ALMA Observatory

16/02/2025

📡"Observationally derived magnetic field strength and 3D components in the HD 142527 disk" by Nature Astronomy

🔗 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02454-x

15/02/2025

🛰️ "James Webb Space Telescope investigates a dusty and dynamic disc"
By combining Webb’s observations with those from the Hubble Space Telescope and 🛰️ ALMA📡, an international team of astronomers was able to study the multiwavelength disc appearance of the system. Herbig-Haro objects are small nebulae found in star formation regions, marking the locations where gas outflowing from young stars is heated into luminescence by shockwaves. HH 30 is an example of where this outflowing gas takes the form of a narrow jet. The source star is located on one end of the jet, hidden behind an edge-on protoplanetary disc that the star is illuminating.

HH 30 is of particular interest to astronomers. In fact, the HH 30 disc is considered the prototype of an edge-on disc, thanks to its early discovery with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Discs seen from this view are a unique laboratory to study the settling and drift of dust grains.
🔗 https://esawebb.org/images/potm2501a/

13/02/2025

We cannot cover the Sun with a finger... 👀
But what about an antenna? 😅
Our star hidden behind the secondary reflector
📡☀️
📷: Christian Castro.

12/02/2025

T O D A Y!
Enjoy the 🌕Full Moon😍

📷: María Jesús López, ALMA Photo-ambassador.

09/02/2025

🙌Free ALMA backgrounds for your virtual meetings 💻📡📡✨
Download them here:
🔗 https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/publications/virtual-backgrounds/

08/02/2025

"World's darkest and clearest skies at risk from industrial megaproject" by ESO Astronomy

On December 24th, AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation, submitted a project for a massive industrial complex for environmental impact assessment. This complex threatens the pristine skies above ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, the darkest and clearest of any astronomical observatory in the world. The industrial megaproject is planned to be located just 5 to 11 kilometres from telescopes at Paranal, which would cause irreparable damage to astronomical observations, in particular due to light pollution emitted throughout the project’s operational life. Relocating the complex would save one of Earth's last truly pristine dark skies.

🔗 https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2501/

06/02/2025

📡📡ALMA observes a magnetic field in a protoplanetary disk for the first time. This research can help understand magnetic fields' role in planet formation.

🙌To study the origin of life, it is important to understand how Earth-like planets form. It has been thought that a planet forms by gradually accumulating interstellar dust and gas within a protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star. However, there are still many mysteries about the environment of planet formation and physical conditions inside the protoplanetary disk.

👀One of those mysteries is the magnetic field. It is thought to be a crucial factor in determining the turbulence and the movement of matter in a protoplanetary disk. Nevertheless, observing the magnetic field in a protoplanetary disk has been challenging. The magnetic field is an invisible vector field produced by a magnet or electric current. The magnetic field influences matter and energy like Earth's magnetic field. This invisible force exists everywhere in the Universe and has much to do with star and planet formation.

HD 142527 is a protoplanetary disk with many dust particles gathering in the north part, where planets are forming.
📷: ALMA 0.9 mm observation of the protoplanetary disk surrounding HD 142527, with an artistic illustration of the magnetic field structure measured from the dust polarization observed in the south part of the disk.

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), S. Ohashi et al.

🔗 https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-releases/alma-observes-a-magnetic-field-in-a-protoplanetary-disk-for-the-first-time/

05/02/2025

☀️The is a . Not many people know that. It’s a star like all the other stars in the night sky. Or, put differently: all the stars in the night sky are suns like our own. So why are the stars tiny pinpricks of light, while the Sun is so large, bright and hot?

☺️It’s just because the Sun is so nearby. Our planet Earth circles around the Sun, at a distance of 150 million kilometers. The nearest star, in contrast, is 40 billion kilometers away.

🌟Stars are giant balls of hot gas. Their energy is produced in the star’s core, by nuclear reactions. The Sun is 1.4 million kilometers across – over a hundred times the diameter of the Earth. The temperature in the core of the Sun is some 15 million degrees Centigrade.

