Latest Submillimetre astronomy Stories

  The ultimate in high altitude, high-tech catering has arrived in Chile to serve chilled "provisions" to the telescopes at the largest astronomical complex in the world, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Until now, servicing the state-of-the-art superconducting receivers inside an ALMA telescope has required hauling the entire 115-ton telescope from its observing site at 16,500 feet down to a support facility at 9,500 feet. The dangerous 40-mile roundtrip, atop...

Getting ready for ALMA's first scientific observationsThe first European antenna for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has reached new heights, having been transported to the observatory's Array Operations Site (AOS) on 27 July 2011. The 12-meter diameter antenna has arrived at the Chajnantor plateau, 5000 meters above sea level. Here, it joins antennas from the other international ALMA partners, bringing the total number at the AOS to 16.Although 16 sounds like just...

A team of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe.The researchers found a mass of water vapor that is at least 140 trillion times that of all water in the world's oceans combined, and 100,000 times more massive than the sun. The team said the light has taken 12 billion years to reach Earth, and the astronomers were observing the light when the universe was just 1.6 billion years old. "The environment around this quasar is...

Submillimeter observatories penetrate cold, dusty galaxies to see stars forming in the primeval pastA chance alignment of galaxies, recently observed by a space observatory, presents the perfect opportunity for studying star-forming galaxies billions of light-years away.For decades, astronomers have used Einstein's concept of a "gravitational lens" to study the magnified images of distant objects.  A lensing effect occurs when a massive object, such as a galaxy, is located...

It turns out the Herschel Space Observatory has a trick up its sleeve. The telescope, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions, has proven to be excellent at finding magnified, faraway galaxies. Like little kids probing patches of dirt for insects, astronomers can use these new cosmic magnifying lenses to study galaxies that are hidden in dust."I was surprised to learn that Herschel is so good at finding these cosmic lenses," said Asantha Cooray of the...

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special feature devoted to the first science results obtained with Herschel, an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. Herschel was launched on May 14, 2009, and progress since launch with various webreleases can be followed on the Herschel Science Centre Latest News webpage at http://herschel.esac.esa.int/latest_news.shtml.Herschel has a...

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has passed a key milestone crucial for the high quality images that will be the trademark of this revolutionary new tool for astronomy. Astronomers and engineers have, for the first time, successfully linked three of the observatory's antennas at the 5000-meter elevation observing site in northern Chile. Having three antennas observing in unison paves the way for precise images of the cool Universe at unprecedented resolution, by...

An instrument package developed in part by the University of Colorado at Boulder for the $2.2 billion orbiting Herschel Space Observatory launched in May by the European Space Agency has provided one of the most detailed views yet of space up to 12 billion years back in time.The December images have revealed thousands of newly discovered galaxies in their early stages of formation, said CU-Boulder Associate Professor Jason Glenn, a co-investigator on the Spectral and Photometric Imaging...

You don't always have to have a rocket to do rocket science. Sometimes a mere airplane will do "“ that is, a mere Boeing 747 toting a 17-ton, 9-foot wide telescope named SOFIA.Short for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA will observe the universe while gliding through the stratosphere at 45,000 feet. When it begins operations next year, it will be the world's biggest, most advanced airborne observatory."SOFIA is set to achieve some spectacular science," says project...

A team of astronomers and engineers at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made the first interferometric measurements of radio signals "” so-called "fringes" "” of an astronomical source from the observatory's 5000-meter "high site" of Chajnantor. This is an important technical step for ALMA, as it used a full suite of the production equipment, including two of the 12-meter diameter antennas, and sophisticated electronic systems for receiving and correlating the...