink of Active Black Hole
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.
NRAO and STARGATE Collaboration to Spur Innovation: MOU Launches New Initiative
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Va., and the Center for Advanced Radio Astronomy (CARA) at the University of Texas, Brownsville (UTB), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) laying the groundwork for collaborating on new initiatives and frontier radio astronomy technologies.
This collaboration will foster leading-edge research and development at both NRAO’s Central Development Laboratory, where some of the world’s most sophisticated radio astronomy technologies are engineered, and STARGATE (Spacecraft Tracking and Astronomical Research into Giga-hertz Astrophysical Transient Emission), a public-private partnership at CARA to develop new radio frequency based technologies for a wide range of academic and commercial applications.
STARGATE was conceived by UTB Professor Fredrick Jenet as a partnership between CARA and SpaceX, a private aerospace company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. Its mission is to foster the spirit of Silicon Valley in the Rio Grande Valley area. Many of the communications and radio technologies proposed by STARGATE share similar engineering constraints with the radio astronomy components developed by NRAO. These overlapping design challenges and opportunities paved the way for the two organizations to work together.
“There are obvious opportunities for NRAO and STARGATE to share knowledge and experience so both organizations can innovate and lead on these highly specialized, highly advanced technologies,” said Jenet. “I am thrilled to work with the entire team at NRAO, which is world-renowned for its engineering capabilities.”
Initial areas of collaboration, according to the MOU, will focus on “large interferometric arrays, with special emphasis on phased array receiver systems.” These technologies will then hopefully lead to joint observational research programs in areas such as pulsar studies, spectroscopic observations of various interstellar atoms and molecules, and other forefront astronomical observations.
Additionally, this collaboration will jointly explore the development of novel spacecraft tracking and location techniques for both Earth-orbit and interplanetary missions.
NRAO instruments have been used previously to track spacecraft with unprecedented precision. Knowing the location of these spacecraft is essential for a number of scientific research projects as well as guiding distance spacecraft, such as New Horizons, with pinpoint accuracy to objects in the farthest reaches of our solar system.
The MOU also enables NRAO and CARA to team up on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education initiatives and to hold joint workshops on topics of common interest.
“Sharing similar aspirations makes this collaboration an obvious benefit for both our organizations,” said NRAO Director Tony Beasley. “We look forward to working together and achieving some very lofty goals.”
Recent News
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.
Young Stars in the Milky Way’s Backyard Challenge Our Understanding of How They Form
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.
Astronomers Catch Unprecedented Features at Brink of Active Black Hole
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.