🔗 https://kids.alma.cl/en/how-do-solar-explosions-work/

04/02/2025

📡FEBRUARY! An international scientific team has detected a disc around a young in another for the first time. The discovery was made in the Large Magellanic Cloud and the star in question is a massive star called HH 1177🌟
Download our cosmic calendar for free!
🔗 https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/publications/2025-calendar/

03/02/2025

📡Can you help us with a cosmic survey?📡
Click here:
https://forms.office.com/r/2HJg5VZT09

02/02/2025

"Astronomers investigate black hole jets with Event Horizon Telescope" by Space.com

"For such a faint and unknown target, we were not sure if we would get any data at all — but the strategy worked."

01/02/2025

📡"ALMA and the Event Horizon Telescope: Moving Towards a Close-Up of a Black Hole and its Jets" by National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)
🔗 https://public.nrao.edu/news/alma-and-the-event-horizon-telescope-moving-towards-a-close-up-of-a-black-hole-and-its-jets/

31/01/2025

📡The ALMA Observatory is privileged to conduct scientific observations of the Universe under the pristine skies of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, benefiting from one of the highest-quality astronomical sites on Earth. While its high-altitude, isolated location, and focus on radio astronomy shield it from many impacts of light pollution, preserving dark skies is a global challenge that affects all observatories and humanity’s ability to explore the universe.

ALMA and its partners National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan support ESO Astronomy in addressing the growing threat of light pollution near the Paranal Observatory and the ELT in the Antofagasta Region in Chile. Their commitment highlights the urgency of ensuring the long-term sustainability of astronomical observations in Chile. ALMA stands in solidarity with these efforts, reaffirming the importance of collaboration in protecting this invaluable natural resource.

🔗 https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/announcements/protecting-the-night-sky-alma-stands-with-eso-in-the-fight-against-light-pollution/

30/01/2025

When were the first galaxies born?🌟🌟

The Earth is a planet, orbiting the Sun. The is a – a giant ball of hot gas, emitting light and heat. The Sun is one of the few hundred billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. And the is one of the hundred billion or so in the Universe.

Astronomers have discovered that the Universe has not existed forever. It all started some 13.8 billion years ago in the big bang – a giant explosion of energy, matter, time and space. Shortly after the big bang, the expanding Universe was filled with a glowing hot gas of simple atoms. So where did all the galaxies, stars and planets come from? ALMA will help to answer that question.

First, the hot gas in the Universe cooled down and became dark. Then, the cold gas clumped together because of its own gravity. These clumps would later become the first galaxies. Smaller clumps of gas in these dark clouds became hot again, and started to shine. Thus, the very first stars in the Universe were born.

🔗 https://kids.alma.cl/en/when-were-the-first-galaxies-born/

29/01/2025

Our antennas see beyond the obvious 📡📡

📷: Matías Aguirre joins the ALMA team of photo-ambassadors. Welcome!

28/01/2025

📡🛰️"Astronomers are Watching a Newly Forming Super Star Cluster" by Universe Today

Six or seven billion years ago, most stars formed in super star clusters. That type of star formation has largely died out now. Astronomers know of two of these SSCs in the modern Milky Way and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and all three of them are millions of years old.

New JWST observations have found another SSC forming in the LMC, and it’s only 100,000 years old. What can astronomers learn from it?

SSCs are responsible for a lot of star formation, but billions of years have passed since their heyday. Finding a young one in a galaxy so close to us is a boon for astronomers. It gives them an opportunity to wind back the clock and see how SSCs are born.

🔗 https://www.universetoday.com/170468/astronomers-are-watching-a-newly-forming-super-star-cluster/

26/01/2025

📡"Unveiling the properties of a primeval galaxy from 13.4 billion years ago" by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

An international team led by researchers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan succesfully detected the emission of several atomic transitions from a very distant primordial galaxy, breaking previous records for the farthest …

25/01/2025

"Industrial Complex Proposal Threatens Some of the World’s Clearest Skies for Astronomy
Chile's Atacama Desert is home to some of the best Earth-based observatories, though an energy company is throwing a wrench in the works" by Gizmodo

Chile's Atacama Desert is home to some of the best Earth-based observatories, though an energy company is throwing a wrench in the works.