Making our mark at the AAS

Jan 12, 2023 | News | 0 comments

Tags: ALMA

☆☆☆☆☆
This week, the 241st American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference was held in Seattle, USA. ALMA was part of almost a hundred research results and several presentations.

In addition to three press conferences and two talks on the past and future of the observatory, ALMA data appeared in almost a hundred scientific presentations.

“ALMA’s significant presence at this important scientific conference speaks volumes about the observatory’s role in shaping our knowledge about the Universe,” stressed Amy Oliver, ALMA-NRAO Press Information Officer.

During the meeting, our Director, Sean Dougherty, gave a talk about ALMA’s work in the last decade with more than 10,000 principal investigators and co-investigators and with data referenced in more than 3,000 publications. He also gave the latest news about our observatory, its capabilities, and projections for the coming years.
“AAS is the largest astronomy meeting in the world each year, and is a fantastic opportunity to share with the community the status of ALMA and the developments that will enhance the science capabilities of the observatory over the next decade”, said Sean.
Crystal Brogan, an associate astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), complemented Sean’s talk by detailing the increase in ALMA’s bandwidth to improve the sensitivity of the continuum by 2030.

Other discoveries using data from our observatory were also announced at press conferences.

One was a previously unseen jet of material launching from a massive star’s gas disk at impossibly high speeds.

This finding could help the scientific community better understand the nature and evolution of massive stars, as well as how hydrogen masers (species of natural lasers) form in space.

Click here to see that discovery!
Also, a scientific team discovered two supermassive black holes feeding from the merger of a pair of galaxies. This disproved the belief that most binary holes in nearby galaxies must be inactive objects and not in full growth, as in this case.

In addition, this is the first time two such hungry mastodons have been observed at multiple wavelengths so close together.

Click here to see that discovery!
Another study observed how shock waves generated by the violent collision between an intruder galaxy and Stephan’s Quintet created a recycling process of hot and cold molecular hydrogen gas.

This is an important finding because molecular hydrogen creates the raw material that ultimately allows stars to form. Therefore, knowing its evolution allows a better understanding of the evolution of Stephan’s Quintet and of galaxies in general.

Click here to see that discovery!

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post